Online Photo Resource Guide

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Online Photo Resource Guide™
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These days, there are a lot of ways to put photo albums on the web for free, or almost free, or for some kind of subscription fee. The intent of these sites is to allow consumers to upload pictures, invite friends to view them, send photo greeting cards, and sell ancillary merchandise and services. Select the features that are important to you in the form below and click on "show me the sites". The sites will be listed in approximate order of your preferences

General Preferences
Ease of sharing and viewing Albums
Cost
Availability of Prints
Amount of Storage
Bulk Uploading
Film Scanning (mail in exposed film)
How Many Sites

Special features that must be present
Ebay Hosting/Direct Linking to images
Access to the original images you uploaded
Sites for professional photographers or their customers.
Poster size prints
Print scanning or other nonstandard input
Photo Books, Slides, or other nonstandard merchandise.
No Advertising
Learning photography and Self-Criticism
The description of the site contains this word

Some Additional Notes

If you're planning on buying prints, see my notes on digital color prints.
If you have slides, either still in the film can or languishing in boxes, your options are limited. I know of only one shop, A&I, which accepts E-6 film for developing and scanning. A&I prepaid mailers are my preferred mode of processing slide film. Converting existing slides to digital is not cheap or easy.
These sites vary in the amount of storage they provide and their promises of retention, but hey! as long as they're free, sign up as often as you like. There is a definite trend for free sites to run out of money and either be acquired, disappear, or convert to some sort of subscription model, not necessarily in a manner convenient to their current customers. If you expect any of these sites, paid or free, to preserve your precious photos for ever, you are very foolish indeed. See thecasualty list if you doubt. My prediction; more instability until the price structure has more relationship to reality. The retail price of storage is around $1/Gb, so how can anyone expect to collect $50/yr for a few megabytes of storage? These sites do have expenses, but they're not primarily for storage.
These sites vary greatly in what rights they claim you are granting them by uploading your images, and what protection from unauthorized use they provide. If you care, get your magnifying glass and your lawyer and read a lot of fine print. However, the only safe assumption is that any image you post on the internet can be seen and used by anyone in the world.
This searchable list was installed in October 2003. The last non-searchable version is available for reference here.


comments/suggestions (especially if you know of more sites I should mention, or have information about a site I already list) to:ddyer@real-me.net Pet Peeve: Do not write me with a list of your requirements and ask me what site you should use. What I know is right here; the rest is up to you.	my home page

General Preferences

Special features that must be present

Some Additional Notes