January 13, 2007

  • More Photo Nerd Software

    OK, I think we're getting close here...

    PictureSync, Mac OS X software which allows annotation and automatic upload to various image sharing services. Xanga not included.

    No RAW files allowed, though. It's set up for output to sharing services, not for large-scale archival purposes. I'll probably only ever use the EXIF/IPTC tagging parts of this program, but who knows. It's nag-ware ("Have you registered yet?"), but a license only costs $15.

    If I were only shooting JPEGs, this would be my solution. The user interface is slick and nice and convenient. It will automatically do resizing and sRGB conversions. You can use automated rules to set tags. Plus a very slick full screen slideshow. It's pretty cool.

    Update: I think I'll add this. Just a link to a list of OS X apps some guy likes. It's a good list.

Comments (7)

  • OOH! You Mac people and your goddamned beautiful toys.

    /me covets

    This is yet another reason why part of me longs to get out of web development. I wouldn't have to worry about what websites look like in IE, and I could just use a Mac and be done with it.

    My photo library is in even worse shape than my music library. I still haven't had the time to locate something that will let me easily fix all of the metadata. I've got Picasa, but I'm not if it will actually let me do what I need it to do.

    BIG OL SIGH.

  • And yes, it's a crying shame that Xanga's not included there. I think all of these photo-sharing sites should come up with a standard API for authentication, uploading, and tagging - and then differentiate themselves on actual features, instead of nuts and bolts.

  • So design one. Send it to some bigwigs. Call it SeanPix API. Add it to Zope/Plone for automatic widespread use. Other developers will add it eventually.

    What'd really be cool is to have, for instance, a Xanga/flickr bridge. You upload something to your flickr account with a 'fetchmexanga' tag, and if you link to it in your xanga blog, xanga will automatically fetch to your photoblog it at a large size. Maybe too much to ask for a javascript, but who knows.

    The other thing I'm thinking about here is if you link to an external image, then Xanga asks you if you want to add it to your photoblog.

  • I think an independent bridge would stand a better chance for success than an attempt to unify a bunch of competing services under a single API.

    I've actually done a bit of work towards integrating Flickr into the Xanga editor, with Javascript and Greasemonkey. Not really with the intent of moving photos from Flickr into Xanga photoblogs, but instead presenting Flickr thumbnails in the editor, and allowing you to select them to insert into your entry, linked to the corresponding Flickr page (which I believe is a ToS requirement of Flickr - you've got to link to the page, and not the photo.) It's still a ways off though.

    Remind me to have you sign a virtual NDA before our next IM conversation. ;)

  • Hi, I'm developer of PictureSync—glad you like it. You can use it with RAW, that is if OS X supports the specific variant (10.4+). I haven't had many requests for Xanga support yet, but I'll definitely move it up teh queue. If you drop me your email address (in PictureSync: Help>Feedback) I'll let you know when it is implemented.

    If you're using a format that supports it (DNG, JPEG, TIFF, etc), MediaPro will write the IPTC (legacy) and XMP annotations directly to the data fork of the file. PictureSync also does this, but if it can't write directly to the field it will instead create a separate XMP 'sidecar file (you can batch this operation, open a bunch of photos, then choose File>Save Annotations). If you like resources forks, check extended attributes in 10.4+, PictureSync uses these to openly store the upload status for each file.

    In respect to a common photo-sharing API, I've actually created a (preliminary) spec for one, MediaSock, although most providers are pretty set on their own API path.

  • Hey! It actually pays off to 'blog these things sometimes!

    The thing is that 10.4 doesn't know what to do with Pentax PEF files. The Finder is smart enough to get ahold of the embedded thumbnail, but that's a promise the underlying OS can't keep.

    I don't especially like resource forks, and I don't especially like xattr, mostly because they're not portable with the file to other filesystems. As you're no doubt aware. Bring back binhexing!! W00!!

    MediaSock looks good right off the bat, what with a structured way to discover services, in order to benefit the user. That's the way such things should work.

  • The same thing happened to me with my post re: MusicIP Mixer - one of the developers popped in to school me. SPOOKY!

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