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Digital Studio July 2003 • Vol.9 Issue 7 |
 Online Photo-Sharing Services Present Your Photos To A Wider Audience | ||
 Photos are the type of mementos people should share. Fortunately, the development of Web-based services designed specifically for this purpose makes it easier than ever to show off your snapshots to anyone, anywhere.  How Web-Based Photo Sharing Works. You have all sorts of options for sharing your digital photos online. You can attach them to email messages, for instance, or embed them on your family Web site. But perhaps the best option is to sign up with an online photo-sharing service. Online photo-sharing services help you present your digital photos to a scattered audience. They do so by providing a virtual photo album, which is essentially just a pocket of storage space on a Web server, where you can post your digital image files. The obvious way of getting your images to the album is by using the upload utility provided by a photo-sharing service to transmit the files across the Internet to the service's Web server. Many services also let you submit rolls of undeveloped film, which they will process (for a fee) and then post directly to the album for you. After your images appear in an online album, you can use the available image-editing tools to tweak the photos. Many services let you remove red-eye, for instance, and most let you add captions to the images. While you're at it, you should take advantage of the oft-included file management tools to arrange the photos in your album. In most cases, the photos that you post with an online photo-sharing service are not available for just anyone to view. Reputable services employ some sort of security system to ensure that the only people who see your personal pictures are those who are supposed to see them. The most common security measures include direct email invitations and private Web sites, as well as the use of passwords and authorization lists. Many sites also give you the opportunity to designate your photo albums as publicly accessible in the event that you want the world to see your handiwork. Of course, online photo-sharing services offer more than just the opportunity to share photos. One way these services make money is by selling prints of your photos, regardless of whether you submitted the photos in digital format or on film. You can have the photos printed in various sizes and formats, including as greeting cards and stickers. The services also will burn your image files to CDs for archival storage. The services then mail prints and CDs to you. The fees that online photo-sharing services charge for processing film, printing photos, and burning CDs tend to be quite competitive, especially when compared to what you might pay at your local drug store. You can expect to spend 39 to 49 cents for a standard 4- x 6-inch color print and $3.29 to $3.99 for an 8- x10-inch color print. You may be able to wrangle lower fees if you buy your prints in bulk or pay for them in advance. Shipping and handling usually costs a couple of bucks extra, but prices vary depending on how soon you want to receive your products. Lots Of Options. There's no shortage of online photo-sharing services, that's for sure. A quick search of the Web will reveal dozens of sites where you can post your digital images for others to view. Some exist as part of a Web portal; companies that manufacture photography equipment or imaging software host others. And, of course, there are a large number of online photo-sharing services that operate as independent, for-profit enterprises. The best way to find a service that adequately meets your needs is by giving several of them a try. Select a service that offers a comfortable interface, supports the features you want, and provides a convenient method of sharing photos with your friends and family. It's also a good idea to stick with a widely recognized brand, such as those we mention in this article. Web-based companies tend to come and go rather quickly, and you don't want your photo collection to become part of the same type of disappearing act.
Ofoto (http://www.ofoto.com). It only makes sense that a company such as Kodak would invest a little money in an online photo-sharing service. After all, the more opportunities consumers have to share their pictures with others, the more pictures they're going to take. And that leads to the sale of more cameras and more camera accessories. Ofoto, a wholly owned subsidiary of Kodak, does its best to give consumers plenty of options for sharing their pictures. The service provides free unlimited online storage for your photos, as well as a variety of image-editing tools and photo-printing options (click the Pricing link at the bottom of the home page for more details). You then can share your photos by sending them in an email message or having color prints delivered directly to family and friends. Ofoto doesn't stop with digital images, either. In addition to accommodating all of your digital snapshots, the service will process your undeveloped film (you can send it to them using the company's free film mailers) and post the pictures online for $3.95 per roll. Picturetrail (http://www.picturetrail.com). Picturetrail stands out among online photo-sharing services not only because of its more than 2 million visitors each month, but also because of the fact that it's primarily a fee-based service. Picturetrail offers a free option, however, that lets you post a maximum of 36 photos or 20MB worth of image files to an online ad-driven photo album. In contrast, subscribers who pay $19.95 annually for the premium service get 50MB of storage space for holding a maximum of 500 images. More than that, subscribers also can link their photos to online auctions for the purpose of showing off the goods they want to sell. But perhaps the best reason for using Picturetrail is its low print price of 29 cents for each 4- x 6-inch print.
Shutterfly (http://www.shutterfly.com). As an all-inclusive, online photo-sharing service, Shutterfly can handle all of your digital and film photography needs. Film processing starts at $3.99 and 4- x 6-inch prints sell for 49 cents each (volume and prepaid discounts are also available). A nifty alternative to ordering a pile of prints is to have Shutterfly create a Snapbook, which is like a miniature scrapbook, of your favorite photos. The books are available in 4- x 6-inch and 5- x 7-inch sizes, have a spiral binding and protective cover, hold as many as 50 captioned prints, and sell for as little as $6.99 each. Another option is to order your prints preframed so that you can send them as gifts to distant relatives and friends. Webshots (http://www.webshots.com). Webshots is a freeware utility that lets you use your digital photos as your computer's screen saver and wallpaper. Better yet, it lets you build an online photo album so that your family and friends can use your photos as the screen savers and wallpapers on their computers, too. The site's free service lets you post as many as 240 photos online. The premium Webshots Unlimited service, which you can join for prices starting at $19.98 for six months, gives you the ability to post 3,000 photos online. With either service, you can order prints of your images. You also get full access to the Webshots Gallery, which is a collection of thousands of photos taken by professional photographers. You can use these photos on your PC as screen savers or wallpapers, but you cannot print them. ImageStation (http://www.imagestation.com). Sony created ImageStation as an online resource for its imaging customers, but you don't have to own a Sony product to take advantage of this resource. The service lets you build endless photo albums for showing off snapshots and digital video clips. You can set up each album with varying degrees of accessibility, including password-protected private accounts and public albums that anyone can add pictures to. Sony lets you order prints of the images in your photo album for as little as 39 cents per photo. In addition, you can add selected albums to the ImageStation gallery for public viewing. Do's & Don'ts.
DO: Protect your privacy. The Web is a public entity. As such, anyone with a computer and Web browser can access its content, including any digital images you post online. To ensure your privacy, you must take active steps to protect your photos from prying eyes. We suggest using the most stringent privacy settings your photo-sharing service provides. Depending on the service you choose, this may mean adding a password to your online photo album and/or only sharing its Web address with your closest relatives and friends. It's also a good idea to make sure your photos don't include phone numbers, addresses, or other personal information criminals might try to use. DON'T: Upload copyright-protected images. Online photo albums let you share your personal photographs with family and friends. They also make it possible for unscrupulous individuals to pass along copyright-protected images to a global audience. Such distributions are illegal. Fortunately, staying on the right side of the law is easy. All you have to do is make sure your photo album only contains the snapshots you have taken yourself. DO: Use email invitations to invite others to visit your photo album. The easiest and most secure way to publicize the presence of new photos in your photo album is by sending out the email invitations your online photo-sharing service provides. These invitations not only alert your friends and relatives to the availability of your new photos, but they also frequently serve as authorization keys for the individuals who receive them. DON'T: Upload private, revealing photos. The Web contains more than enough of this already, so don't join the crowd by filling your online photo album with pictures of your naked self, spouse, or anyone else. Many online photo-sharing services will drop your membership if you do. DO: Keep backup copies of your photos. Bad things happen, even to Web servers. You can protect your photo collection from some of these bad things (including viruses) by maintaining an archive of your digital image files. Fortunately, you have several archiving options. You can back up the files to a Zip disk or a second hard drive before uploading them to the online photo album, for instance, or you can order a photo disc when you develop your film. Be sure to keep the backup copy in a safe place to preserve your precious memories. Sharing Makes The World Go Around. We live in a small world these days, but the space between us often seems wider than ever before. Maybe that's why online photo sharing is so popular. These services make it easy and fun to stay in constant contact with friends and relatives who live cities, states, and continents away. All you have to do is take the pictures. Everybody say cheese!  by Jeff Dodd
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