Which photo site is best?

[cruiser620]

I am going to be posting some photos online, and wondered which photo site would be best to use -- webshots, photobucket, smugmug, etc. Which one did you choose and why? Thanks for your help!

[chipmaster]

I use shutterfly ( http://www.shutterfly.com/) , the one nice thing with them is unlimited storage, you do have to pay to get the photo's back of course, been using them since 2002 and have I think more then 160GB backed there.

 

If for simply sharing all the sites do the minimum.

 

I am going to be posting some photos online, and wondered which photo site would be best to use -- webshots, photobucket, smugmug, etc. Which one did you choose and why? Thanks for your help!

[SeattleCruiselover]

I personally prefer Smugmug, simply for the quality of their galleries, the large number of available templates, reasonable prices for prints, et cetera. Problem is, they used to have free accounts, but they no longer do. The lowest cost is now $39.95 for a standard account, but it includes unlimited storage, unlike flickr and the others.

 

For an example of what a smugmug site looks like, feel free to check out mine:

 

http://www.photographybylyon.com

 

or Rick Wong, a local photographry instructor:

 

http://riwong.smugmug.com/

 

And you can compare it to a flickr account by using my link near the bottom of my sig.

[c230k]

I use Picasa 3, great to share pictures, and you can adjust pics easily, check it out easy way to send a lot of pictures at one time to frends.

Tom:)

[wgraves]

My vote is for Flickr. They offer all the features I need for a reasonable price, and I haven't had a single issue in the five years I've used them.

[Tweedy]

I'm a smugmug fan. I find it simple to use and there are no pop-up ads or email spam.

[craigsmith]

In my opinion photobucket is best photo site.one another god site is Flickr.

[zackiedawg]

I've been very happy with Pbase for years.

 

I think you can see by the responses above that there are plenty of choices and plenty of good sites - so don't worry so much about which one! Just find the one with the best pricing that works for you, determine if you just want to use it as a posting photos gallery or a full storage/backup type site, then get your photos in there and start sharing!

[Cruiser Forever]

I use shutterfly ( http://www.shutterfly.com/) , the one nice thing with them is unlimited storage, you do have to pay to get the photo's back of course, been using them since 2002 and have I think more then 160GB backed there.

 

If for simply sharing all the sites do the minimum.

 

I too like Shutterfly and now you can create your own share site. It is free and you can post your photos and blog and share your journals too. You should give it a try. If you do create a share site I'd love to stop by. Just let us know the link.

[kmp70]

I use photoworks.com. Been using them since the 90's, used to have them develop my film/before digital, now all my photos are stored on their site. Makes it easy if I want to download or print them off. Prices are good too.

I have many of my old cruise pictures stored on there too.

[vrodkaraf]

I have used several photo sites over the years, and I use different sites for different purposes. I would suggest looking at my reasoning and let that help guide you based on what features you value the most:

 

* Flickr - my general photo site for travel and artistic photography. Flickr has an enormous user community, and if you post to their 'photo groups' you get feedback on your photos! (Which I love.) They have photo 'Sets' but no 'subsets', so you kind of get stuck with a simple storage arrangement. The only two things I don't like: 1) the white background does not show off photos and 2) Interface to hide photos that may be personal isn't all that easy to use. Which leads me to my next site:

 

* myPhotoAlbum - I use this site for personal use. Largely because they DON'T have a user community browsing my photos of my personal family pics. The albums are wonderful, and they support sub-albums! Easy to use and very simple to navigate. Plus, they have a very nice look with the photos displayed on a black background (looks best). They have other themes, but I always find themes distracting. The downside - you can't bulk upload from edit tools like Picasa. Which leads me to...

 

* Picasa - I only use the free Picasa storage (limit 1 Gb), but I only post reduced size jpegs for sharing photos of family and friends at events like the kids soccer games. So very easy to quickly edit these photos and upload them for quick sharing. The downside? Too expensive to buy unlimited storage, and no sub-albums! It ties in beautifully with gmail (if you use that for free email), but not a great photo archival site. Which leads me to:

 

* Shutterfly - This was my first site many years ago, I used it for printing XMas cards. It was great because it was an early industry leader, but I left it when some of the other sites came along. You may want to look at it to see if it has features you like. But it wasn't professional looking, and I haven't put photos up on it in years. Which leads me to...

 

* SmugMug - VERY highly rated (often considered #1 in photo site comparisons), very professional looking AND performing, with a black background, and sophisticated options (you can upgrade to a level where you can customize a website around your photos!). I recently joined this for our non-profit Foundation and it is excellent for this purpose. It has a very slick look and feel, but the setup can be a little hard to do as it gives so much control and so many options to the user. If you want quick and simple, I'd suggest going with one of the other sites. If you are good with computers, like to control how things are accessed and viewed, then SmugMug is for you!

 

Well, a long answer to a short question, but I hope this helps,

 

Regards,

 

VRod

[nickels549]

If you're looking for a free site with options, my vote is for Shutterfly. I can post pictures and videos for free and there's no limit (on the pictures, videos have a limit unless you pay extra). I also created a personal "share site" through them (also free) that I can invite my family to so they can see my pictures and videos and read my blog. The family members can also participate in the site as well. It's a great little feature for a free site. I left Kodak Gallery when they started charging just to hold my pictures. Good luck!:)

[vrodkaraf]

If you're looking for a free site with options, my vote is for Shutterfly. I can post pictures and videos for free and there's no limit (on the pictures, videos have a limit unless you pay extra). I also created a personal "share site" through them (also free) that I can invite my family to so they can see my pictures and videos and read my blog. The family members can also participate in the site as well. It's a great little feature for a free site. I left Kodak Gallery when they started charging just to hold my pictures. Good luck!:)

Wow, I hadn't realized that Shutterfly was FREE and UNLIMITED! Great tip to try. The one note - it violates their policy to link to a photo from outside of Shutterfly. But as far as I can tell that is the only negative. Thanks for the updated info...

[ciara]

This is more about storage - I would like to know if you store your photos on these sites can they use your photos without your permission

[bionicman97]

I use flickr and am very happy with them. Inexpensive, unlimited quanitity, easy interface for mass upload.

[NMCruzzin]

I'm a big fan of Shutterfly. Products and Sites! I've had mine over 2 years now and it's user friendly!

[Woobstr112G]

My vote is for Flickr. They offer all the features I need for a reasonable price, and I haven't had a single issue in the five years I've used them.

 

I also like flickr and have been using them for three years. Was a little miffed when they upgraded their site, but all is well now. Hope the OP doesn't choose webshots, really don't like it at all.....:):):)

 

Bob

[SeattleCruiselover]

This is more about storage - I would like to know if you store your photos on these sites can they use your photos without your permission

 

Not on Smugmug if you set right click protection and put a watermark on the picture, I've deliberately tried to steal my own picture, and was not able to do it, even when signed in to my account.

[vrodkaraf]

This is more about storage - I would like to know if you store your photos on these sites can they use your photos without your permission

 

When you sign up for ANY photo site, read the terms and conditions that pop up before you say "I agree". Those will list the copyrights. Most sites tell you that you are the owner and nobody (even them) can legally use your photo.

 

But as pointed out above, people can always steal your photos once posted. Smugmug's photo protection is a big help, but if someone really wants it, they'll just take a screen capture. I had to shift my mindset to one of "if people will go to those lengths to use (or point to) my photo, it's a compliment". Quick note -> I should point out most professionals will disagree with my last comment. It is stealing plain and simple, and I do acknowledge that. I am not a pro, so I have come to accept the fact this happens to my posted photos. But to support any pros reading this post - yes it is a bad thing.

 

For those who don't know, Flickr does an amazing job of showing you how many views every photo has, and how people got to your photo. I have a few photos that pop up in Google searches almost every single day. Pretty amazing thing to know you have a photo that highly ranked on Google.

 

Good luck,

 

VRod

[SeattleCruiselover]

When you sign up for ANY photo site, read the terms and conditions that pop up before you say "I agree". Those will list the copyrights. Most sites tell you that you are the owner and nobody (even them) can legally use your photo.

 

But as pointed out above, people can always steal your photos once posted. Smugmug's photo protection is a big help, but if someone really wants it, they'll just take a screen capture. I had to shift my mindset to one of "if people will go to those lengths to use (or point to) my photo, it's a compliment". Quick note -> I should point out most professionals will disagree with my last comment. It is stealing plain and simple, and I do acknowledge that. I am not a pro, so I have come to accept the fact this happens to my posted photos. But to support any pros reading this post - yes it is a bad thing.

 

For those who don't know, Flickr does an amazing job of showing you how many views every photo has, and how people got to your photo. I have a few photos that pop up in Google searches almost every single day. Pretty amazing thing to know you have a photo that highly ranked on Google.

 

Good luck,

 

VRod

 

Yes, it's a bad thing. I had to take legal action against someone who used one of my pictures for commercial purposes without paying my licensing fees. Don't think they will be doing that again soon.