Google’s latest vision for Google Plus is focused on images – and the use of artificial intelligence. Imagine a team of Google robots meticulously fixing your wrinkles, making everyone smile in photos they didn’t actually smile in, and changing the sky to make it a tad more perfect. Am I the only one who thinks it’s borderline creepy?

Let’s take a closer look at the major changes coming to Google Plus Photos.

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Google is expanding its free data storage and that’s a great thing. Just like Gmail, the company is using its vast supply of servers to maintain your data for you, and if you are comfortable with that, you can get it 15GB for free (with free backup). Given the increase in resolution of new phone cameras and digital cameras, 15GB might not be a lot for serious photographers. Read more

Looking for images to post on your blog?

The new site Imgembed lets you browse over one million images by keywords and find images you can embed for free. As you can see by the keyboard photograph embedded above, the site gives you an embed code with the artist’s name in the frame–a great way to credit the photographer behind your image. Check it out:

Imgembed allows image creators to track where their images are being used and set permissions to every website using them. Users can use images for free by promoting the creator or pay for premium use by the actual number of impressions displayed.

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Cycloramic is releasing its new app this week, so you can continue to impress your friends with a rotating iPhone that can now take its own hands-free panoramic photos.

Version 2 offers a high definition panoramic photo mode in addition to the original video mode. For iPhone 5 users, this can be done hands-free, as with the video option. Other iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch users will be able to use the panoramic photo option in guided mode. Its unique sound and vibration guided system make it so simple to operate, that the user can take a panoramic photo even with their eyes closed!  Ultra fast and accurate stitching produces a seamless result in seconds. Furthermore, the app incorporates a 3D viewer that stores images directly to the phone’s library.

Unfortunately, the new update does not rotate iPhone 4 models but there are users out there experimenting with various hacks to improve the app. Check out this great video on how to make your iPhone 5 spin faster for a more polished video – using tape.

If you are still shooting your photos with a 35mm camera, digitizing your film is about to get really, really easy. Lomography’s latest Kickstarter campaign turns your smart phone into a 35mm scanner. This scanner is a lot smarter than other scanners, it can crop and edit your film into animated gifs. You can also share your physical-to-digital images to any one of your social network.

This project is a must-have for the Lomography store whose business in film camera will only benefit from having the means for every photographer to transfer his/her art into digital formats. There are a lot of details still missing from the Kickstarter page, such as the resolution of the scanned images, but you can certainly be sure that photo fiends such as myself are already planning on collecting a scanner for my Brownie if they ever make an 8mm scanner (please, please, please let this be true). This admittance makes me a bit of a lunatic – I know I should just hop on the Instagram train, but I just can’t stand the pre-made filters. Now I can distress my own film and share it on any photo app I want. Read more

The app store is inundated with all sorts of photo apps, most of them promising to make your photos look better, i.e. aged. Pip is different, its appeal is an obvious lack of vintage flare.

Users all over Asia have been enjoying all of its various photo-in-photo effects, and you might as well. Pip creators have been constantly adding to its palette of effects, so your digital scrapbook is always malleable and free. Their main selling point appears to be self-portraits but the effects can also be applied to cat photos, landscape scenes, and everything you’re eating today. Just apply any of the effects and Pip will superimpose them onto your photos. There’s no way to save the photos locally, but you can share them onto a number of social networks to impress your friends and photoshop gurus.

Via The Next Web

While Instagram may not really intend to sell your photos, if the Facebook-owned photo sharing site has left a bad taste in your mouth with its policy change, there are alternatives.

We’ve made a list of five photo-sharing apps that are worth checking out. Below we’ve listed the app and included links and the app’s description.

1. Flickr: “Capture and create stunning photos: Take photos with the app’s easy-to-use camera and make them your own with all new filters, editing features, and geo-tagging. Share your photos with anyone, anywhere: Instantly share with your Flickr groups and Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr or email contacts. You pick. Discover the world through photos: The most interesting images in the world live on Flickr. Rediscover the world and be inspired by the Flickr community of photo hobbyists.” Read more

Never email another photo with Wink, a clever new way to share photos. The free iOS app uses your current location so you could take a large group photo and have it distributed instantly with friends nearby (as long as your friends have Wink installed). You can use any app to create your photos because Wink culls images from your camera roll, making sharing even more flexible.

The Danish makers claim to be targetting private photo storage devices like Dropbox, USB, and email not Instagram or Flickr. The technology is oriented towards a youths and young adults who likes to take a lot of photos of friends but doesn’t want to publicly share it on Facebook or Twitter. Click below to watch their cute promotional hamster rapping video.
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As a blogger, I am well used to coming across computer generated images of new devices, including both fakes invented by tricksters as well as less than honest images released by marketing departments. Being on guard against fake images is a hazard of covering the news, and if a recent art exhibit is any indication, this is quite an old hazard.

The Metropolitan Museum of Art is currently featuring an exhibit called Faking It. This is a collection of manipulated photographs from long before the time of Adobe Photoshop. Read more

The $1.99 Strut Type app will help you make old-fashioned photographs with your iPhone, spicing up your web page, author photos Twitter stream or Facebook page with some classical pictures.

The app simulates the work of a Strut Type camera from the 19th Century, adding simple black & white, gray, sepia, greens and cyan filters to your iPhone photographs. You can also put the photo in an old-timey frame or simulate an image taken through a Strut Type lens. Here’s more about the app:

Canvas: Use Photosynthesis to have images come alive on a virtual Canvas, with antique Mildew, Stains, Foxing and other forgotten techniques. Texture: Add a new scratchy antique layer with effects like Dirty Water, peeling and Burnt Sepia that effectively weather and age the photograph. Light Leak: Simulate the effect of the Light Leaks associated with old folding cameras that give turn-of-the-century photography its unique character.

In the few short weeks since Google launched their hot new tablet there’s been one complaint that many users have made: the Instagram app doesn’t work. What with the new update which Instagram rolled out yesterday, that’s no longer true.

The app now works with the Nexus 7′s front facing camera, enabling users to take self-portraits before posting them online. It looks to be a minor update, and the only other new feature mentioned is support for Flickr. You can now export photos to Flickr, but it doesn’t appear to support importing images, unfortunately.

You can find the app on Google Play, where it remains a free download.