Your Online
Photo Sharing opportunities
Share your
photos with family and friends the easy way.
Take
a look on your options to find the best service for online photo
sharing to create online photo albums and host your pictures for
easy access for everyone or for the selected few family members
and friends.
The
whole idea of photo sharing builds on the easy access to the Internet
we now enjoy from all over the World. Linked with the widespread
use of digital cameras it gives all of us this picture sharing possibility
from home or on vacation or from anywhere else.
Some
providers of online photo sharing give a free offer, at least for
some time or as an introduction, others ask for a low or higher
annual fee. If free there might be a catch you have to be aware
of. The companies offering online photo albums are mainly living
of the income generated from their customers ordering prints.
Be
careful to look after the possibility to be spammed when you deliver
your email address.
Here
is the best breed of online photo sharing opportunities and online
web albums I know of.
When I mention a fee, I round it up, i.e. not 29.95 USD, but 30
USD to make the comparison easier for a quick overview.
All
links open in new windows to facilitate your comparison of photo
sharing and web album options.
Smugmug online
photo sharing
Smugmug
was the choice of PC
Magazine (03.16.04 ): 'SmugMug ($29.95 per year) strikes the
best balance between ease of use and options, offering a nice selection
of built-in styles for displaying your photos and some slick photo-editing
abilities' ... 'creates very attractive photo galleries.'
Smugmug
describes themselves as: 'Photo sharing done right. Easily create
online photo albums. Share, store, organize and print.'
The
real amazing thing with the online photo albums Smugmug are offering
is that you can upload as many pictures as you want - thousands
- millions! This is even the case for the free
trial where you can upload unlimited numbers of photos
The
standard
account of Smugmug gives access to all the main features for
your online photo albums for less than 30 USD/year.
The
Power
user account of Smugmug gives in addition a number of features,
e.g. the possibility to ad video clips to your online photo albums,
all for less than 50 USD/Year.
See
an example of
online photo albums here from one user.
The
Pro account
of Smugmug for photographers (also catering for businesses
and popular people - and people who want to be popular) ads to the
previous features the possibility for photographers to sell their
online pictures to viewers of the online photo albums. They can
order professional prints and create an earning for the photographer.
The pro account gives a number of other important options, the most
important might be the possibility to use own domain name for the
professional online photo galleries. The cost is less than 100
USD/Year.
PBase to Host
and Share your photos.
PBase is a very
well established website for online photo galleries. The goal is
ambious ... 'The primary mission of PBase.com is to be the best
photo sharing and photo hosting web site.'
The pricing structure is linked to the total amount of online picture
files, but they can be devided in as many online photo galleries
you want:
200 Megabytes of photo storage for US$23 yearly.
or
600 Megabytes of photo storage for US$60 yearly.
Additional storage
can be added in increments of 200 MB.
See simple example
of online
photo gallery with orchids
You find PBase
online photo sharing options and web gallery here.
Other photo sharing options include
Flickr
claims to be 'the best way to store, search and share your photos.'
It is new, still in its Beta version at this moment, and offers
a variety of features besides the central sharing photos online
and providing web photo albums, also with photos from camera phones.
Arik Hesseldahl wrote for FORBES 'I tried a new service called Flickr,
created by a company called Ludicorp, based in Vancouver, Canada.
It's still in beta. After using it once, I became fascinated by
the potential of instantly publishing photos taken on a camera phone.
Flickr, which is free to use at its basic-level account, works with
major blogging services like Google's Blogger, Six Apart's Movable
Type and TypePad, LiveJournal among others.'
I
was only able to find the free
basic version to share photos online.
EachDay
photo sharing and web albums - 'a personal catalog of life -
a living, growing document' as they claim. Price: US$7.25
per month, 3 months free trial.
You
find an overview of professional options for online photo sharing
at this review of a comparison
of seven photo management software companies from PhotoSource.
Other photo management options
Picasa from
Google, a free photo organizing option
Picasa
offers free photo organizing software
and describes the service like: 'Everything you need to enjoy your
digital photos in a single software product:
- Auto-transfer photos from your digital camera.
- Organize and find pictures in seconds.
- Edit, print, and share photos with ease.
- Create slideshows, order prints and more!'
When
combined with 'Hello*
and 'Blogger' you will have the option of online photo hosting
for your blogs etc.
In
reality this service (free) will also function as an online photo
sharing opportunity, but with other features than the above mentioned
photo sharing tools.
More
online photo sharing and online photo gallery and web album options
They
write: Photo Sharing Gallery
Overview
Photostor allows you to create your own online photo gallery which
you can share with your friends and family. Unlike other services
photostor is a reliable solution for storing your images online.
All photostor galleries are setup like your own photography web
site.
Features
- Link directly to your photos from anywhere on the Internet.
- Create an unlimited number of galleries.
- Add your photos to your gallery in minutes.
- No advertising in your gallery.
- Create public or private galleries for your clients.
- Easy to customize designs.
- Built in copyright notice in each gallery.
Prices
Standard Photo Gallery - $20 Per Year
- 200 MB Of Storage
- 2 Gigs of transfer
Professional Photo Gallery - $40 Per Year
- 400 MB Of Storage
- 3.5 Gigs of transfer
PhotoTakers
Photostakers
are more for people especially engaged in photography as a hobby
or as semi professional photography.
They have a
big forum at
Phototakers Forum. And the overview
of the archive and run monthly Photo Contests.
PhotoSite
1.
Personal Web address
Make it easy for visitors to return to your site with your own,
custom URL.
2. Flexible organization
Create unlimited albums and photoblogs and show them off using one
of 24 styles.
3. Privacy controls
Control access by password-protecting or hiding private albums.
4. Camera phone-enabled
NEW! View albums and publish photos right from your camera phone.
Very
useful as family web album or as a more professional way to show
information in pictures.
Photosite
Free: Up to 150 pictures: Free
PhotoSite
Plus: up to 1000 pictures: $ 40 /Year
PhotoSite
Deluxe: Unlimited no of pictures in the webalbums and with own domain
name: $ 70 /Year
You
find Photosite
online photo albums here
Professional
online photo portfolio services
Photoportfolios.net
Photo
Portfolios. net offers up to 40 pictures displayed in a nice
photo gallery with links back to your other website for 39 USD per
year. All in all an attractive service.
Please
excuse me if any features or prices have been changed. 'Photo
Soren'
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