<p>We would like to set up a photo album on the web to share pictures with our friends and family without exposing the album to the entire world. I do not mind paying a fee so I wouldn’t have to deal with ads and popups. There seems to be a number of websites that offer some sort of photo sharing - Flikr, Photobucket, etc. Do any CCers use any of these sites? I’d like to hear your opinions and reviews. Many thanks!</p>
<p>I use Picasa, which is free up to a certain amount of space. It is via Google, so you have to have a gmail account (which is also free.) You have to download their program, but it is really pretty painless. If I can do it, anyone can. </p>
<p>It does re-size photos, but they are still plenty big enough. People know that if they want a full-size copy, to email me and I’ll send them one.</p>
<p>When my D’s two HS classmates were here from Germany, we took them all over. Every day I posted the pictures from the day. Their parents had a link to the website, and one of the girls relatives in Russia also had the link. They loved following our travels via pictures.</p>
<p>I have also created Picasa albums for my genealogy - each branch of the family, which gets sent out to all the relatives on that branch who are interested! </p>
<p>Picasa has several settings for privacy. One setting is not private, one is accessible only to people that have the specific link, and one requires people to sign in. I use the middle one.</p>
<p>I also have a flickr account, but the free part is minimal, so I don’t use it as much.</p>
<p>I use a site called SmugMug. It costs money, an annual fee. Lots of privacy settings, at several different levels. Pictures can be downloaded at full resolution – which means I never have to email jpgs to people, I just direct them to the picture on SmugMug. </p>
<p>Most people I know use flickr. I have a free flickr account and have looked at photos on flickr of people who pay for it – and I much prefer the way SmugMug is set up. I find it easier to navigate and I like the way it organizes photos.</p>
<p>Our extended family uses facebook. You can set each or all albums to any network of people you want to (e.g. we make ours so only family members can see it). We also like being able to add commentary and comments to the pictures, and have ‘conversations’ under them (that again, only family can see). Even the grandparents are on FB now.</p>
<p>Long term Flickr user here, who pays the $25 for a pro account for unlimited uploads.You can limit access to your photos. Here is a link for privacy at Flickr - [Privacy</a> and Sharing | Help | Flickr](<a href=“http://www.■■■■■■■■■■/help/with/privacy/]Privacy”>http://www.■■■■■■■■■■/help/with/privacy/)</p>
<p>I like it because I can upload full resolution photos, then others can order prints or gifts. Flickr is integrated with Facebook; if you post a Flickr link on someone’s Facebook page, you’ll see a thumbnail image with link. (Facebook will downsize the photos that you upload to Facebook, meaning they are for online viewing only, not printing).</p>
<p>Photobucket works for me - free and you can assign a read password so only friends/family who know the pw can view the pictures. I also use screencast.com</p>
<p>Second the Flickr recommendation.</p>
<p>Picasa has an upload option that allows you to upload the original jpg, all 6000+ KB if you want. It also has a nice utility that does a bulk resize, so if you have very large files it will resize them all to your desired resolution. This is similar to the Adobe Photoshop resize utility.</p>
<p>You can also create as many google accounts as you’d like, so the total filesize limitation isn’t really a problem. I have a couple of gmail accounts, some for public photos and one for private ones.</p>
<p>Shutterfly is free, stores full res images, allows flexible privacy setings, and has a nice iPhone app. I believe Picassa uses Shutterfy for actual printing.</p>
<p>I just email the photos to others.</p>
<p>Smugmug, Zenfolio, and PBase are among the best. There are a lot of choices and some of the others may be entirely suitable for the casual photographer.</p>
<p>I love Flickr.</p>
<p>I’ve just started using [Order</a> Prints | Sell Photos | Online Imaging Solutions | LifePics.com](<a href=“http://www.lifepics.com/]Order”>http://www.lifepics.com/) So far, I highly recommend it. There’s no fee; you must upload photos at least once every six months to keep an active account. You can choose resolutions to upload. You create albums . You can send an email to friends “sharing” the album, they can download from it. </p>
<p>I found it by accident because the photo processor I like here in NYC uses it. I can upload my photos and order prints on-line, so that’s why I originallly started using it. It seems to be supported more by independent camera stores than by retail customers. </p>
<p>I like the convenience of being able to order prints from a local store any time I want them. (If someone likes a photo I’ve shared with them, they can have it printed by a member lab near them.) Once the photos are in storage, it’s easy to order additonal ones and it offers all the normal special services and lets you crop, etc.</p>
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<p>Love, love, LOVE SmugMug. Forty dollars a year, and they back up all your photos to tape daily (if I remember correctly) and store them offsite… The good deal is that you’re not just purchasing a place to keep your photos and share them with others, it’s essentially a digital photo vault. You will never lose your photos.</p>
<p>You can store photos at as high a resolution as you want. (Edit: Just checked… 12 MB is the maximum single-image upload, but even for my professional wedding photos, the original digital files that our photographers provided to us didn’t hit that… I’ve never had a problem.)</p>
<p>You can make your own greeting cards, mugs, prints, posters, canvas prints… The print quality is exceptional, and you can order in matte, lustre, or glossy finish at pretty much any size you could care to order. Orders show up super-fast, and they send you confirmation e-mails with estimated arrival dates.</p>
<p>It doesn’t MESS with your photo color balance when you upload things like a lot of other sites do… Which is great if you’re a pro or semi-pro photographer. Some sites color balance your photos automatically without telling you, and I HATE that. I color-retouch for a reason, and I like the look that I get… It frustrates me when an algorithm thinks they can make it look better than I can!!</p>
<p>I can password-protect or hide photo albums (which is great, because I put my dad and stepmom’s wedding photos up there… they didn’t hire a pro, they just asked my brother and I to shoot the wedding, and the photos turned out wonderfully… and then my mom doesn’t have to run across them, either, because the album’s hidden). Also good for bachelorette parties.</p>
<p>I’ve been with them for two years, there’s no upload limit, I occasionally do professional portrait shoots and can put my clients’ pictures up there, the prices for prints are VERY reasonable, and I’ve been incredibly happy with them. Their user support is FANTASTIC… Send them an e-mail and an actual person will respond to it (usually with a very long e-mail, with step-by-step instructions if necessary) within 24 hours, and will converse with you at length if you require follow-up information.</p>
<p>No ads, no banners, no popups for ANY of the users. If you’re a power user ($60/year), you can take off the SmugMug banner and replace it with your own, even.</p>
<p>It’s great. It may be more than some people need, but I want my photos SAFE, I want NO upload limit, I want a GREAT user interface that my family and clients can easily navigate, I want a near LIMITLESS number of product options that I can use to print up my photos, I want EXCELLENT quality, and I’m willing to pay a nominal fee per year in order to have all that. SmugMug is where it’s at.</p>
<p><a href=“http://www.smugmug.com%5B/url%5D”>www.smugmug.com</a></p>
<p>I use photobucket. Used to use webshots but once I found photobucket, I use that exclusively.</p>
<p>Many thanks to all! I’m leaning towards setting up a SmugMug account.</p>