FAQ
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Can I upload images for free?
Yes, with the free account, you can upload up to 500 images for free. If you would like more than 500 images on the site, there are 2 plans. The Silver plan is $9.95 (USD) a year and allows you to upload up to 1000 images, and the Gold plan is $29.95 (USD) a year and allows you to upload an unlimited number of images.
Why not give TLF a try and register (http://www.thelensflare.com/cart) for a free account. Once you're ready, you can upgrade (http://www.thelensflare.com/cart) your account at any time.
I really want to upload more than 500 images, but I'm unable to pay the annual fee. What can I do?
Please contact us (http://www.thelensflare.com/contactus.php) and let us know. We'll trade the annual subscription fee for a little of your time. Perhaps this is by writing an article or helping out on the site in other ways. Don't worry. We'll work something out to accommodate you.
I tried uploading an image, but something went wrong and I got an email from one of the moderators to upload it again. How do I make sure the image is uploaded correctly?
We've seen, on occasion, where an image isn't uploaded all the way because the file is too big or the transfer of the file wasn't complete before the person's browser was closed. We recommend uploading an image around 400-500kb and 1000-1200 pixels wide. The website resizes the image down to 500 pixels wide and saves it as a compressed JPG file, therefore, there's no reason to upload anything bigger. However, uploading smaller files may result in a more pixilated final image due to the resize of the original. If you're uploading a large image, it's best to resize it yourself to 900px along the longest edge so that it avoids the resizing function and remains good quality.
Can I hotlink or link to the image from another website?
Yes. You can hotlink images that you own the copyright for your blog, social book marking site, or other website. If possible, please link back to www.thelensflare.com or the specific webpage of the image where you are displaying the particular image. It costs a lot of money for the bandwidth and servers to keep the website running. The least you can do is provide a link back to the site for using up some of the server's resources.
If you don't own the copyright, please ask the photographer or artist for permission before using their image.
To find the image's address, right click on it and click on properties.
How do I upload an image?
When you are logged in, a dashboard will be displayed on the upper right of the page. Click on the "Upload Images" link in this area. You'll need to validate your email address before you can upload images.
How do I modify the description of one of my pictures?
In the dashboard area, there is a link to "Manage Images". Find your image on this list and click on "Edit" to the right of it.
How do I delete an image from The Lens Flare website?
In the dashboard area, there is a link to "Manage Images". Find your image on this list and click on "Del" to the right of it. It will prompt you whether or not you really want to delete your picture. Click OK to delete it.
How come my images do not show up automatically in my gallery?
On Basic Free Accounts, each image is approved by a moderator prior to it showing up in the site's galleries. Pornography, full nudity (rated R or more), and images depicting illegal activities are not allowed on The Lens Flare. Nude images of people are allowed as long as their genitalia are not visible. It is the photographer's responsibility to obtain a signed model release for any recognizable people in their photograph.
There are currently 5-6 moderators that volunteer their time to approve pictures. They get to them as quickly as possible; however, please plan on a couple of hours before your images are approved.
Please note that upgrading your account to Silver or Gold will allow you to avoid the moderation queue.
If I upload pictures to The Lens Flare, will I retain the copyright?
Yes, you are not giving up any of your rights of the image. You'll keep any rights to it that you had previously. By uploading an image to TLF (The Lens Flare), all you're doing is giving TLF permission to display your image on the website.
Can I manage the comments on my pictures?
Yes, go to "Manage Images" in your dashboard, which is viewable in the upper right of most pages when you are logged in. Next, click on "Edit" next to any of your images. Scroll down to the bottom of the page and you'll see all comments. You can change the status from active to inactive and delete them as well.
I hate advertising. Is there any way you can remove it from the site?
Not at this time. The website hosting fees are over $2,000 per year, not to mention the hundreds of hours spent upgrading and maintaining the website. The advertisements pay for that. We're working on creative ways to reduce ads for paying subscribers.
I have some ideas that would be cool for the site. What's the best way to tell you about it?
You can use the contact us (http://www.thelensflare.com/contactus.php) form to send an email directly to the site's developer. Otherwise, you can use the forum to post ideas and other comments related to art, photography, and the TLF website.
I want to write an article about art or photography. Can I put this on your website?
Yes! We'd love to read your article. Please contact us (http://www.thelensflare.com/contactus.php) and let us know that you'd like to post an article. We'll direct you from there. Usually this involves sending us a word or text document and then we'll add the article to the site's wiki.
If you find that you want to add several articles, and then we may give you access to the wiki directly.
This website must have taken a long time to develop. Can you tell me what it took technically to create?
Yes, the website is the product of 4 years of development for one person part-time, with many small revisions. Enough revisions, in fact, that certain parts of the site became cumbersome and unmanageable. It was originally designed to host 100-200 of my personal photography images; however, it now has many thousands of images. The website is currently running on PHP 5 and MySQL 5, and has been since the beginning of 2007. Before that, it was running on MySQL 3.x, then 4.0 along with PHP 4. The version that you're looking at now was publically released on January 28, 2008 and is the product of hundreds of hours of work. The new version is much more maintainable and includes many new features.
The server had been running on a 2 GHz Pentium 4 server with 512MB of RAM and a 40GB hard drive. It is now running on a 64bit Dual Core Athlon 3500+ with 1GB of RAM and a 160GB RAID 1 mirrored hard drive along with a mirrored backup drive. When the need warrants it, the images on the site will be moved to additional servers to offset the load and bandwidth usage.
