Posted on by Terry White

iPhone App of the Week – PhotoScatter

photoscatter

I share a lot of pictures on various services. The ones I use the most are Facebook and Flickr. Sure I use Smugmug, MobileMe, Photoshop.com, Twitter, my own blog and others, but Facebook and Flickr are the ones I use the most often. Although I love the features of MobileMe, Smugmug and the others, the people that I share the most with are all on Facebook or Flickr. 

 

Shoot it once, upload it to many

pscatt1

Photoscatter aims to be the only photo uploading app you’ll need. With Photoscatter you can upload to:

  • Facebook
  • Flickr
  • ShutterFly
  • PhotoBucket
  • Picasa
  • Twitter

all at the same time! Of course you can choose which services you want to upload to on an image by image basis. 

 

This app is ideal for me. If I’m at an event and want to share a quick snapshot from my iPhone with all my friends, I can shoot it and upload it to Facebook, Flickr and even Twitter all at once.

pscatt-take-choose     |pscatt-picture

 

You can either take a picture or choose one from your Library. The ability to choose one from your library is great because it means that you don’t have to rely on the iPhone camera alone. However, you would first have to sync your pictures from your camera/computer to your iPhone in order to upload them. I’ll be glad when someone makes a card reader and app that allow you to import/backup images directly to your iPhone.

 

Uploading

pscatt-where      |pscatt-where2

Of course the time it takes to upload to each service will be dependent on the number of services you’re uploading to, internet traffic and the speed of your connection. 

pscatt-details

 

Location Information?

The one thing I was curious about was whether or not PhotoScatter would support uploading the Location (GPS) information that is captured by the iPhone to the various sites such as Flickr, which can take advantage of that information and display your pictures on a map. The answer is no. Sadly I tried both taking a picture with the app, uploading it to Flickr and taking a picture with the built-in Camera app, then uploading to to Flickr using PhotoScatter and the Location information didn’t go in either case. So if I need/want the location information to go to Flickr, then I’m going to have to use Mobile Fotos for that.

 

The Bottom Line

PhotoScatter is a great solution for those that want the convenience of uploading photos to two or more services at the same time. PhotoScatter is $1.99 and available here from the App Store PhotoScatter

 

Apple iTunes

13 Replies to “iPhone App of the Week – PhotoScatter”

  2. Terry,

    I have to be honest, your tech blog is simply the best and most current, interesting and helpful technology blog I have found on the internet. A sincere, wholehearted thank you for all do you with it, you have helped me more than you know!

    I think the reason that I find your blog so interesting is that you and I share many common interests and goals. I am a Lightroom user (addict?) and a photography enthusiast, but I also wrangled into the web of social networking. I have a blog, a MobileMe account, an active Facebook presence and a desire to share my best stuff with the most people who would be interested in seeing it.

    My question is this…do you have a Social Networking workflow? Do you punch your blog into your Facebook? Do you use your MobileMe Gallery at all (sounded like more things are heading toward facebook from your post because that is where everyone hangs out)? What do you do first?

    Do you send photos from Lightroom to your phone and then share from there? I guess my central question is, what order do you put in place to share your photos and videos any where does the iPhone fit in (and apps like PhotoScatter) and where does the Mac fit in? I am considering getting this app, but am starting to get overwhelmed with options and wanted to know how you do things.

    Again, thank you!!

    Bodie

    1. Hi,
      Thanks!

      Yes, the options for photo sharing can be overwhelming. So I’d be happy to share my current workflow:

      1) Shoot with my Nikon D700 or D5000
      2) Import and manage the images with Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 2
      3) retouch those that need it with Adobe Photoshop CS4
      4) take my favorites from the shoot and export to JPG into iPhoto ’09.
      5) Sync to my iPhone and/or Apple TV
      6) use iPhoto ’09 to upload directly to MobileMe, Facebook and Flickr. The nice thing is that its a sync so that if you add additional photos to the album, they are automatically uploaded.
      7) if I shoot with my iPhone I either use PhotoScatter or AirMe for upload to Facebook and MobileFoto for upload to Flickr. I use AirMe and MobileFoto over PhotoScatter when the Location information is important to me.

      Hope that helps 🙂

      1. Yes, the options for photo sharing can be overwhelming. So I’d be happy to share my current workflow:

        1) Shoot with my Nikon D700 or D5000
        2) Import and manage the images with Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 2
        3) retouch those that need it with Adobe Photoshop CS4
        4) take my favorites from the shoot and export to JPG into iPhoto ‘09.
        5) Sync to my iPhone and/or Apple TV
        6) use iPhoto ‘09 to upload directly to MobileMe, Facebook and Flickr. The nice thing is that its a sync so that if you add additional photos to the album, they are automatically uploaded.
        7) if I shoot with my iPhone I either use PhotoScatter or AirMe for upload to Facebook and MobileFoto for upload to Flickr. I use AirMe and MobileFoto over PhotoScatter when the Location information is important to me.

        Hope that helps 🙂

        Terry,

        I spent weeks trying to create a workflow. Glad I saw this and did not re-invent the wheel. I used to use a PC and now PSE 8 for Mac with Bridge CS4. I agree that i-photo is the best conduit to share to Flickr, Mobile me, my iphone and apple tv.

        My question is, How do you export files to .jpg and import to iPhoto 09 (item 3).

        Cheers and thanks for the insights.

          1. Hi Terry,

            Thanks for the very prompt reply. Unfortunately, Adobe PSE8 for Mac does not have this export feature. A work around I found was to open the pictures I want to send to iphoto in Camera Raw. Then there is an option to Save as. In that sub Menu I can save to a new folder in .jpg.

            If this gets too tedious, I think I will be getting Lightroom.

            Thanks Again and Happy Holidays

  4. Oh Terry … forgot to mention …

    About the location issue… That is a feature we are looking at adding in future versions.

    Please let me know if you have any other feedback, or feature requests you think would make the app better.

    Thanks again,

    Ryan

  5. Terry,

    Thanks for the lightning fast reply and for taking the time to spell out your workflow. I don’t use iPhoto at all now, but see how it could be nice especially with the syncing that you mentioned. If you don’t mind, I have a couple more questions for you:

    1) Do you ever involve more than one computer in your workflow? Meaning do you ever sometimes use one computer, and other times use another one? Or is everything always done from the same computer? I have a MacBook Pro and a Mini and trying to fine a sane way to set up a system that will allow me to use one or the other if need be.

    2) Why do you use Flickr? What advantages does it offer you? I know it is the biggest photo sharing site on the planet, but I have not found a good reason to use it yet, but I am curious about it.

    I will stop pestering you. Thanks so very much for your help

    Bodie

    1. Bodie,
      1) my work starts on my MacBook Pro with the import into LR2. After I’m all done and the pics have been delivered to the client, the folder containing the shoot (minus any shots that were rejected) is moved to my Mac OS X Server/Drobo. From there I can access that folder from any other computer on my network using Bridge CS4 to browse or LR2 to import if need be.

      2) My use of Flickr is very limited and occasional. I like how the pictures are automatically mapped based on the Geotagging. So that’s probably my main use. I’m still stunned that MobileMe doesn’t offer this yet for their galleries especially since the iPhone and now iPhoto ’09 supports it.

      🙂

  7. Oh and one more thing per our previous discussion on uploading video from the 3GS to Facebook, there is a great little app called “Video Up for Facebook” that is beautiful and simple. The next best thing to the Facebook app actually doing what it claims to do, which is upload video! Oh well, thought you might want to know. Thanks again.

Comments are closed.