How can I use my phone like a telescope?

Many camera phones take beautiful photos of the night sky. Here are moon shots taken with a Samsung S22 Ultra. No special lenses were used.

These images were captured by zooming to 60X. At higher magnification, the main challenge is holding the camera steady. Fortunately, manufacturers provide a tool for that. Note the guide in the upper left corner that helps bring the object into view of the camera.

Other Helpful Tips for Moonshots

  1. Use a tripod. This will give a steadier, less blurry image. 
  2. On an iPhone, switch off flash and switch on High Dynamic Range (HDR).
  3. Slow the shutter speed. Many smart phones will automatically go into low-light or night mode when you point them at a dark sky.
  4. Reduce ISO to 100. Higher ISO is brighter, but can create a washed-out moon with less detail.

Once you capture the image, you can upload directly to dotphoto!

Share the way you want

What’s the best way to share your photos? 

dotphoto shares your way.

And we don’t track your behavior or sell your data.

dotphoto sharing is completely customizable with a sophisticated password management system. Share one photo, one album, a group of albums, or almost anything you can imagine through any service on the web.

Share a photo, album or slideshow
Share just one album (passwords)
Share your albums to your website
Share slideshows to your TV
Share an album with a QR code
Share file downloads
Share to Facebook, Twitter, or other social media
Share to Craigslist or another website
Enable friends to share to your album
Host photos for a website or blog
Password management that protects every album

New dotphoto Project Manager for for books, calendars, cards & more

TECHNICAL NOTE:  Keep only one dotphoto browser window open at a time when using projects. More than one operating browser window can prevent projects from being added to the cart.

dotphoto’s new AUTOFILL feature enables you to make books, calendars, cards and other photo products quickly.

Now dotphoto’s NEW Project Manager enables you to copy a project, make small changes, and save it as a new project.

What kind of project changes can I make?
You can further personalize your projects with changes like these:

  • Notes inside your favorite cards
  • Personal dedication in a photo book
  • Different titles for books and calendars
  • Special days in a calendar
  • Different cover photos in any product
  • Change any photo, text or design in your original project

Create a Project

You can create a project for a complex product like a book or calendar by saving it. Tap the SAVE button at the top of the page.

Order a Project

Tap the ADD TO CART project in the upper right corner.

You can order more than one project at the same time or in the same cart.

Access Your Projects

Tap the down arrow next your account name and choose My Projects

Edit Your Project


Your projects are stored in chronological order. See the examples below. To edit a project, tap the pencil icon.

Copy a Project

To make a variation of the same product, copy the project by tapping the copy icon. Then make changes to the new project. You can add a different inscription to the front of a photo book, add different birthdays to calendars, or any number of other changes. You must SAVE each copy to save the next version.

Discard a Project

To discard a project, tap the trashcan iconNOTE: If you delete a project, it is gone forever. dotphoto cannot bring it back.

Examples of project variations

The first project in the examples below is the calendar at the bottom. The first project was copied and a new photo was added on January 2. The second project was copied and the cover image was changed, which became the third project.

Sell more on dotphoto

Pros, newspapers, and other photo sellers can sell more with a few key ideas.

Choose the large watermark when uploading your photos.
(Netizens have become accustomed to copying photos with small watermarks.)

How the PROOF watermark works on dotphoto

Set passwords so that guests find their albums fast.

Password levels can be confusing, but the main ideas are:

  1. Set a guest password at the album level to cover all non-protected albums.
  2. Set a unique password (different from the album-level password) for each album.

    When your guests use the album password or the album link that you send, they will see only their own album.

How to set account and album passwords

Set prices for the products that make sense for your audience

dotphoto enables you to set multiple price levels and groups. Portrait photographers may want to sell mainly photo packages; sports photographers may emphasize posters.

You can assign different price plans to different albums, but all sub-albums will have the same price plan.

TIP: The Account Plan is the base level plan. If you do not want individual photos to appear in the other plans, remove them from the Account Plan.

How to set up price plans in dotphoto

Make a dotphoto book on your phone

No app required:  just tap the “hamburger” in the upper right and choose Shop

Make cards, calendars, photo cutouts and even photobooks on your phone!

Access photos in your dotphoto account or directly from your phone. To choose photos, tap the Photos button at the bottom of the screen.

Autofill makes your book in moments!
While choosing photos, tap Autofill to automatically fill your book. You can still move and change photos, but Autofill makes book creation fast and easy.

Change the size and font by tapping  Text  on the bottom row.

How can I share dotphoto albums with QR codes?

How can I share dotphoto albums with QR codes?

  1. Tap on the dotphoto album you want to share.
  2. Tap on Share in the left menu and choose, and tap the green Copy button next to the Album. You have copied the link to share that album.
  3. Go to www.forqrcode.com and paste in the link. Copy the QR code, and paste it into your email, blog, newsletter or business card.

An illustrated procedure: How can I share dotphoto albums with QR codes?

  1. Tap on the dotphoto album you want to share.
  2. Tap on Share in the left menu and choose, and tap the green Copy button next to the Album. You have copied the link to share that album.

  3. Go to www.forqrcode.com and paste in the link. Copy the QR code, and paste it into your email, blog, newsletter or business card. Try scanning the QR code below: it will take you to the dotphoto album.

dotphoto News

Square 5×5 Instagram Prints

dotphoto speeds up servers for 5G
If you noticed that dotphoto is faster, it’s because we upgraded our servers. dotphoto works great on 5G phones!

Use 4×6/D (not 3×5) for Back-Printing Documentation
We recommend that customers who use back-printing for documentation use 4×6, 4xD or 5×7 prints. We can no longer guarantee back-printing on 3.5 x 5 prints.

More on Back-Printing

How to take photos from videos

Videos can be full of spontaneous, exciting photos.

When hikers hopped the fence above this Yosemite waterfall, I took a video. “Either you guys should come back now,” I said, “or I’ll be selling this to the news.” Fortunately, they were OK. Here are photos I snapped from the video. 

It’s easier than ever to get a good photo from your videos with free software that snaps photos from your videos.

How to use Free Software to Take Photos from Your Videos