How do you share your photos?

[BeckyW]

I've been using Shutterfly for all of my photo storing/sharing, but am not happy w/ their prints so I figured it was time to maybe use somewhere else. Suggestions on other sites? (Flickr? Dropbox? etc?)
Thanks!

[George]

Photobucket is easy to use and I love their iPhone app.

[BeckyW]

Oooh, you had me at "iPhone app".
THANKS!!

[keristars]

Yeah, I love Flickr for sorting and viewing, but unfortunately they do not have an app. Or, they do, but you'd have to be mad to use it. It will make you mad, too, for that matter.

I actually use a combination of Flickr & Photobucket, according to my needs. Photos that I want to treat nicely and have lots of people see, I put on Flickr. If it's something that I want for a message board or is just needed once, I'll put in on Photobucket. I don't have a smartphone to influence me, though.

[DoctorK]

i usually just share with twitter or facebook. for pix on here i use google's picasaweb.google.com. when i want prints i'll just upload the ones i want to sams club or walmart. i usually spend more time editing the ones i print vs. just posting a trip report.

[pfalcioni]

Keep in mind also that most of the time the sharing services like Flickr and Photobucket will upload smaller file sizes since most of those pics will be accessed/used on the internet where anything over 1280x800 is usually too big.

Photos you plan on printing should be the largest file size possible for your best image quality.

Pictures that look fine on your screen may not have a high enough resolution to look good as a print.

[BeckyW]

Thanks everyone! I guess I'm looking more for storing photos (as a backup to my external hard drive) and also somewhere I can link to when I want to show my mom/friends the most recent pics of my super-cute kiddos ;) I usually upload a bunch to FB, but not all the grand-moms are on there. And Shutterfly takes foooor-evvvvv-errrrr to upload to, although their albums are easy to share. And they're easy to order prints from (when you don't care if the colors aren't perfect). Does Photobucket have a printing option/service? (I wouldn't use it, but the grandparents might...)

For printing I've been using mpix.com (on a rec from a pro) and just uploading the ones I've specifically edited for printing - but they only store for a limited time and then your 'album' is deleted. I do love their prints though!

Thanks again for all your help!!

[pfalcioni]

Sometimes you are better off having one location (like Flickr or Photobucket) to host the photos you wish to share online with others. That way you can upload in that smaller format and it won't take millions of years to load a large batch of photos.

Photos for pictures - if you have a Flickr pro account you can upload in original size and then order prints through Snapfish.

Most online photo processing services do some sort of deal where your first print order is free, or close to it. I would recommend ordering the same batch of prints from Snapfish and SmugMug, these are the most highly rated in terms of print quality. Many pro photographers use Smugmug. The downside is the cost of their service is much higher than Flickr or any of the other sharing sites.

Here's a good review of most of the top photo processors:
http://digital-photo-printing-review.toptenreviews.com/

Online Archival storage is usually best dealt with using Carbonite or a similar service which backs up everything on your computer without you needing to do anything. The downside to this type of service is the cost, and if you have a slower internet connection it may not be feasible.

I personally have a separate hard drive with all my photos on it, and also back up everything about every 6 months on DVD's which then go into our safety deposit box. I wish I could use Carbonite, but our internet service is too slow.

I use Flickr to share photos and also to order prints through Snapfish. The tough thing is remembering what photos have been uploaded in original size, and which ones I've made smaller for a quicker upload! If you have faster internet service, then you can simply load everything to Flickr in original size and you won't have to worry about ordering low-quality prints by accident.

[keristars]

The tough thing is remembering what photos have been uploaded in original size, and which ones I've made smaller for a quicker upload! If you have faster internet service, then you can simply load everything to Flickr in original size and you won't have to worry about ordering low-quality prints by accident.

Tag them! Put in a batch tag and then you can just search your photostream for "hi-def" or "print quality". If you upload in two batches, it's even easier. (I don't know about you, but I keep the originals and "enhanced" photos in different folders on my computer until the prettied-up ones get stored elsewhere and the originals are archived.)

[pfalcioni]

Oooh, smart!

[DoctorK]

With picasaweb (Google) I just upload the original. If I want to post a lower quality/smaller size version for a trip report or whatever, it just gives me a different link (original, large, medium, thumbnail). I guess Google handles the resizing on its end, but I only have the original full quality pic saved.