BetterPhoto Help

Rough Transcription
One question that I get is: how do I access my gallery or how to access my Website admin center? First, go into the Profile menu and down to "My BetterPholio" and there, if you have a Gallery, you'll see "Gallery Settings". And if you Website, you'll be able to get to your "Website Admin Center" here. Just click and that'll take you right on in where you can change anything about your Website. And here is one of our Pro website options.

Rough Transliteration
I can also view my Gallery from here (in the Profile menu). I can go to change all the Gallery Settings. This is where you change the style (layout) that you like, or change the color scheme options. You can specify what sort of things you want to show, what you don't want to show... that's how you get in to administer your Gallery. This is also where you are going to change your Sort Order. If you want to change your Sort Order, you go down to the bottom of the Gallery Settings page, and you can see Gallery Sort Order. Go ahead and make changes to your Sort Order... and that changes the Sort Order. Click save and you've changed the Sort Order.

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In the Profile, we can go ahead and change our self-portrait. Go to the My Profile - Change Self Portrait page, and click on the Browse button to find a photo that would work for you. I recommend you do this right when you are starting out. I am a big believer in just going for it. Don't hold back and wait for everything to be perfect. Just go for it! Why don't we go ahead and upload a photo while we are at it? That's the other thing that a lot of people ask about: How to Upload Photos. If we go into the Profile again, you'll see there's a section in "My Photo Shows" where you can edit your favorite categories. You can also see photos that you love (once you click the heart of some photos). You can see photographers that you follow. When you really appreciate a photographer, you can follow them. We will go into "My Photos" and see there is an Upload option, and there's a "Manage/Enter" to look at your current uploads or contest entries. The "Manage/Enter" is where you would change titles, set which photos you want to display in your Gallery, and do some other things. First, you've got to get some photos in there. Let's go ahead and upload. There are two main ways to upload. One we call the "Bulk Uploader", and I can choose a camera. I am going to add a camera to this list. I have not done that yet. I am going to go ahead and click that I want to use the the file name as the title. It is required that we agree to the "Terms and Conditions". I highly recommend that you look over these "Terms and Conditions", so you can get to know the spirit and the principle that is behind BetterPhoto. We are a very supportive community, family-friendly, and we really respect your copyright and privacy. It is good to go ahead and look at this and be sure we are all playing by the same agreement. Now, go to the Uploader. If for any reason, the "Bulk Uploader" doesn't work for you, we have an "Alternate Image Uploader". We do that because the "Bulk Uploader" does not work on all browsers. For instance, the "Bulk Uploader" does not work with Google Chrome on Mac. Let's go look at the "Alternate Image Uploader", and then you can get a feeling for both Uploaders. For this example, I am going to upload two photos, and add to my Gallery right away. I want to put a little watermark on them, and go ahead and pick the photos. And again you will have to specify which camera you used. It says here you are going to have to do this before the upload. Let's back up one step. Go to "My Profile" and click "My Cameras", and add a camera to the list. There are many different rows to roam here, so I am going to click the "C" key on my keyboard to take me to the Canon cameras here. There are a lot of cameras so it might take you a little bit to find the one that you want. I am going to pick the "Canon EOS 5D Mark II". I could go ahead and "Suggest a Camera" if I didn't find it in there, but nine times out of ten, the camera is in there. Our staff will be happy to help you link up to it. Now, I am going to go ahead and add that camera. Now, I can go back and actually upload that photo, no problem! Once again, since I am in Google Chrome and I know the "Bulk Uploader" isn't going to work, I will use the "Alternate Image Uploader". I could also set the Canon to be my default camera. In the "My Cameras" page, you can do this, and then you wouldn't have to select that from the pull down menu every time. Now, I agree to the "Terms and Conditions", and I do want to be notified if someone comments on my photo. I then click "Upload" and wait for a moment. If I have very large photos that haven't been downsized first, it may take a while and the downloader might fail. There are other cases where it just doesn't work, so we recommend you try a different browser when it fails. Once you upload, you are dropped into your "Manage/Enter" page, so I could decide if I want to enter the photo into the contest. From here, you see a big view of it and pick which category you'd like to enter it in, and hit Enter. You've agreed to the "Terms and Conditions". Now we are on a page that shows us our current entries for the month. With a "Free Gallery" or "Classic Gallery", you get to enter one photo per day. With the upper levels of membership, you get to enter more!

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A question we get from time to time is: "How do I enter a photo for the Photo of the Day?" Basically, you just enter the photo into the contest, and if the photo gets picked as a particularly outstanding image that the judges see, it goes into a pool of potential Photos Of The Day. The judges then select the best for the Photo Of The Day! If you want to participate in this, enter the contest!

General Idea
This is a little thing we call the Pancakes, because they look like three stacked pancakes. When you click on that, you will go into your Profile area. This is available on most pages. If you click on "My Profile", you will see some options: you can change your Contact Information, Password, and things like that. In "Notifications, Subscriptions, and Preferences", you will see an option at the top for "Home Page Preference". You can go ahead and select "All New Photos." You click that and when you sign in or click on the home link or BetterPhoto link at the top of the page, you will go to all the new photos that have been uploaded recently. This is different from "Recent Contest Entries", because sometimes people upload photos, but do not enter the contest. If you want to go right into the contest when you log in, select "Recent Contest Entries". Let's go ahead and just say, "All New Photos," and update our preference. Now, you can try it out by clicking the "Try it out here" link or the BetterPhoto logo at the top. This will make you go right into the category of "All New Photos". This is how you change your "Home Page Preference". There are some exceptions to it. When you are in a gallery or looking at "Contest Entries" or "Subject Gallery" - such as pictures of roses or travel, it will try to get you back where you were. You were probably there because you wanted to comment on a photo, so this is why we bring you back to this page. Let's say you are in looking at a photo and start getting lost, all you have to do is click the "Home"button and it will be right back where you want to be.

Transliteration
Another preference is the "Gallery Preference". We go back into "My Profile" and "Notifications, Subscriptions, & Preferences". There, we change the preferences for "Gallery Preferences". You can set it up so that you can see: "Two Photos Across", "Three Photos Across", or "Four Photos Across". It defaults to four. If you want to see some big photos, you can click the "Two Photos Across" and update your preference. Then go into your "Gallery" and see that it has a different look. It is whatever you really like! We want to give you a customized experience.

Transcription
One thing a lot of you have been asking is: "What is a Photo Show"? Once you have registered with BetterPhoto and are taken to the first page after logging in, you will see a page with a variety of categories. This page allows you to select all of the categories that are going to be in your "Photo Show". "Photo Show" is a way of focusing and concentrating on those subjects that you feel really inspired about. If you don't know, like I didn't know back in 1984, you can click the "Skip" button and it will automatically default to selecting all nine of these main categories. If you like, you can click on a category, and there will be subcategories that come down that you can pick as well. You will see both of them while you are in your "Photo Show". Once you have picked three or more of these main parent categories, then you can click the "Complete" button. Don't worry! You can change these later. This is a fantastic way to concentrate your efforts and go in exactly where you want to be.

Textual Representation
You can change how these photos are ordered. By default, they show what's newest first. But you could also sort by "Most loved" which means that it will display the photos that have the most hearts. For example, this photo by Colette Metcalf has 20... so people are really liking that. If you want to go and take a look at it... you can see the beautiful image. You can see the discussion and any details down below it. We can go ahead and hit the back button and be back in this gallery. You can look through some different galleries. On the far right, just under the little mail icon (where you go to get messages from other BetterPhoto members) or this search icon. You can click here on the More Categories menu and you'll see all the different categories. If you're in any gallery that has to do with the contest, you can click into a subgallery. For example, instead of seeing all recent entries, I really just want to see the photos in the Monthly Theme category (the Monthly Theme changes every month ... go to the main contest page to see the Monthly Themes). If you like, you see all the photos that are in the Monthly Theme. If you want to see just the nature photos, you can click on that subcategory and then you will see only the nature category of the contest entries. There's also some other fun ones... "Photos of the Home Page" as we grow and develop we will add to this collection of the photos that get selected by our editors to go on that big beautiful home page. We will have only one at this time but we will add to it over time. You can also see Contest Winners by Month, Finalists, Staff Favorites... you see the Photos of the Day if you really enjoy our Photo of the Day newsletter.

General Gist
I am now going to click the Photos link, and I am going to go to Subject Categories and say I want to look at cute babies. I am going to click on a couple of these photos. If you really like the photo, click the heart to give the photographer a little bit of feedback to say you really like the photo. When you are not logged in and you click the photo, it is going to say that you are not signed in. Let's go ahead and sign in! Once you sign in, it will bring you right back to the same page. Now, the click has not been recorded, so go back and click the heart again. Now, it says it has been "Favorited" or "Loved"! You can also see when the photo was uploaded and when it was entered into the contest. Here's a secret insider tip: if you click on the little "i", it will scroll all that information up. If you just want to look at the photo with the least amount of distraction possible, you can just click on the little "i".

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If you also want to comment on an image, you certainly can. Now that we are logged in, we can we can go ahead and say "Stellar image!" A comment doesn't have to be a lot If you're a little worried about what to say or your writing skills, don't worry. It could be really simple as saying: I like this photo. It's great if you can give constructive feedback... And it can be as simple as that... when I click send, I'll put in the comment. I can update this comment later if I like. And if I don't want to be notified every time there's a comment on this thread, I can uncheck this checkbox. When I click, I'll send that in and that makes the comment.

Semi-subtitles
One question is: "How do I search for other photographers, or find other photographers?" There are a couple ways. 1) You can enter a name in the search area. You can search for yourself too if you want, and see what you find in the search results for your own photos if you've uploaded some. Below the photo section, you can see members, and you will be able to find your member account. You can also see different Favorite Places. There is a section for "Questions and Answers" that might be associated with that search term and discussions. 2) If you are looking for a photographer you are looking to follow, or a photographer you know, you can go into the "Community" section. In the Community section, there is a list of featured Website owners and featured Gallery owners. You don't necessarily have to limit yourself to that; if you want to view all, you can click on the link below and click on the link to view all of the Galleries. If you see an asterisk that means that the Gallery owner has updated it. If you see a "Contest Winner"logo, this means that they have won this through the contest. There are lots of fun ways you can go in and look at these photographers.

Transliteration
And then there is "Editor's Pick", which is a fantastic way to get some immediate feedback, whether you are on the right track. If your photos pass through the first round, they receive an "Editor's Pick". I want people to be able to see fantastic photos right away, instead of seeing maybe thirty pictures from a wedding, or thirty pictures of somebody's personal project before they are weeded down. This is a first weeding that allows you to see some great images!

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We have wonderful instructors at BetterPhoto. They are a fantastic set of the most amazing instructors, because they are not just great photographers and pros who really know what they are doing, they are also genuinely nice people. They are very encouraging and supportive. You can go into my Top Ten Tips! This is how BetterPhoto all started. If you're just starting yourself, you will find a lot of education and inspiration in this section.

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To get going, start contributing by going into the Q&A, finding questions that you might have some sort of stay on. If you want to talk about mirrorless cameras, for example. It'd be a great thing if you know anything about it. Help somebody out. This is all about giving and contribution. If you feel like you don't have anything to give, I guarantee you do. Even just communicating with someone and saying "I'm in the same situation... I'm sharing that same concern or in the same dilemma"... that really helps people a lot.

Rough Transcription
Go back up into "My Profile" and click on "My Discussion Activity", this brings up all the discussions, responses, questions, and answers that you've asked or the answers that you've provided. The one I'm going to edit wasn't a discussion that I initiated - somebody else initiated that one. This is one that I responded to. If you're not sure if this is the photo, you can click on it and see that this is the one. Then you can go back to and click on the "Edit" link. The next page will show you all the comments. You can change your comment right here. You could take out a typo if you want... There you go... that's how you edit... After you edit, by default, it comes out into a secondary view of the photo discussion (also available via the Community > Forum > Photo Discussions). If there's a big long discussion, You may want to change the sort order here to see the most recent comments first. Scroll down to see the most recent comment on top. The one who initiated this discussion is at the bottom... so there you have it... another way to going to the photo discussion area.

Rough Transliteration
The time is now. If you're wondering: "Should I do this later?"... Do it today. Get going... upload your first photo today. If you haven't already, post your first friendly, constructive critique today. Go ahead and heart somebody's photo today. Now is the time. The time is at hand. There is no tomorrow. There is no other time to do it. This is the time to go ahead and have fun... enjoy your photography and enjoy becoming an even better photographer.