Picture Sharing Site Help, (please).

[BIGEarl]

Help!!! (please)

I have a new camera, know how to turn it on, and have figured out which end to look through. This is real progress! Fortunately, it is a relatively smart point-and-shoot which takes a great deal of the decision making out of my hands. If I get a bad picture it’s because the camera screwed up.

I am interested in establishing an account on a photo sharing site and would like some guidance from you experts out there. There are multiple sites being used to post hiking pictures for sharing. Since I have zero experience in this area could I get some help in making a selection decision? Any and all suggestions would be greatly appreciated – good and bad. I have the sense that changing from one site to another is at best an unpleasant process. Making an educated choice on the initial selection may help in doing this only once.

Which are the most popular sites? What are the main differences between these sites? Is one site better suited than the others? Cost involved? What did I miss?

Thanks for the help!

Earl

 

[poison ivy]

My new favorite is phanfare (you can check out my albums at http://ivy.phanfare.com

It's a pay site ($54 per year or $300 for a lifetime membership.) It was really difficult for me to decide to pay for a photo site but this one is really worth it. It is super easy to use and I think the slideshows come out really nice it's ad-free and they are very responsive if you have a question. You can also upload videos, which is a plus too. The other selling feature for me is as long as you are member for a year... if you decide to leave, they will send you a CD of all your photos.

If you want a free site, lots of people use Webshots (or you can upgrade to a pay membership there.) I personally dislike all of the ads on Webshots and left there when they started attaching advertisements to the end of my photo albums to advertise a new HBO show. I think if you pay for webshots, there aren't as many ads.

Those are the two sites I have a lot of experience with... I tested out a few others before switching to phanfare but I'll leave it to others who may have used them longer to post about them.

- Ivy

 

[pudgy_groundhog]

Ivy, I was just looking at your website and I really like the layout of phanfare.

I only have experience with pbase, which is what we use (and we pay), and we've been happy with it. I have some friends that like smugmug, but I haven't used it so can't comment on it.

I think one of the first things you have to decide is whether you want to pay or not. That will help narrow down your choices.

 

[onestep]

Help!!! (please)

I have a new camera, know how to turn it on, and have figured out which end to look through. <snip>

I am interested in establishing an account on a photo sharing site and would like some guidance from you

Earl

Earl,

If you’re new to Digital Photography you’ll probably want a better way to organize your photos than what’s offered as standard equipment on most PC’s (if your running a Mac, ignore me!) AND you’ll also want a way to share your photos online. The easiest way I’ve found to do both is with Google’s Picasa Photo Organizer.

“Picasa is a free software download from Google that helps you:
• Locate and organize all the photos on your computer.
• Edit and add effects to your photos with a few simple clicks.
• Share your photos with others through email, prints, and on the web: it’s fast, easy and free.”

You can check out my online Picasa Web Album here.

(usual unnecessary disclaimer… I receive no personal gain from Google, I just use their stuff)

Onestep

 

[pudgy_groundhog]

Onestep, is there also a Picasa2? We are looking to revamp our storage methods and I like the idea of being able to tag photos. Some other people have recommended Picasa (can't remember if there is a 2 out?), but I haven't downloaded it yet. It functions more as a database, rather than a 'file cabinet'? We don't need something for online display (we already have a lot of pics on pbase), but I do want something for managing the photos on our computer.

 

[onestep]

Onestep, is there also a Picasa2?

Probably!

I've been using Picasa since before Google acquired them. I just keep updating to the latest version as it becomes available.
The nice thing about "Picasa" & "Picasa Web Album" is they are seperate services that work real well together. If you only need the Photo Organizer you don't need to set up a "Web Album" account, and vice versa.

Onestep

 

[keepin' on]

there is a Picasa2. I downloaded it last night and love it already......

 

[pudgy_groundhog]

Thanks guys! I'm definitely going to check it out.

 

[Tuco]

I use Smugmug. I like(d) it a lot, like the layout and way it organizes albums, and the ability to add a summary for the photo album. I will say that last night I had trouble loading pictures and their response was that they are having trouble with compatibility issues with IE7, and I should try Firefox. Wasn’t the exact answer I was looking for so we’ll see how this works out in the long run.

 

[Amicus]

Help!!! (please)
I have a new camera, know how to turn it on, and have figured out which end to look through.
Earl

Me too, thanks to the generosity of my wife and daughter, who surprised me (I didn't have a list and hadn't dropped any hints) with my first camera ever for Christmas - a point-and-shoot digital that sounds like yours.

I've already taken mine out for a hike, last Thursday in the Daks (also a first for me). Mainly because I'd really liked the look and sound of recent phanfare slideshows by Ivy, SteveHiker and a few others, I decided to check that site out, although I knew even less about posting photos on-line than about taking them. In brief, it really is remarkably easy to use. I had my own slideshow up in about an hour, and was even able to make a few of my pix a little less rotten by, e.g., removing a part of my finger draped over the shutter. It's also free, for another 25 days, since they have a 30-day free trial. (I don't know yet which way I'll jump, when I reach the deadline.)

As for my slideshow, like Dr. Johnson's dog walking on his hind legs, the wonder is not that I did it badly, but that I did it at all.

 

[spongebob]

Earl,

A little off topic, but don't forget to make two copies of your pictures/videos/data using a whatever you have like a DVD drive(4.7 GB or bigger) or CD(650MB or bigger) as backup. And then storing a one disc at work and say one at home. I'm not gonna get into the +, -, or alphabet soup of each.(and you probably know them.) Or the shelf life of the discs, as you can update your older discs for pennies on a new disc yearly.

A hard drive crashing and to recover is much more expensive. Or having just one backup disc can get a scratch etc....

Some photo websites go away too or get bought up, and URLs change making links go dead.

Not that any of the above things have happened to me.......Well since yesterday.

Just try out all the free sites and some of the pay sites trial period, and see what works for your needs.

 

[kmorgan]

I was asked by some friends to use one of the photo sharing sites so they could access photos from our hikes easier. I'm using Snapfish (www.snapfish.com) and that site is free and seems to work well.

Kevin

 

[BIGEarl]

Thanks to everybody for your help. I really appreciate the information. Now it is my job to go try some out to see which is best for me.

I prefer to keep the cost low but the advertisements may be more annoying than they're worth.

We'll see.


Earl

 

[flypn]

bang for the buck

if its best bang for your buck that you're looking for, I'd highly recomend flickr.com, its 25$ for a 1-year subscription, which gives you a 2gig/month upload limit. I've used a few others, but this has been the best by far, with a good user interface, awesome & interesting community, tagging, and easy uploading. cheers & happy hunting

Peter

ps, my site is: flickr.com/photos/sanguine_crackpot/ feel free to peruse

 

[LivesToHike]

2nd vote on flickr.com

I'll second the emotion on Flickr.com. I've had an account with them for over a year and had no problems. It's been an thoroughly enjoyable ride. You can try them for free before deciding to pay $25/year. The free accounts do post some ads and limit one to 20MB of uploads per month.

As far as photo editors, I have not tried many. Adobe's PhotoShop is nice, but very pricey. I like both Picasa2 (to echo other's remarks) and I like Corel's Paint Shop Pro XI for occasional special edits. For instance: joining two photos together or better control over sharpening, etc for badly exposed-photo rescue attempts. I got a copy for $30 at Best Buy afew months ago.

Good luck, Earl with whatever you decide to do. It's great fun.

--LTH

PS I'm on www.flickr.com/photos/hikesnh Look for the hiking photo folders on stage right.

 

[arghman]

3rd for flickr

Ditto. It has a wide spectrum of use, from easy-I-don't-care-how-it-works-just-share-my-photos, to if you want to get really in depth they have a programmer's API.

They have a free trial, I think your pictures disappear after a few months, but it's pretty easy to check out.

I've used photobucket (too dumbed-down) and pbase, all 3 are about the same cost = roughly the same as a magazine subscription. I don't like free sites because of the ads / slowness.

 

[bubba]

I just noticed the Woody48 posted some pix and used Photosite. I went over there and was impressed - as I was with the photo album's presentation. Easy to navigate when looking and easy to upload, script, etc.

I don't have time to look for Dave's album thread, but it was in a recent Trip Report forum, stared by McRat. The presentation is very sweet!!

PhotoSite