I’m looking forward to joining the next beta round, but more so excited for a place where I can enjoy photography- not only mine but others too of course - and not have algorithms decide what I’m going to see. As you mentioned, IG takes so much work not only to maintain your ‘status’ and actually show in people’s feeds, but likewise actually seeing the photos from people you’ve followed for that exact reason you want to see their work is ridiculously hard to do. It takes an enormous amount of time and work to try and cajole the system into showing what you want and why you followed people in the first place. I’m really hoping this works and you can get the uptake on higher tiers to make is sustainable as you scale. Fingers crossed!
I am so excited at having an alternative to Instagram, which is proving to be such a frustrating application but one I feel photographers believe they have to participate in. There are so many YouTubers making a great living purely descibring their views on todays Instagram algorithm ! And so many photographers hungry for the Instagram keys to success.
Hi Michael, this is all very exciting. I'm particularly keen in the true social aspect of photo and I love the idea of a paid pro account where editors, curators and image commissioners can browse our projects. as a professional commercial photographer and emerging art photographer the ability to connect is invaluable! Looks like finally someone has put some serious thought on a better way to benefit photography and not themselves. I'm glad to be part of this journey!
If you would, please consider opening usernames up to 3 characters only. It's really difficult to migrate to a new platform when you can't use the same branding you've been using on social media for decades.
Hmm, I'm getting an error saying handles must be between 4 and 32 characters. I guess I'll have to wait to try again when the waitlist opens up again. Very much appreciate that you looked into it.
Good read! I’m excited to join the next beta round. Adobe’s Behance would be another good platform to compare foto to. I personally don’t use Behance, but I’ve poked around it a bit, and answered some Adobe user survey questions surrounding it a while back.
I would say Foto will be closer to the OG IG starting out than Behance, which is a portfolio site. It doesn’t foster deep social connections though. More of another place to out your work hoping someone will see it and hire you.
I’m so happy to have been able to read this. Could you please put the photo of the image on our notifications that are being liked just so we know what is being liked and don’t have to click on the photo to see it. You know what I’m talking about right?
That’s awesome! I’m so excited for the app and pray all your dreams for it, can happen. I really want to be able to do printing and sales! I care about that so much more than the portfolio feature! But I I know you’ve said the portfolio feature will come first. I think it’s so cool that you have a podcast here too! Keep that up! It enriches the photographic community! Sage Sohier soon?
What interests me here is that it's a space for serious photographers interested in image making and image browsing; and all we need to concentrate on is sharing quality work and communicating with similarly minded photographers about work. This, of course, is a new space and, unavoidably, it will evolve and transform. Let's see what happens; but for now it has my vote.
I enjoyed reading this and am heartened by a lot of it but there was one elephant in the room, or rather missing from the room as it were: AI scraping and training. We are in an era in which aggregate sets of images are the new fuel for bloated, wasteful neural network training. While avoiding VCs is great, it would also be reassuring to know if Foto is dedicated to protecting photographers and the work they dedicate so much time to from this venal, philistine enterprise.
Hi Ian! We aren't training AI with photos uploaded to Foto, nor giving any 3rd parties access to the database. We respect our user's copyrights and aren't looking to exploit their work.
I was on Photo-Sig before Flickr and feel that long lost platform to have been one of the best photo communities I have participated it.
Perhaps because I was just starting my journey in photography and fellow photographers would critique each other. The constructive criticism was amazing for those hungry to learn and probably the one place I learned the most about photography.
I've not seen anything like this since, but The internet was a very different place back then. People today seem hesitant to offer anything other than a 'like' or short comment. And I understand why. Text alone might not convey all that's needed for a supportive learning environment.
But I wonder how easy it might be to nurture a space that will allow this kind of shared learning.
I believe people will be posting 2-D files on Foto. I’m not sure we can prevent that or event want that prevent that. We live in a digital art/graphics world so people will inevitably upload that type of imagery.
We want to be supportive of all artists through photos. We will be relaxed on that type of thing.
Good read Michael. Nice overview of the differences with other platforms. Happy to be in this private beta (@marcel) but would like to have a slightly larger group involved so there's more interaction. Keep up the good work!
I’ve been a Glass user for about two years. You obviously didn’t spend much time looking at the site. Your beef – “Glass also focuses on camera gear with its current UI design.” is so wrong. It’s merely a few lines under the photo caption.
And you are incorrect saying Glass doesn’t have a free tier. AFAIK you can look at every single image on Glass.photo without signing up. That way you can see if you want to join. By having paying subscribers only people who are genuinely interested in photography are the members and not losers who just want to leave smart-aleck comments.
I’ve posted photos on many different sites, but this is the first one where people encourage others, pay compliments, ask questions and generally behave like adults. I have never seen a comment badmouthing anyone’s work, it seems we follow the maxim “if you can’t say something nice, don’t say anything at all.”
Finally the Glass new message tone changes to a purr if someone posts a picture of a cat! You gotta love that.
I thoroughly approve of the decision to go without 'likes'. I have them turned off here. However, I assume you do have the option to comment? My frustration with Substack is that I can either have both or have neither rather than likes off and comments on.
I also wonder if you will have a website version? No matter how brilliant the product there's no getting away from the inadequacy of a phone screen as a way to view photos.
Finally, when I visited your website my only option is to set up an account, but I would really like to see the app first before deciding if I want to set up an account. Is there a way to see it without having to sign up.
Fantastic read. Very good breakdown of features, the roadmap was extremely clear. I’m excited to join the next round of Beta, have subscribed to the $5 a month feature with a view to increase to yearly once launched. I’d be interested to hear about the comparison between FOTO and Bluesky.
I’m looking forward to joining the next beta round, but more so excited for a place where I can enjoy photography- not only mine but others too of course - and not have algorithms decide what I’m going to see. As you mentioned, IG takes so much work not only to maintain your ‘status’ and actually show in people’s feeds, but likewise actually seeing the photos from people you’ve followed for that exact reason you want to see their work is ridiculously hard to do. It takes an enormous amount of time and work to try and cajole the system into showing what you want and why you followed people in the first place. I’m really hoping this works and you can get the uptake on higher tiers to make is sustainable as you scale. Fingers crossed!
Thanks for your support Graeme!
I am so excited at having an alternative to Instagram, which is proving to be such a frustrating application but one I feel photographers believe they have to participate in. There are so many YouTubers making a great living purely descibring their views on todays Instagram algorithm ! And so many photographers hungry for the Instagram keys to success.
Hi Michael, this is all very exciting. I'm particularly keen in the true social aspect of photo and I love the idea of a paid pro account where editors, curators and image commissioners can browse our projects. as a professional commercial photographer and emerging art photographer the ability to connect is invaluable! Looks like finally someone has put some serious thought on a better way to benefit photography and not themselves. I'm glad to be part of this journey!
Thank you Xavi!!!
What a wonderful project/idea!
Best of luck! 🎉🥳
Thanks so much!
Good read...much appreciated.
If you would, please consider opening usernames up to 3 characters only. It's really difficult to migrate to a new platform when you can't use the same branding you've been using on social media for decades.
You should be able to create a Foto account with 3 characters only right now. We did a test this morning and it was allowing us.
Hmm, I'm getting an error saying handles must be between 4 and 32 characters. I guess I'll have to wait to try again when the waitlist opens up again. Very much appreciate that you looked into it.
Also, feel free to email help@fotoapp.co with screenshots of the messages you are getting. That will help us.
Have you updated Foto recently?
Good read! I’m excited to join the next beta round. Adobe’s Behance would be another good platform to compare foto to. I personally don’t use Behance, but I’ve poked around it a bit, and answered some Adobe user survey questions surrounding it a while back.
I would say Foto will be closer to the OG IG starting out than Behance, which is a portfolio site. It doesn’t foster deep social connections though. More of another place to out your work hoping someone will see it and hire you.
I’m so happy to have been able to read this. Could you please put the photo of the image on our notifications that are being liked just so we know what is being liked and don’t have to click on the photo to see it. You know what I’m talking about right?
Yes, we have plans for that, plus other updates to the Notification Page. We should start development on Notifications 2.0 sometime in July.
That’s awesome! I’m so excited for the app and pray all your dreams for it, can happen. I really want to be able to do printing and sales! I care about that so much more than the portfolio feature! But I I know you’ve said the portfolio feature will come first. I think it’s so cool that you have a podcast here too! Keep that up! It enriches the photographic community! Sage Sohier soon?
What interests me here is that it's a space for serious photographers interested in image making and image browsing; and all we need to concentrate on is sharing quality work and communicating with similarly minded photographers about work. This, of course, is a new space and, unavoidably, it will evolve and transform. Let's see what happens; but for now it has my vote.
I enjoyed reading this and am heartened by a lot of it but there was one elephant in the room, or rather missing from the room as it were: AI scraping and training. We are in an era in which aggregate sets of images are the new fuel for bloated, wasteful neural network training. While avoiding VCs is great, it would also be reassuring to know if Foto is dedicated to protecting photographers and the work they dedicate so much time to from this venal, philistine enterprise.
Hi Ian! We aren't training AI with photos uploaded to Foto, nor giving any 3rd parties access to the database. We respect our user's copyrights and aren't looking to exploit their work.
Excited to see how Foto develops.
I was on Photo-Sig before Flickr and feel that long lost platform to have been one of the best photo communities I have participated it.
Perhaps because I was just starting my journey in photography and fellow photographers would critique each other. The constructive criticism was amazing for those hungry to learn and probably the one place I learned the most about photography.
I've not seen anything like this since, but The internet was a very different place back then. People today seem hesitant to offer anything other than a 'like' or short comment. And I understand why. Text alone might not convey all that's needed for a supportive learning environment.
But I wonder how easy it might be to nurture a space that will allow this kind of shared learning.
Looking forward to it! Will you add multi-photo-posts or is it mainly one-picture uploads?
Right now it’s one photo posts, but we have a plan for multiple photo posts in the future. We need to build other features first.
What about illustration or other art ... is this just for photography?
I believe people will be posting 2-D files on Foto. I’m not sure we can prevent that or event want that prevent that. We live in a digital art/graphics world so people will inevitably upload that type of imagery.
We want to be supportive of all artists through photos. We will be relaxed on that type of thing.
Good read Michael. Nice overview of the differences with other platforms. Happy to be in this private beta (@marcel) but would like to have a slightly larger group involved so there's more interaction. Keep up the good work!
Thanks Marcel! We are adding a bunch of new people on Feb. 28th. We are accepting donations again and will onboard everyone on Feb. 28th.
I’ve been a Glass user for about two years. You obviously didn’t spend much time looking at the site. Your beef – “Glass also focuses on camera gear with its current UI design.” is so wrong. It’s merely a few lines under the photo caption.
And you are incorrect saying Glass doesn’t have a free tier. AFAIK you can look at every single image on Glass.photo without signing up. That way you can see if you want to join. By having paying subscribers only people who are genuinely interested in photography are the members and not losers who just want to leave smart-aleck comments.
I’ve posted photos on many different sites, but this is the first one where people encourage others, pay compliments, ask questions and generally behave like adults. I have never seen a comment badmouthing anyone’s work, it seems we follow the maxim “if you can’t say something nice, don’t say anything at all.”
Finally the Glass new message tone changes to a purr if someone posts a picture of a cat! You gotta love that.
I thoroughly approve of the decision to go without 'likes'. I have them turned off here. However, I assume you do have the option to comment? My frustration with Substack is that I can either have both or have neither rather than likes off and comments on.
I also wonder if you will have a website version? No matter how brilliant the product there's no getting away from the inadequacy of a phone screen as a way to view photos.
Finally, when I visited your website my only option is to set up an account, but I would really like to see the app first before deciding if I want to set up an account. Is there a way to see it without having to sign up.
Thanks and good luck.
Fantastic read. Very good breakdown of features, the roadmap was extremely clear. I’m excited to join the next round of Beta, have subscribed to the $5 a month feature with a view to increase to yearly once launched. I’d be interested to hear about the comparison between FOTO and Bluesky.