Free and Easy Photo Sharing ? Where?

[gawguy]

I'm looking for a website that does easy photo sharing. I want to be able to paste a link into an email, have the receiver click the link which then opens a folder of my photos. I have seen these used for selling things, but I'm not sure if they were free or what the sites were.

 

So, what can you recommend?

 

Thanks,

Gaw Guy

[junglesoup]

This one seems to be quite popular,

 

Flickr.com

 

I ve found lots of good pics on here. Its free also as far as I know.

[gawguy]

Flikr want you to set up a group in order share photos. People have to log onto the group site I think. Tell me if I'm wrong.

 

I don't want to do that. I want to post a link...like right here...and if you click it you see my photos. I thought there were such sites out there.

 

GG

[ultras67]

I use Photobucket.

 

http://photobucket.com/

 

[Orangutan]

http://www.shutterfly.com/

 

-O

[kamui]

There just had been a review of photo sharing site in the N.Y.Times:

 

Photo Sharing Even the Folks Can Handle

Published: June 5, 2007

 

RECEPTIVENESS to new technologies often seems related to age. For example, more 13-year-olds than 63-year-olds understand phrases like â??Waz ^?â? and â??N2MH.â? (In case youâ??re over 13, those expressions are cellphonese for, â??Whatâ??s up?â? and â??Not too much here.â?Â)

 

Ellen Weinstein

 

Comparing the Photo-Sharing Sites (June 5, 2007)

 

So it was with pride that I watched my parents â??getâ? the magic of digital photography after our family reunion last summer. On the final night, I treated them to a laptop slide show of our week together. They dug it.

 

So much, in fact, that my mom asked if I could make her some prints.

 

I smiled confidently. Here, I thought, was an opportunity to lead my folks even further into the modern realm. The Web is crawling with sites that are designed for sharing photos and ordering prints of them.

 

I posted mine on Flickr.com, the biggest of them all. I told Mom to peruse the pictures and click Order Prints for each one she wanted on paper.

 

Unfortunately, Flickr was the wrong tool for that job. The terminology is confusing â?? quick, whatâ??s the difference between a Photo Group, a Photo Set and a Photo Stream? Worse, it takes seven mouse clicks, two pop-up menus and two dialog boxes to order one print of one photo. My mom wound up spending hours on what should have been a 10-minute job.

 

A lot of families are gathering at this time of year â?? for graduations, picnics and barbecues. Maybe, by seeking a better photo-sharing site, I could spare other families the exasperation I put my mom through.

 

My dream photo site would be free; would impose no limits on photo size or quantity; would let you order a print with just one click; and would let you pick up the prints at a local drugstore instead of waiting for the mail.

 

(Some of these sites require you to upload one picture at a time, which is like mowing your lawn with toenail clippers. Therefore, my original wish list also included, â??Must offer a mass-uploading program.â? But then Zach, my 16-year-old intern, told me that â??everyoneâ? just uses PictureSync, a free, elegant, effortless program that can batch-upload photos to any sharing service. Nice. Itâ??s at picturesync.net.)

 

After examining eight free photo-sharing sites, I discovered that each specializes in a different area. In other words, Flickrâ??s clumsiness as a peruse-then-print store wasnâ??t necessarily its fault; it was mine, for misunderstanding its talents.

 

Hereâ??s a rundown.

 

FLICKR.COM With 525 million photos posted so far, Flickr may be the largest photo site. But its strengths are social interaction and personal expression, like a visual blog. For example, 75 percent of Flickr photos have been made available for public browsing, commenting, downloading and subscribing. (On many rival sites, you couldnâ??t make your photos public if you wanted to.)

 

Flickrâ??s Groups concept lets complete strangers collaborate on theme-related collections. There are 300,000 such groups on Flickr: collections of Nikon photos, of macro (superclose-up) photos, and so on. (For a really good time, click the Groups tab and search for â??stick figures in peril.â?Â)

SHUTTERFLY.COM This service is free, all right, and it offers unlimited storage. The slide shows are attractive, complete with crossfades and speed control. You can retouch photos, crop them, add borders and otherwise get them ready for ordering prints. As on Flickr, other members can submit their own photos to themed â??collectionsâ? that you establish.

 

And, lordy, does this site make ordering prints easy. In fact, selling prints â?? and calendars, photo books, jewelry, greeting cards and so on â?? is Shutterflyâ??s real mission; sharing photos online seems to be only an afterthought.

 

For example, you can view the thumbnails of only 12 photos at a time, no matter how big the browser window. Similarly, Shutterfly imposes a maximum photo-viewing size, and itâ??s not so big.

 

Finally, the public canâ??t view your photos â?? only people you invite can. That could be good or bad, depending on your point of view.

WEBSHOTS.COM This site is a hybrid of Flickr (public photos, comments, search box); Shutterfly (order prints, luggage tags, magnets, books); and Times Square (the free account is cluttered with ads). Webshots also caps your free storage at 1,000 photos, a limit that goes up by 100 for each month that youâ??re a member. As on most of the services here, some limitations go away if you upgrade your account for $25 a year.

 

Webshotsâ?? specialty is sharing photos online; handy buttons let you send a photo by e-mail, link to it on your Web site, share it on Facebook.com and so on. The slide shows are awesome, complete with subtle zooming and panning â?? and you can link to or e-mail the slide shows, too.

 

Unfortunately, you canâ??t just flag each photo for printing as it goes by. You must enter a special print-ordering mode, several pages deep, and choose from tiny thumbnails.

 

KODAKGALLERY.COM Kodak Gallery (formerly Ofoto.com) follows the Shutterfly model. It lays the gift-ordering features on thick, and is restrictive about photo sharing; for example, you canâ??t share with the public.

 

On the other hand, you can pick up your prints an hour after ordering them at a CVS drugstore (although you pay 23 cents each instead of Kodakâ??s 15). Flickr, Shutterfly and Snapfish also offer local pickup â?? at Target, for example.

 

Over all, both Shutterfly and KodakGallery are terrific.

PHOTOBUCKET.COM Photobucket stands out because it accommodates videos and Flash animations, not just photos. And you can embed your photos onto your pages at MySpace, Blogger, Friendster, Facebook and so on, which makes Photobucket even more Web-wired than Webshots.

 

Cheapskates like me, however, will be put off by the crushing limits of the free account. You canâ??t post any photo larger than 1,024-by-768 pixels (smaller than 1 megapixel); thereâ??s a one-gigabyte storage ceiling; and no slide show can contain more than 10 pictures. You can do much better.

 

PICASA WEB ALBUMS (photos.google.com) Who knew that Google has its own photo-sharing site? (Then again, what kind of site doesnâ??t Google offer these days?)

 

Picasa Web Albums is ad-free, simple to use and loaded with powerful features. For example, you can upload your photos to it directly from iPhoto (on the Mac) or Picasa (on Windows). And one click generates the necessary HTML codes to embed a photo or an entire slide show into your own Web site â?? sweet.

 

Youâ??re offered three thumbnail sizes when working with your albums. You can reorder the photos in an album or slide show just by dragging them. Slide shows are stunning and nearly full screen. You can order a print with one click; you can download the full-resolution originals; and both public sharing and commenting are available.

 

The only weirdness is that Google hands off printing to either Shutterfly or something called PhotoWorks (your choice). Thatâ??s the only part of this service that doesnâ??t feel utterly seamless.

 

YAHOO PHOTOS (photos.yahoo.com) Yes! Yes! This oneâ??s free, itâ??s unlimited, itâ??s got both public and private photo sharing, you can edit the pictures, and your audience can rate, tag or add comments to your photos. Slide shows are big and clear, and â?? yes! â?? thereâ??s a one-click Order Print button.

 

Unfortunately, Yahoo Photos is about to shut down. Having bought Flickr, Yahooâ??s executives figured thereâ??s no sense in running rival sites.

 

No! No!

 

SNAPFISH.COM Now weâ??re talking. One click begins a slide show, complete with speed slider, background-color control and a relatively huge photo size. Moms, dads and grads can flag the shots worth printing with a single click.

 

All the usual goodies are here: electronic sharing with family (although not with the public); editing and cropping tools; and a catalog of photo prints, posters, mugs and decks of cards. All of it is designed simply and clearly, making it impossible to get lost.

 

There are paid subscription options â?? to upload videos, for example â?? but the free account is everything a family shutterbug could desire. Storage is unlimited if you order something once a year.

 

The bottom line. Next time my mother wants to review my photos on the screen and order prints with one click, Iâ??ll use Snapfish or Kodak Gallery. And next time I just want my friends to be able to see and grab copies of my pictures online, Iâ??ll use Picasa Web Albums.

 

All three of these services are free, devoid of advertising, quick and technologically foolproof â?? no matter how old you are.

 

N.Y. Times link (need to register (free))

[OCgringo]

do you want this for a web link to the world or to just friends ?

 

sex pics or general pics ?

 

most free sites do not allow sex pics ,

 

most also have a limit how many times they can be seen to stop you using them on ebay etc.

 

also is it OK to have advertising next to the pic ? Most of the free ones have ads on the page so you order prints etc, which helps pay the site costs...

 

OC

[MooNoi]

I use Fotki

 

It costs $30 USD per year, but I find it great, easy to use and upload pics.

 

Also, I can have naughty pics on there, (which I can "hide"), and, as you want to do, I can provide people with a URL to go to a certain pic.

 

[kamui]

Actually I use Flickr.com.

I started using it a few years ago and now I have Pro account (24.95 US$ a year).

 

Advantages:

- Nice ways of grouping/presenting the works

- very strong community (you can open or join groups to share images with other Flickr users).

If you you are an ambitious photographer you can receive thousands of clicks.

- Geotagging with Google Maps/Earth. For example my Cambodia photos are geotagged (the public ones that is, the others are set to 'private' :hubba:)

- easy to hotlink to other pages (I use a second Flickr account for some photos for my blog)

 

Disadvantages:

- for more than 200 photos in photo streams and/or 100 MB upload per month, e.g., you'll need a Pro account.

- The homepage cannot be changed very much

- I think they have certain rules about publishing nude/pornographic photos

[kamui]

PS: Flickr just caused an uproar in Germany since German members could not see even "moderate" nude photographs anymore.

Many users switched from Flickr to Ipernity where can share photos, videos and music and where you can set up multimedia blogs as well (but I don't know about the qualitiy of this service).