From today until 28 February 2013, BeFunky will provide free access to their premium effects, frames, filters, goodies and other features available on their online photo editor to anyone under the age of 21. Users must have a Facebook account so that their age can be verified in order to access the free premium features on the BeFunky website. “We want to offer students from all over the world the opportunity to experience all of our premium editing capabilities and create amazing and fun photos—for free,” said Tekin Tatar, CEO of BeFunky. “Our mission is to bring easy-to-use, professional photo editing to the masses and encourage people to have fun with their pictures, and we think this is a great way to do that.”

Boarded Up Britain, a website aimed to document all of the boarded up buildings in Great Britain will be launched on 26th November and members of the public are now being encouraged to upload pictures of derelict buildings in their area to help raise awareness of them. Matthew Dyas, Boarded Up Britain coordinator said: “No matter where you look nowadays you’ll find an empty building. Homes, pubs, warehouses and mills abandoned and left to rot. You can’t even escape it on the high street, with over 1 in 10 shops now lying vacant… If you’re sick of that derelict building up at the end of your street, [photograph it and] upload it to the website and let’s try and do something about it.”

Photobucket has launched “Photobucket Stories,” providing users with an easy new way to combine photos and videos into complete, shareable narratives. Once Stories are created, they are easily embeddable on blogs, personal, and brand sites, and can be shared among friends from mobile devices or across Facebook, Twitter and other social networks. “With the addition of Stories, Photobucket continues to deliver on our promise to be the one place for all your photos and videos so you can do everything you want with them,” said Munro. “We’ve already taken the guesswork out of preserving and protecting your memories; but thanks to Stories, you can now add new context and meaning to your adventures, connecting with others in a more complete way than ever before.”

The new Seamless Internet store offers photographers easy access to the tools that they need most, while also providing a creative hub with inspirational resources from the worlds’s finest photographers. Carrying a wide-range of products such as complete studio lighting solutions, exquisite lens filters and more, Seamless offers free shipping all over Europe. “The products that we have on offer are of the highest standard,” says Padraic Deasy, Irish Photographer of the year 2011. “The build, the design and the durability of Seamless accessories puts the necessary tools into the hands of photographers and frees them to achieve their unique vision.””

WebRotate 360 today launched its new online 360° photography equipment store, featuring photography hardware, software and accessories for product photography studios. “At WebRotate 360 we helped hundreds of our clients to succeed by delivering a unique mix of services ranging from 360-degree product photography to interactive digital media and e-commerce software,” said Dimitri Bir, Founder of WebRotate 360. “Today we are ready to share our first-hand experience, our know-how, and professional equipment and software with everybody.” To find out more visit the website below.

Starting today, the members area of the World Photography Organisation (WPO) website will accessible to everyone until 1st December. Those interested in learning about the otherwise exclusive content - which is normally only available to Advanced and Premium members - only need to sign up for a free WPO Basic membership to take advantage of this limited-time offer. The website’s unique content will update frequently and will include a host of regular features including PhotoTALK, a monthly series of live debates about issues facing photographers today. Alongside PhotoTALK, other new website content includes the Sue Steward Column, an Industry Insider feature and exclusive podcast interviews. Basic members can receive a 15% discount if they upgrade their membership to Advanced or Premium by 30 November.

Eyeist has created the first Web-based photography review service that connects world-class photography experts with photographers. Eyeist.com provides insight and advice to a global audience of amateur and professional photographers at affordable rates. Base prices range from $100.00 to $350.00.

ReaSoft has launched a new free Web-based service for photographers. Currently in Beta, ImVerter (which stands for Image conVerter) recognises 500+ image formats including raw photo formats (CR2, NEF, ARW), vector graphics (CDR, SVG, DXF), postscript formats (PDF, AI, EPS) and also dozens of little-known or unpopular picture formats; and converts them into JPEGs, PNGs, GIFs, TIFFs, PDFs or BMPs depending on user preference. The service is free, with the only limitation being the maximum size of the source file, which is 20MB.

Matt Burns, the mastermind behind the Stolen Camera Finder website, has launched a new free service called OddPrints. “It’s basically a free and simple way to print photos for unusual picture frames or for passport applications etc.,” Matt explains. “With OddPrints you simply upload a photo, choose the size of your frame and then re-download your image. The image is ready to print and cut out at just the right size with optional guidelines to help… It’s free to use, no ads, no watermarks, no nonsense.”

Online photography business gurus Mark Cleghorn and Kenny Martin have launched ‘Business Class’ - a brand new webinar-style monthly learning programme aimed at helping portrait photographers trade more profitably. Under the plan photographers will be able to access the online classes on an ongoing or ad hoc basis for £29 per month. Mark Cleghorn (pictured), founder of PhotoTraining 4U (PT4U), international seminar speaker and author of a series of ‘How To’ photography books explained: “For the cost of a 10x8 print photographers will have access to our monthly 3-4 hour webinar classes plus downloads, including a full recording of each webinar they attend.” For more information check out the website below.

DxOMark has launched new measurements dedicated to camera performance data for cellphones, smartphones and tablets. The new service, DxOMark Mobile, aims to help consumers analyse and compare the still and video performance of mobile devices, the company says. “Mobile phone image quality has also made considerable progress - for example, the image quality of the Nokia 808 PureView, in first place in the DxOMark Mobile rankings for still photos, is superior to that of a 5-year-old compact camera,” Frédéric Guichard, Chief Scientific Officer for DxO Labs said in a statement. “And as for video, the best mobile tested in this category, the Samsung Galaxy SIII, outperforms the Canon Powershot 100.” DxOMark Mobile measures many attributes of mobile camera image quality such as color, exposure, texture, noise, and autofocus, in both still photo and video modes. In all, DxOMark Mobile analyzes 14 attributes, assigning each one a score between 1 and 100. An overall DxOMark score lets users rank and make comparisons between camera-equipped mobile devices, as well as between mobile cameras and compact cameras.

Getty Images has announced that its Flickr Collection has grown to 500,000 images. The half millionth photograph had been submitted by Jiangang Wang, a system engineer and photo hobbyist from Tianjin, China. The image, “Minato Mirai night view,” was captured from the vantage point of Osan-bashi in Yokohama, Japan, where Wang now lives, and shows the city skyline just after sunset.

Luxury whisky brand The Macallan has been running a competition in which they are encouraging people to send in an important image and tag it with a key word - they call it the Last Word. You can find the details here. There are some amazing prizes up for grabs.

Here’s my Last Word picture which is titled Self. Self-portraits are perhaps the most difficult people shots to take – after all, not that many photographers like to be the subject of the picture. This abstract self-portrait plays with reality to deliver a pleasing image that doesn’t give too much away about the photographer. Taken with the humble iPhone and post-processed with Nik Software’s SnapSeed, it proves that even the humblest of equipment can take and create a good photo. The image also shows that the right lighting can make or break the mood; the lengthening shadows of dusk not only added to the ambience of the scene, but created the extreme sense of perspective that makes the photo so interesting. My tip - always carry some kind of camera with you, whether that’s a DSLR or a simple cameraphone - you never know when exactly the moment will be right.

Incidentally if you live in the UK you can see my image and some other excellent images at the Macallan booth at several exhibitions. Details here: http://www.themastersofphotography.com/

Don’t forget to enter the competition, there’s a photography trip to Scotland and top end Fujifilm cameras up for grabs.

Samsung are looking for as many people in the UK called David Bailey as possible to take part in a photography project. They’re giving lots of David Baileys the new Samsung NX1000 Smart Camera to test the theory that it’s so good that it lets everyone take photos like the world’s best photographer. Samsung are also aiming to try and break a world record on Saturday. With just over a day to go for David Baileys to get in touch, visit this site to register your interest: http://wearedavidbailey.com/

Eposure.com has introduced a free and live webinar service. Tim Bilsborough, Eposure’s founder (pictured above with director Gabrielle O’Hare) says, “Webinars are a fantastic tool which allows us to work directly and interactively with many more photographers, all over the country.  We cover areas such as ‘how to create a website which is designed for buyers, not photographers’, and, ‘the marketing essentials for commercial photographers.’ We know that marketing is something that many photographers find very time consuming and yet brings little reward. Our agency background means we can pass on very relevant information that can make their marketing strategies effective.” The current webinar schedule is available to Eposure members on the website below.

Hasselblad UK has just launched a new webstore listing the full range of Hasselblad and Broncolor equipment. Chris Russell-Fish, Managing Director Hasselblad UK said: “Our customer research tells us that this online purchase option will benefit our customers - especially those that might live many miles away from a dealer and need certain accessories and small items quickly.” The new site can be accessed via the link below.

Landscape Photography Magazine has relaunched its website with new features and improved core functionality. In celebration of the relaunch, the magazine has also announced a special offer - get the current issue plus the next two issues for just $1. The promotion runs until 15th September.

Tamron has launched a new video series which profiles pro photographers as they shoot on location and present tips for viewers to capture better images. The videos are approximately 6 minutes in length and follow the photographers as they explain their approach to capturing images in their signature style.

Packaging manufacturer GWP has launched a new e-commerce website, Cases UK. It offers top of the range, military grade, waterproof, dustproof and drop-proof protective cases suitable for photographic equipment.

Facebook has announced upcoming changes to the way users’ photos are presented on their timelines. “Now when you click Photos at the top of your timeline, you’ll see larger pictures that fill up the page,” the company said in a statement. “You can use the menu to find shots you’re tagged in, pictures you’ve shared and albums you’ve created.” Although the press release does not say so in express terms, the screenshot above suggests that all images will - rather disappointingly and incomprehensibly - be cropped to square format, regardless of their original aspect ratio. The changes are being rolled out gradually.