Take a photo directly

You don’t have to open your camera app first, take a photo and then hunt for it. With Take Photo you launch your camera straight from the upload dialog, and the finished picture lands right in your upload review view.

Photogala has no camera mode of its own

This is the most important point on this page: Take Photo is not a built-in camera. Photogala has no viewfinder, no shutter button and no flash toggle. The button merely hands the request to your device – on a phone your system camera opens, on a computer the file picker.

Everything else follows from that:

• Your operating system decides about permissions. Camera access is governed by your device or your camera app, not by Photogala. You won’t see the classic website camera prompt on this path.
• Capturing, confirming and discarding happen entirely inside your device’s camera app.
• On some devices the photo picker opens instead. Some phones and browsers implement the camera request differently. If so, pick your camera app in that dialog, or shoot normally first and use Upload Images.

That’s why we cover phone and computer separately below.

How to reach Take Photo

The button lives in the upload dialog you open from the gallery.

1. Open the gallery and tap the Upload button.

   Phone

   

   Computer

   

   The Upload button in the gallery opens the dialog.

2. In the source dialog (“Share Your Photos”) you’ll see two buttons side by side: Upload Images and Take Photo. Tap Take Photo (camera icon).

   Phone

   

   Computer

   

   The Get Started dialog, opened by the upload button in the gallery: ① Upload Images opens your device’s file picker – several files at once are fine, ② Take Photo opens the camera straight away, ③ Solve a Photo Task only appears when photo tasks are switched on for the event and tasks exist; if one of them has a reference image, a card with that image and the task name takes the place of the button below. If you may not upload – because the event has ended or expired, for instance – the dialog shows a notice instead.

   Phone

   

   Computer

   

   Take Photo opens your device camera.

On a phone the quickest way to the upload button is the bottom navigation bar.

The way to the camera runs through the bottom bar: ① Gallery, ② Tasks, ③ the round button in the middle opens the upload, ④ Albums, ⑤ Leaderboard. Switched-off areas are missing from the bar – without photo tasks, for instance, the remaining entries close the gap.

Tip

If exactly one photo task is active as a filter, the dialog opens directly on that task – the Take Photo button is there too, and your photo is assigned to that task right away. More on this under Solve photo tasks.

Each camera run produces exactly ONE photo

The camera path allows no multi-select. One tap on Take Photo always delivers exactly one picture – unlike Upload Images, where you can select several files at once.

If you want several photos, you walk the path again for every photo:

1. Take the first photo via Take Photo and confirm it in the camera app. You land in the review view.

2. There, tap the + in the thumbnail strip. A small menu appears with Upload Images and Take Photo.

3. Choose Take Photo again – the camera opens once more, again for exactly one picture.

4. Repeat steps 2 and 3 until all photos are in the selection. Only then press Start Upload.

That way you collect as many camera shots as you like in one upload batch, without leaving the dialog in between.

Example

Say you want three shots of the table decorations: Upload ▸ Take Photo, confirm picture 1 in the camera – you land in the review view. There + ▸ Take Photo for picture 2, and once more for picture 3. Three thumbnails are now in the strip; you pick the album and press Start Upload once. The result is one upload batch with three photos instead of three separate ones.

On a phone or tablet

This is the real use case.

1. Open the gallery and tap Upload → Take Photo.

2. The first time, your operating system or camera app may ask for camera permission. Tap Allow.

3. Take the photo in your system camera. The rear camera is preselected. Switch to the front/selfie camera using the toggle inside the camera app itself.

4. Confirm the photo in the camera app (checkmark/OK) – or discard it (X) and reshoot if it’s blurry. This retake step belongs to your device’s camera app.

5. After you confirm, Photogala jumps automatically to the review view. There you can add a caption, pick albums, take more photos or delete the shot.

   Phone

   

   Computer

   

   This is where your camera shot lands: the large preview on top, below it the thumbnail strip with the + for another photo. Only the highlighted Start Upload button sends everything off – until then you can caption, pick albums or delete the shot again.

6. Tap Start Upload. Progress is shown, and then your photo appears in the gallery.

On a computer or laptop

On desktop there’s no viewfinder. Most browsers ignore the camera request there, so Take Photo opens the same file picker as Upload Images.

• On a computer, just choose Upload Images. Guide: Upload photos.
• If you want a genuine webcam shot, take it with an external camera or photo app and then upload the file via Upload Images.

Retake and delete

Photogala has no dedicated “retake” screen – retaking works in two ways:

• Before confirming – discard and reshoot right in your device’s system camera. That’s normal camera operation.
• After confirming – in the review view, delete the shot with the trash button, then take a new one via the + → Take Photo. That’s the in-app “retake”.

Note

If you accidentally pick the same file twice, Photogala detects it and skips the copy (notice “Duplicate Files Detected”). On top of that the server checks the file content during upload – so even a renamed copy never ends up in the gallery twice.

Photo or video?

• Take Photo accepts photos and motion pictures (Live/Motion photos, animated GIFs). This is intentionally broad – this path is in fact the only way animated GIFs get into an upload from a phone, because the image picker deliberately leaves them out.
• You can only capture video here if the host allowed videos for the event. If they didn’t, only a photo is possible.
• Storage, photo and uploader limits apply at the upload step. Details under Upload photos.

Camera photos and the map

Photos you capture this way in the browser generally carry no location data. But the map places photos precisely by that GPS data – which is why browser camera shots normally do not appear there. That is not a bug and cannot be changed inside the app. How the map handles this is covered under Photo map.

After uploading

If all goes well, Photogala shows a dedicated completion screen: your freshly taken photo large, a rotating line above it and “1 photo in your gallery” below. If the photo belonged to a photo task, it also gets a checkmark and a chip with the task name; if further open tasks remain, Next photo idea takes you straight to the next one.

Caution

If the window was minimized when the upload finished, it closes by itself and the completion screen never appears. Your photo is uploaded regardless.

After that the picture shows up briefly in the Media Processing section above the gallery before appearing in the grid as usual. All the details: Upload photos.

Don’t see a Take Photo button?

It’s not because of a dedicated camera switch – there isn’t one. The button always appears when you are allowed to upload at all. It’s missing when:

• guest uploads are disabled → “No Upload Permission”,
• the event has ended or expired → “Event Has Ended” or “Event Has Expired”,
• you’ve been banned from uploading → “Upload Banned”; in that case reach out to a moderator.

Note

Where the host enables guest uploads. Not in the feature settings, but under privacy and moderation: profile menu at the top right → management → Settings → Privacy and Safety Settings section → User Permissions. Open Sharing has to be selected there (“Users can add photos from gallery”). If the setting is on View Only Gallery, only administrators may upload – not even with an invitation code. Guide: Privacy and moderation.

If something’s off

• On a computer, only the file picker opens, no camera – that’s normal, the camera request is ignored on desktop. Take the photo with a camera app and use Upload Images.
• On a phone, the photo library opens instead of the camera – pick your camera app in that dialog, or shoot first and use Upload Images.
• Camera permission denied by accident – re-enable it in your device’s system settings (device level, not just website permission).
• Nothing happens after the photo, or a file won’t add – wait a moment; the app prepares the files automatically (overlay “Preparing files…”). If you get “Some Files Could Not Be Added”, take the photo again.
• Photo is blurry – delete it in the review view via the trash button and reshoot.
• Selection gone after a page change – if you changed the page before pressing Start Upload, the dialog is closed and the selection discarded. Take the photo again and start the upload before navigating on.

Related topics

• Upload photos – the main alternative and the way to go on a computer.
• Solve photo tasks – take a photo directly for a task.
• Photo map · Privacy and moderation