A better feed, dark mode & achievement badges

Since our last update we’ve kept polishing the website. This round brings a smoother feed, a proper dark mode and a few more improvements that make PortraitMode nicer to use every day.

A smoother photo feed

We rebuilt the way photos are laid out in the feed. It works better than before, doesn’t break the layout anymore while photos are loading, and should feel a lot smoother when you scroll. Photos now fade in gently as they load, and they look sharper on high-resolution screens like newer phones and laptops.

Show off your achievements

If one of your photos was featured, picked as Photo of the Day or Photo of the Month, or won a competition, you can now show it off on your own website.

Go to Edit Profile and look for Share your achievements. Pick a style (dark or light, plus blue for Photo of the Month and competition winners), copy the code and paste it into your site. The badge links straight to your PortraitMode profile.

Also new: achievements now show up on your PortraitMode profile.

Dark mode, for real this time

Dark mode used to be an experimental feature on the website. Some pages looked good, others not so much. We’ve now gone through the whole site and fixed it properly, so everything looks right in the dark: your feed, profiles, messages and competitions.

You can choose light, dark, or let PortraitMode follow your device’s setting. You’ll find the option in Edit Profile.

Position your profile header

Last time we introduced profile header images. Now you can also decide which part of the photo shows. After picking your header photo, just drag it up or down until the framing feels right, then hit Save.

Boosts: more feedback, fair for everyone

Feedback on boosted photos is now open to everyone. Every member can see feedback requests and help fellow photographers with their thoughts and critique. Before, this was limited to a small group.

To keep things fair and the feed varied, boosts are now limited to one photo per day. If you’ve already used today’s boost, PortraitMode will tell you when you can boost again. This isn’t set in stone, and we may adjust it as we go.

Blocking works again

We fixed an issue where blocking another member didn’t fully work. When you block someone, their photos and posts no longer show up in your feeds, in search, or in member listings.

As always, thank you for being part of PortraitMode. Let us know in the comments what you’d like to see next.

Happy shooting!
David