inchmurrin
Baron
My phone camera it is now clear to me is much better than my aged digital camera. If I switch to it can anyone suggest the best upload and storage options for my mini photos? Thanks in advance all.
Switching to my phone camera
- Thread starter inchmurrin
- Start date
Eric
Administrator
On one of the fora we host a lot of users seem to use https://imgbb.com for their image storage. I've never personally used it, but I believe it's tailored to image hosting for fora. I don't know if there are any phone apps to allow you to directly push images to their storage however, or if you'd need to go via your computer. Of course there should be nothing stopping you using whatever system you currently use - just transferring the images from your phone to your computer as you would (presumably) do from your digital camera. When I want to transfer images directly from my phone (android) to one of our servers I've been using the AndFTP app (paid for (AndFTPPro) or free with ads) which integrates with the android share menu. So something like that might be an option if you are using your own hosting space - although I generally want to edit/tidy any images on my computer first prior to posting online.
If you prefer to roll your own hosting solution and are happy to pay for the bandwidth then self hosting using Amazon's S3 storage is fairly easy - there are plenty of tools to make uploading files easy enough from a computer (I tend to use Cyberduck for most file transfers when I want a GUI) and there are a few tools that can mount an S3 bucket as a local drive (I suspect there may well be phone apps to enable easy transfer to an S3 bucket, but I've not looked), you can with a bit of DNS trickery point your own domain at an S3 bucket, they have some notes in their documentation https://docs.aws.amazon.com/AmazonS3/la ... sting.html
If you prefer to roll your own hosting solution and are happy to pay for the bandwidth then self hosting using Amazon's S3 storage is fairly easy - there are plenty of tools to make uploading files easy enough from a computer (I tend to use Cyberduck for most file transfers when I want a GUI) and there are a few tools that can mount an S3 bucket as a local drive (I suspect there may well be phone apps to enable easy transfer to an S3 bucket, but I've not looked), you can with a bit of DNS trickery point your own domain at an S3 bucket, they have some notes in their documentation https://docs.aws.amazon.com/AmazonS3/la ... sting.html
symphonicpoet
Moderator
I came to the same conclusion. I still use my SLR for things that need a longer lens, but for photographing miniatures my phone is just easier.
As to hosting, I personally use two services: Flickr and Imgur. There are free and pay versions of both, and both have their quirks. Flickr is mostly aimed at photographers, so the hosting options are a little more tailored to what a professional photographer might want to share a portfolio. And there are some community aspects that help photographers connect with one another. That said, they absolutely allow deep linking, as is necessary when hosting images to be used elsewhere. And they even have some tools to give you the code to make that easy. (Though they do always add links that take a view to their site if you click through. You can remove it. Sometimes I do. Other times I leave some or all of it, depending on the circumstances.) Flickr gives you maybe a thousand images total on the free version and beyond that largish but not infinite limit you have to pay. But they do have aps for most phones that I think means you can auto-upload. (I use a really old phone that is no longer supported, but even when it was I didn't auto-upload because I like to process stuff and I'm a little selective about what goes where.) Overall, I think they're my preferred option. (Most of my pics on here are hosted on Flickr.)
Imgur is almost a social network in its own right, where people share memes and gifs. The pay version removes ads and maybe has one or two other features, but I use the free version here so I'm less familiar with the pro features. But it works fine for hosting, since the community there is so focused on the sorts of memes you would share on other social networks anyway. (Like Reddit or Facebook.) The toolkit is a little more limited, at least in the free version, and it's a little harder to get a clean link to post somewhere else, but it's still doable. (I usually right click on the image and open it in a new tab and then just grab the url from the browser. If you grab it from the image I think you get a thumbnail. Had some trouble with that, thus the weird workaround.) They have some sharing options, but they're more focused on dragging you to their site than Flickr, since its more ad driven and fewer people have pro accounts. It's still useful, and I tend to use it for things like graphics or WIP shots that I don't want to put in my public photo feed. (The badges I make for this site, for instance, are hosted on Imgur.)
Anyway, I look forward to seeing more of your phots!
As to hosting, I personally use two services: Flickr and Imgur. There are free and pay versions of both, and both have their quirks. Flickr is mostly aimed at photographers, so the hosting options are a little more tailored to what a professional photographer might want to share a portfolio. And there are some community aspects that help photographers connect with one another. That said, they absolutely allow deep linking, as is necessary when hosting images to be used elsewhere. And they even have some tools to give you the code to make that easy. (Though they do always add links that take a view to their site if you click through. You can remove it. Sometimes I do. Other times I leave some or all of it, depending on the circumstances.) Flickr gives you maybe a thousand images total on the free version and beyond that largish but not infinite limit you have to pay. But they do have aps for most phones that I think means you can auto-upload. (I use a really old phone that is no longer supported, but even when it was I didn't auto-upload because I like to process stuff and I'm a little selective about what goes where.) Overall, I think they're my preferred option. (Most of my pics on here are hosted on Flickr.)
Imgur is almost a social network in its own right, where people share memes and gifs. The pay version removes ads and maybe has one or two other features, but I use the free version here so I'm less familiar with the pro features. But it works fine for hosting, since the community there is so focused on the sorts of memes you would share on other social networks anyway. (Like Reddit or Facebook.) The toolkit is a little more limited, at least in the free version, and it's a little harder to get a clean link to post somewhere else, but it's still doable. (I usually right click on the image and open it in a new tab and then just grab the url from the browser. If you grab it from the image I think you get a thumbnail. Had some trouble with that, thus the weird workaround.) They have some sharing options, but they're more focused on dragging you to their site than Flickr, since its more ad driven and fewer people have pro accounts. It's still useful, and I tend to use it for things like graphics or WIP shots that I don't want to put in my public photo feed. (The badges I make for this site, for instance, are hosted on Imgur.)
Anyway, I look forward to seeing more of your phots!
Tex
Vassal
I'm not that satisfied with my phone camera (I've got a cheap piece of crap, as I hate all things electronic/smart, mind): it works better and faster than my (very) aged digital camera in general, but it's got lots of problems with reds and greens.
For hosting images, I use postimg.org and I've never had any problems: it does what it says on the tin.
For hosting images, I use postimg.org and I've never had any problems: it does what it says on the tin.
inchmurrin
Baron
Thanks for all the ideas people. I think I'll change to the phone but download to my PC and use my existing hosting option. I hadn't taken account of the fact that I tend to do a bit of size reduction cropping etc on GIMP orior to posting which means direct hosting from my phone wouldn't be of benefit. Hopefully the move to phone will result in better quality and more frequent posting! You have been warned!!!