Blog.Photobucket.com

Create Valentine's Day Greetings

Show your main squeeze you care by creating your own unique Valentine's Day greeting on Photobucket. Here are a few tips on how to create a fun and flirty Valentine:

1. Log into  your account.

2. Choose the photo you want to edit, and click the "edit" link above the photo to display the Image Editor.

3. Now that you are in the Image Editor:

Click the "Decorate" tab at the top, then click "Stickers" (the first box). You'll see hearts, kisses, fun icons and more. Select the ones you want and click "add sticker".

 
4. Click on the "Text" box (next to the "Stickers" box) if you want to add text.

5. Click "save a copy" when you are satisfied with your new Valentine greeting. (We recommend saving it this way so that you keep your original photo as it was.)

Create as many greetings as you would like, it's free!

New Backgrounds in Find Stuff

Find Stuff received a little makeover and we are really excited to show off our brand new background skins. Our designers have been working overtime to create awesome and fun background skins in all of your favorite categories. While you are discovering photos in Find Stuff, be sure to check out the cool new backgrounds which are also available for you to use in your own albums. When logged in, click "themes" from your album and take a look at all the cool new skins that fit your personality. 

Our Just for Fun Category  and Art Category

 

Winter Fashion Guide Winner

From boots, hoodies, and sweaters, the Winter Fashion Guide had a lot of stylish entries. The best dressed of the group, rocking pink hair and a sweet jacket was announced today. Thanks to all the fashionistas who entered! Check out the entries!

Best Dressed:

New Android App

Starting today look for our new Android app that allows you to:

• Quickly transfer photos from your phone to your Photobucket account.
• Browse Photobucket Find Stuff categories and discover amazing photos.
• Easily access image URLs and copy and paste for linking.
• Upload multiple images at the same time.

Learn more on how to to download the app! 

 

Photobucket and Ontela Merge

PHOTOBUCKET AND ONTELA ANNOUNCE AGREEMENT TO MERGE OPERATIONS

Combined Company to Leverage Photobucket’s 22 Million Users, Ontela’s Leading Edge Software and Wireless Carrier Partnerships

Denver, CO and Seattle, WA – December 16, 2009 – Photobucket.com, Inc., one of the Web’s top photo sites, and Ontela, Inc., the leading provider of award-winning imaging services for wireless carriers, today announced an agreement under which the two companies will merge their operations.

The combined company, which will be known as Photobucket Corporation, will leverage the assets of two of the online photo industry’s leading players. The combination will bring together Photobucket’s massive audience of more than 22 million users in the U.S. with Ontela’s leading-edge software that is currently in use on more than 30 wireless carriers, including Verizon and T-Mobile. Photobucket will leverage Ontela’s  wireless carrier relationships to provide distribution and consumer access to more than 140 million wireless subscribers, while Ontela will drive uptake of its mobile applications by capitalizing on Photobucket’s brand and highly active user base.

News Corporation, which acquired Photobucket in 2007, will hold a significant equity stake in the combined company and will be represented on the company’s board of directors. The Photobucket management team will continue to operate the business and play strong leadership roles in the combined company.

Tom Munro, Ontela’s chief financial officer, who will become president of the combined company said, “We are pleased to bring together these two dynamic companies that are at the leading edge of the explosion of content sharing in the digital photography space. We believe Photobucket’s vast consumer audience and content leadership – and the talented team of professionals who have driven the business – complements and brings great promise to Ontela’s technology leadership in mobile photo sharing applications.”

Jon Miller, chairman and CEO of Digital Media for News Corporation, who will serve as a director of the combined company, said, “In partnering with Ontela and its investors, we are able to maintain and expand our strong foothold in the online imaging category. As consumers evolve the ways in which they capture, consume and share their photos and video across multiple devices, there couldn’t be a more perfect partner for Photobucket to align with as it enters this new chapter.”

Photobucket is one of the largest standalone photo sites in the world. More than 11 million photos, graphics, and videos are uploaded to Photobucket every day and the site serves more than 100 billion images each month.

Ontela is the leading provider of services that get pictures off camera phones. Ontela's proprietary technology automatically uploads pictures from phones, solving the last remaining problem with mobile photography – getting at the pictures. Ontela’s technology has been certified by 30 operators, including Verizon, T-Mobile, and Alltel on more than 100 handsets. It also is available preinstalled on devices from all five of the top global handset manufacturers.

Ontela’s investors will make an additional capital commitment as part of the merger and will hold significant equity positions in the combined company.

 

***
About Photobucket
Photobucket (http://www.photobucket.com) is the premier standalone photo and video sharing site, with over 22 million monthly unique users* around the world linking billions of personal photos, graphics, slideshows and videos daily to hundreds of thousands of Web sites, including Bebo, Blogger, Craigslist, eBay, Facebook, Friendster, Hi5, MySpace, Orkut, Xanga and many others. In addition to linking content, Photobucket users share their personal digital media by email, instant messaging, and mobile devices. Every day, over 11 million personal photos, graphics and videos are uploaded to Photobucket for sharing with family, friends and the online world. The company actively moderates content to create a safe environment for its users, partners and advertisers. Photobucket has offices in San Francisco, California and Denver, Colorado and is located online at http://photobucket.com. For the latest feature announcements and news, please visit the Photobucket blog at http://blog.photobucket.com.

*comScore Media Metrix, November 2009

About Ontela
Ontela provides technology infrastructure to wireless carriers that allows consumers to unlock the photos in their camera phones. Ontela technology has been certified by 30 operators including Verizon, T-Mobile, and Alltel on more than 100 handsets. It is also available preinstalled on devices from all five of the top global handset manufacturers. Ontela is headquartered in Seattle and is backed by Steamboat Ventures, Covera Ventures, Voyager Capital, and Oak Investment Partners. For more information, visit www.ontela.com.

 

MEDIA CONTACTS:
Dan Berger
News Corporation
(310) 369-1274
dberger@newscorp.com

Rob Newton
Ontela, Inc.
(206) 940-7942
rob@ontela.com

Exciting New Changes in Your Album!

We've collected your feedback and have made some changes we think you're going to like! Starting today, you'll see some new changes in your albums including: easier navigation, live activity updates, and more!

Everything you need in one simplified place:

• Get to all of your albums, stats, and more through our easy-to-use navigation.
• See your latest activity - Jump right back to where you left off the last time you visited Photobucket.
• Better album organization - Browse and manage all of your albums from one location.
• Weekly stats - Get notified of what's hot in your album this week.

Keep track of your friends, favorite searches, and group albums:

• Find Stuff you love from over 400 categories of cool content!
• Discover and follow people you know, searches you might like, and group albums that are fun!
• Receive live updates when new images and videos are added.
• Let us help you get started by recommending stuff we think you'll like.
• Find new stuff to follow or remove the old stuff all from one location.
• Manage it all!

Learn More!

Bokeh Tutorial

Have you checked out our cool light photography category Bokeh? Bokeh refers to blurred areas of a photo where only a certain portion of the image is in focus. It’s a very unique and beautiful effect that’s fun to experiment with. The holidays are a great time to experiment with Bokeh with all the fun festive lights hung up.  Here are some tips on how to create a Bokeh effect:

 Point-and-Shoot Cameras:

• Make sure the room you are shooting is dark and not too bright to get a better effect.
• Turn off your flash (the lightning bolt looking icon  )
  
• Select the Macro setting (the flower looking icon on your camera, see macro tutorial for more info.)
• Stand a few feet away from some lights. (Any kind of Holiday lights work well)
• Hold your finger out in front of your camera and hold the shutter button down halfway so your finger is in focus. (Remember not to press the shutter button all the way down)
  
  
• Now your camera is focused on the object in front of you and the lights are blurred in the back. Take your finger away from the shot and press the shutter button all the way down.

 

Voila!

 

Hint: After your pull your finger out of the frame, mess around with the zoom on your camera to play around with the size of the Bokeh. The more you zoom in the larger the circles will be.

 

SLR Cameras:

• Set your camera to AV mode.
• Select the smallest possible aperture. (f) number should be <f/4
• Place and object in the foreground and focus on that object so the background of lights is blurred out.
• Press the shutter and voila you should see hexagonal shapes on the background.

  

If you really want to experiment, try using cutout shapes and taping it to the lens of your camera. Test shapes, hearts, stars, anything you want to see in blurred lights.

Take a Survey - Win $1000

Interested in winning some extra cash for the holidays? Take a quick survey on photo-related products and you could win $1000. Take Survey

New Photobucket iPhone App!

You've asked and we've been listening! Our new iPhone app is redesigned and loaded with fun and easy features!

Use this app to capture all your special moments and upload directly to your Photobucket albums. Upload existing media from your local camera roll or new shots (and videos on 3Gs) straight from your camera. Looking for a quick "media-snack" during moments of downtime? Check out our Find Stuff categories or search our billions of photos. Easily download images to your device for use as wallpapers, contact ids and more. Share with others via email or grab image URL links to post on your blog or favorite social network. Manage your Photobucket albums and showoff your collection in full screen.

 Highlights include:

* Completely redesigned user interface.

* Search Photobucket's huge media repository, complete with search history.

* Browse Find Stuff categories and search results.

* Orientation-aware full-view images with pinch and zoom support.

* Easy access to image URLs.

* Media upload queue supporting in-app 'background' uploads.

* Album management: new navigation views, create, delete.

* Media management: download, share, move, delete, copy to my album, title and description editing.

Tips and Tricks:

* Navigate Find Stuff categories by swiping left and right over the category images.

* Pause the upload queue and resume when your signal improves, or your airplane lands.

* Delete entries in the upload queue by swiping from left to right over the entry.

* Toggle settings to improve app performance based on your connection.

* Use the app reset function in iPhone Settings to clear cache and restore to fresh-install state.

* Logout via the in-app settings tab.

Learn more here!

 

We are excited to have you try out the new app and look forward to your feedback and additional feature requests.

Macro Photography

  Ever wonder what that little flower looking icon on your camera did?

It’s actually a really fun and impressive mode to shoot photos in.  The mode is called “Macro” and is commonly known for shooting close-up photography. When shooting in Macro mode, you can get really crisp and detailed photos of the object you are photographing. Depending on your lens you can get a small portion in focus while the rest is blurred to make the object you want to focus on stand out. It’s a great mode to shoot flowers, insects, food to show texture or anything you want to see details of. Try it out and check out our Macro category!

 

Halloween Costume Contest Winners

Hundreds of adorable costumes entered the Best Halloween Critters Costume Contest. From cute elephants to baby bumble bees, the entries were known for creating a chorus of "Awwww". Special thanks to everyone who participated! The winners:

1st Place:

 

2nd Place:

 

3rd Place:

Fall Color Splash Tutorial

 

Turn your colorful fall photos into unique and eye-catching photos! Try creating a Color Splash photo by selecting certain areas to be in color. Here are some simple instructions on how to create one:

1. Click the "edit" link above the thumbnail you want to edit.

 

2. Select the "Effects" tab, and click the "Greyscale" button to make your photo black-and-white.  

 

3. To add a splash of color: Click the "Advanced Options" button, and select “painted region” from the drop-down menu.  

4. Highlight the part of the picture you want to be black-and-white. The part you don't highlight will be in color. The large black dot on your photo is the brush, drag that around your photo to select the areas you want to remain in black and white.

Voila! You have just created a Color Splash photo!

Calling All Coffee Lovers!

Do you have a special mug or ritual of how you drink your cup of coffee? Whether you are rocking a bathrobe with sleep eyes or a mid-afternoon boost of energy, show us your unique coffee drinking behavior and you could win!

Upload and share your favorite photo of your drinking a cup of joe for a chance to win! Five winners will be selected and each will receive an International Delight Prize Pack which includes a Cuisinart coffee maker and International Delight products. Submit your entries here! 

UPDATE: The Winners Have Been Announced!

 

 

Jack-O-Lanterns Photography Tips

 

Share your creative and spooky Jack-O-Lanterns by taking memorable and fun photos. Here are a few tips on how to take photos of your Jack-O-Lantern masterpiece:

1. Use a tripod, or place your camera on something that’s sturdy, like a table.
2.   Place your pumpkin in front of a plain background or outside with a cool backdrop of plants or vines. Avoid putting it in front of a congested area as the design won’t capture as well.
3.    Light your pumpkin with at least 2-3 candles inside. The more candles you use, the more the pumpkin will glow. 
4. Turn off your flash to maintain the spooky glow of your pumpkin and keep your photo from getting washed out.
5. Use a manual setting or the TV mode to slow down the shutter speed if you are using an SLR camera.  Try a shutter speed of 0.8-2.5 seconds.

Take a few shots and experiment! Show off your Jack-O-Lanterns in our group album: 

Now Supporting HD Video Uploads

Crisp, clean and beautiful, HD video is now on Photobucket! We now support HD Video uploads up to 300MB or 10 minutes in length. We have upgraded our player to accomodate HD support so it is 16:9. Check out beautiful examples of HD Time Lapse videos by director Ross Ching.

Survey Particpants

Spend hours on the web surfing for cool stuff? We are looking for participants to take a short online survey with a chance to  win $1000. Learn more here.

Send Photos to Your Phone

Our new Send to Phone option allows you to send your favorite photos from your album or cool images you find on Photobucket directly to your phone. Send photos to your phone to make them your wallpaper, forward them to your friends or make them a contact ID photo. Look for the “Send to Phone” link and blue phone icon on any image to get started. For more information and instructions see our tutorial.

 

Upgrade to Our New Pro Account

We are excited to announce our new Pro Account option!  Whether you are looking for higher resolution or a discount on printing your photos, upgrading to a Pro account is a great way to get more out of your Photobucket account. By upgrading to Pro you get the benefits of:

• New price—$24.95/ year (or 2.08/month)
• Unlimited storage.
• Uploading high res photos. (image size 4000x3000)
• Videos up to 10 minutes
• 10% discount on Prints and photo products.
• No ads in you album
• More cool stats

Learn more here!

Our New Homepage!

You've probably noticed our new look as we have recently freshened up our homepage. The first tab shows some of the fun categories you can discover from our Find Stuff area . The second tab,  "What's New", is our hub for all news, contests and cool ideas. Thanks for stopping by and let us know what you think about the new look!

Get Featured on Photobucket!

One of our popular categories in Find Stuff is our photography category. From cool light graffiti to beautiful landscapes we have a great collection of all your awesome photography skills.  Check it out here!  We are looking for cool, interesting and awesome photos to feature in our Photography category in Find Stuff. Submit your favorite photograph that you've taken to featuredimages@photobucket.com and your work could be featured!