Articles from Tomas K☼h☼ut

ipernity is shutting down... :( Alternatives?

nobody@ipernity.com (Tomas K☼h☼ut) — Sat, 03 Dec 2016 04:05:18 +0000

According to Team ipernity announcement, ipernity is going to be closed down within 2 months.

...this lack of (ipernity) perspective forces us to consider the shutdown of ipernity, probably on January 31, 2017 (or shortly after).

source: https://www.ipernity.com/blog/team/4642052

Well, couple of days ago I finally decided to leave dead Panoramio (there is nothing much left and what to do) and revive my presence on ipernity. I felt good... as many of "old" Panoramio friends had been already there. And ipernity gave me that classical Panoramio look and feel, with only few features missing:

- zooming photos up to the size of the uploaded original

- larger and better map view

- unlimited and free upload

- access to the uploaded original photos without club membership (but I've revived the club membership).

And now... I have to look for a new home of my photos again. :(

Isn't it funny? I left last uploaded "farewell" photo on Panoramio redirecting my friends and followers on ipernity. Now, this redirecting link will be outdated and the target will be dead before the photo on Panoramio disappears. And I cannot edit the link on this farewell photo now. Good timing. 3:-[

I am worried about the fate of the next photo site I am gonna enter, as my last 3 choices were bet on a dead horse (first dead horse was album.olympus.cz). ;-)

I hate to say it... but highest potential and IMHO guaranteed near and mid term future (from business point of view) have Google Photos - they have important and maybe crucial role in Google eco-system, especially within Android phones system. Although there are many serious technical issues currently. And also some design features I don't like and features I do miss.

Another closest option is Flickr, but I guess it's future is not very bright too, as it's popularity is steadily decreasing and now seems to be defeated by Google Photos.

500px seems to be more suitable for ambitious photographers trying to market and sell their photos. Community is too much "popularity" oriented, in my opinion. I am missing some features too (download of own photos, zooming, automatic tags from EXIF).

Ok... Where do you go with your photos?

Popularity of discussed photo sites on Google Trends:

See: Google Trends

Just for curiosity: see ipernity, 500px and Panoramio popularity with better scale:

See: Google Trends

Instead of the popularity in the search terms , you might find more accurate and showing Alexa rank - which is a kind of popularity of web site domain itself, not only the search term for web name. Smaller the number in Alexa is, more popular domain is. Most popular site is number 1 (google.com), second most popular is number 2 (facebook.com) etc. Note that y axis is "raising" to smaller numbers to show higher popularity.

Panoramio:

ipernity:

flickr:

500px:

Alexa rank of Google Photos cannot be estimated, as it is only a subdomain of Google.com, which is clearly number 1. ;-)

RAW photos and other file types on ipernity

nobody@ipernity.com (Tomas K☼h☼ut) — Fri, 19 Dec 2014 11:41:22 +0000

Tomas K☼h☼ut has posted an article:

Ipernity is dedicated to photos (and also to videos). But in fact, you can upload any file type to ipernity - just like you used to upload to the other cloud storage services (Google drive, One Drive, Drop Box etc.).

There is no mirroring and synchronization with your local drive. OK. That's fine, ipernity has no ambition to be the second Drop Box.

You are also limited by the maximum file file size you are allowed to upload: 30 MB for free accounts, 512 MB for club members - good enough for big zip archives, but not enough to upload complete CD or DVDs).

And you are also limited in access to these uploaded files: the free members cannot download them back, the "clubers" can - and they can even control (in some extent) who can download their file too! But again - ipernity's purpose is not a general file sharing like Megaupload, Rapidshare, Rapidgator etc. are.

I tried to upload different file types, using the standard ipernity uploader (link: + Upload photos). Usually, the uploaded files were placed into Docs section and their icon appearance represents their file type. So far so good...

I was really surprised when I tried to upload RAW file from my Olympus camera to ipernity. It was not saved as general document with .ORF extension and file type, but it was treated like regular photo!

That's pretty cool. Photos in RAW image format are camera vendor and model specific. They don't even have unified filetype extension. Basic image viewers (installed with the operating system) and even very basic photo editing software cannot display photos in RAW formats correctly - or they don't display them at all! Often you have to experiment with some plugins supplied with your camera producer, or to install Adobe DNG converter plugin. These plugins can eventually help your application software to understand your specific RAW format (but again: not all applications detect and can use installed RAW plugins). And even with RAW plugin installed, your results can be poor: I have a very bad experience and a hard time with "Microsoft digital camera codec pack". This plugin from Microsoft came as an automatically installed update for Win 8 and effectively disabled correctly installed Adobe DNG converter. Result was: blurry photos in strange colours. It took me some time to find the cause of troubles, to remove this Microsoft "helper" and effectively disable future automatic updates and installation of this pack.

But back to topic:

Ipernity has quite unique feature to display RAW photos. I've never seen any online software having this ability. The quality of display was very good (in the test case using RAW photo made by my old Olympus C5060 WZ). When comparing full screen display on ipernity and with display using my photo editing application Zoner (supported by Adobe DNG converter) - I saw little, little bit more details in Zoner. Some photos seems to be darker when displayed in browser on ipernity. But it was almost impossible to differentiate... Here are some examples:

RAW (.ORF from Olympus C5060 WZ) file uploaded directly to ipernity

RAW file opened in Zoner Photo Studio and saved into .JPG without any further processing. Saved .JPG uploaded to ipernity. Photo is without any doubt a bit brighter.

Processed image. RAW opened in Zoner Photo Studio RAW converter, processed (including some pseudo-HDR shadows and lights adjustment) and saved to .JPG. This is not the part of the test - it only demonstrates, how can be a dark photo "rescued" using RAW edit module.

Other example of .ORF RAW uploaded directly to ipernity

RAW file opened in Zoner Photo Studio and saved into .JPG without any further processing. Saved .JPG uploaded to ipernity. Photo is again slightly brighter (but not so much as in previous example) and is more crispy.

Looks like ipernity does not use same RAW converter as I use with Zoner, or it can be browser issue.

RAW photos on ipernity cannot be edited (touch up with Pic monkey). But - they are the RAWs, so... huh? Non editable by it's nature. But you can use the funny trick inserting comments into the RAW photo... or other pictures (Picture in picture feature).

If you are club member and plan a long time relationship with ipernity... ipernity can be your online and backup storage not only for JPGs, but also for RAWs!

With ability to download your RAW back (exactly same copy of what you have uploaded), display it almost correctly... and controling the access to the RAW file for other users - it gives you a good option to use ipernity also as backup archive of your RAWs!

So... +1 for Ipernity!

And what's your experience with your RAWs? Are you satisfied with conversion quality? Share your thoughts and experience in the discussion!

Update:

Ipernity user ୱ Kiezkickerde ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°) verified that not all the RAW types are supported. At least his .RAF file from Fujifilm Finepix S5600 was treated like general binary file.

Comparing photo sharing web sites

nobody@ipernity.com (Tomas K☼h☼ut) — Tue, 16 Dec 2014 12:55:51 +0000

Tomas K☼h☼ut has posted an article:

You know what's going on Panoramio. Site development has stopped about year ago, some new bugged features are left as they are, now there is total dropout of communication with development team (is there any team at all?)... Suggested road ahead to Views need not to suit well for everybody.

So I've decided to look around to find out what can be used as photosharing site instead of favourite Panoramio.

To make decision based on fact and not emotions, I've designed this sheet comapring feature by feature some well (and some less) known photosharing sites. If you understand your preferences ;-), you can evaluate what's the best for you.

groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/panoramio-questions-support/hJl8FF4mLzQ

Sheet (still under "construction") covers at the moment sites like 500px, Flickr, ipernity, Panoramio and less known Zonerama. As I have not spent much time exploring the sites except Panoramio (and now ipernity), some features are not yet filled in, or there can be some mistakes.

I invite you to participate in this review - suggestions, filling the gaps, corrections of eventual mistakes welcome!

Share you thoughts in the discussion on Panoramio, or below this article.

Protect your privacy and copyright on ipernity

nobody@ipernity.com (Tomas K☼h☼ut) — Mon, 15 Dec 2014 19:56:35 +0000

Tomas K☼h☼ut has posted an article:

Copyright protection

Ipernity offers some predefined groups (we can call it "levels of audience" or "categories of visitors" - and you can control access to your works for each of them:

you
your family (in your contacts)
your friends (in your contacts)
acquaintances (in your contacts)
all others visitors

It's pretty similar concept to Circles in Google+ or Lists of friends on Facebook. Unlike Google+ or Facebook, here you cannot rename these groups nor add any new group.

Ususally - access level to your works on ipernity is decreasing for representants of the groups placed at the end of the previous list. It makes sense - you usually share most details with your family, less with friends and with unknown and anonymouse visitors you need not to share anything.

Enough theory. Picture is worth of thousand words:

This setting is a keypoint for controlling the access of your audience to your works.

A bit hidden in your profile setting...: click Account setting -> Photos and other content -> Rules applicable to all of your content instantly - > Maximum quality, download, embedded code -> Edit the rules.

This settings applies to all content you have on ipernity.

Here you define what maximum allowed resolution of your works can see which audience level. You also control, which audience level will have option to download your work in menu.

In the example above, only your family can download your works... and they can download original version. Of course, providing you are in ipernity club, you have acces to download of original too. ;-) Your friends can see original photo, but they don't have direct download option and cannot download with Right click -> Save as.

Other audience does not have access to your original.

Mind you: experienced users can always download what they see on the web page. So this settings does not cut off completely your friends from your original. It only makes it more difficult for them to reach it. Link to the original displayed file is hidden somewhere in the code of the web page. And anybody can look at the web page code.

The setting above is quite restrictive. Only you can reach your original, anybody other can see only small version (800 px larger size) and cannot directly download it. This way, you have strong protection of your original work.

But there are also licences... Licence setting can override the setting above. By publishing under any Creative Commons licence you give anybody full access to your work. It's the nature of this type of licence.

Comparing Panoramio and ipernity copyright protection

Panoramio is very transparent in copyright protection: everything you upload is visible and acessible in exatctly same form as it was uplaoded. So if you don't want to expose originals of your works to public - you have to resize them, make them smaller before upload. Drawback is - you don't have your original backuped and available online - not even for yourself.

In addition, Panoramio does not keep visitors from downloading any photo - common technique of right click was not surpressed.

Ipernity can serve to your visitors resized (smaller) version of your work and preserve your original work only for you. You can decide and control which category of your visitors will see what resolution.

In addition, ipernity can remove "Download" link for some categories of visitors and right click on photo does not download it... it makes download of displayed photos harder (but not impossible)!

And now...

Protection of your privacy

Privacy - it's all about control who can see what kind of your information...

You need not to tell everybody where you make your photos.
You need not to show your family photos to public audience.
You need not tell where you live and when you were born.

Especially combination of your real name and (real) date of the birth is sensitive. Personally, I am very reluctant to share my birth date anywhere online. It's not the matter of vanity. It's a concern of security. Knowing your name and the date of the birth is the first step how to match yout identity in other databases. And mind you: from known birth date it's not far e.g. to open bank account or make a loan under your counterfeit identity. If I am mandatory forced to enter birth date (e.g. to complete registration) to some online service, I often use a random, fictitious date. ;-)

Well... where are privacy sensitive items on ipernity and how you can control them?

Many of them are in profile settings in the sections "Your ipernity Account" and "Profile and Privacy".

Under "Your real identity" section you can set up your real name, your date of birth and a place of your residence. Good new is - you can control, who can see this information: Only you, Family, Friends, all your contacts. all identified users, all users (including anonymouse use of the site). I recommend you to be rather restrictive with these items. If you are obsessive and paranoid (no offence ment!) think of various cases of hacked sites and data leakage... and be careful. ;-)

Other important personal information can be set (and access to them controlled) in following sections:

I suggest you to visit all the links above and review your privacy setting made here!

Other important section is Photos and other content - Who will be able to see your new content?

Here you can set default method of publication of your photos and other content (who can see it). Anyway, you can individually fine-tune visibility of each photo, article and so on. It is default per-photo setting.

In the same section is other important default setting of licence, under which you publish the photos: Which default license? Licence effect on your copyright protection is decribed in previous chapter. Again - licence is per photo setting, you can change default (defined here) individually for each photo.

Who will be able to identify people on your photos, your videos…? - Good function for Facebook. But if you don't want let other people to give names to persons captured on your photos, set this options to "Only me" (and think twice if it's fair to use this "identify me on photo" function).

Automatically add the place of the shooting information if GPS info is available - Setting this item to NO disable revealing photo shooting location (if present in EXIF) without notice. Sometimes you don't want to reveal, where you made your photos and when, huh...?

Who can see the technical information (EXIF, ID3...)? and Display the shooting information on your photo pages? - yes, this is important to disable if you don't want to share when you made your photo and with what kind of camera. Probaly less important item...

Very important Maximum quality, download, embedded code item item was discussed in the chapter above.

Other items in Photos and other content section are probably less important (controlling comments, community based keywords tagging).