Top 5 Free Sites

We all love to take photographs but along with our consummate love we take them not just for our own pastime and pleasure but also to share and receive accolades of others and sometimes as a means of income.  In order to do this we have to make our photos available for viewing by a wider audience, in the past this meant that we had coffee tables of albums or wallet sized photos that we showed our friends or used old media publications.  With the advent of the Internet came the ability to reach a wider audience.  For those of us brave enough to webify our work for appreciation/critique of a wider audience there are a few options to choose from.  Here are the top 5 free and paid sites for sharing photo.  While both offer the ability to view photos the paid sites offer many more options including the ability to customize and sell your work to viewers who just must have a copy of your photograph.

In the number 5 position we have  Photobucket, a worthy site for the beginning photographer especially

for those that take great pleasure in mobile photography.  Photobucket’s strength comes from its communities and its many mobile applications, in fact the Android Photobucket app just won a 2011 Appy Award.   While Photobucket does have a community to share your photos with and some great mobile apps, I’d like to warn you about one feature that concerns me, on the Android app there is a  selection to upload every photo taken with your phone automatically; this can not only be costly if you have a usage based data connection or are roaming on vacation, but also potentially embarrassing. I prefer to chose what I upload not automatically upload everything that I shoot!

4. While this spot was originally for PhotoJima, the site seems to have gone down between the time of researching this article and publication, hence we have Photoshop.com offers 2GB of online storage space for you to use to share photos but in addition to this they offer an express version of their market leading software that allows you to editing your photos using limited features. Photoshop.com also offers editing software for the IOS and Android tablets. Given that Adobe has been a market leader for serious image editors this automatically puts them ahead of the field. Photoshop.com provides its own online albums and also conduits to Facebook, Picasa and Flickr. (In a last minute development the operators of Photojima which is located in Fukushima City tweeted me to advise that they are currently relocating their family members in addition to the fact that the server has partially melted down due to the nuclear disaster, however they intend to restore service as soon as possible, I wish them all the best.  September 1st update:  Photojima.com is currently packing up and moving the office to Canada, while they will not be online on publication date of this article they will be back soon, follow them on Twitter @photojima for updates).

3. Google+/Picasa,  Google+ is Google’s latest advent into the social media network, it has become a mecca for photographers and has an amazingly vibrant community there where you can not only show your work but also interact with many other photographers from around the globe.  While Google+ is still in beta it receives many accolades.  One thing to be wary of is the resolution of photographs, many photographers experienced issues with the screen presentation of their wo

rk.  The workaround for this is to ensure that you upload your images to Google+ with your work sized to 72dpi and 1024px at it’s longest side.  Google+ still needs to develop apps to be integrated with popular editing programs to allow for upload of images.  Feel free to add me on Google+ at http://gplus.to/JADG.

Picasa is Google’s former effort at photo sharing and it is quite robust and also integrates into Google+.  In addition to having a fast add free interface.  Picasa’s web albums are not only virtually limitless but you have the ability to edit photo easily using their customized software http://picasa.google.com/ and also or order prints online.  Picasa’s web albums have many of Apple’s iPhoto new features including facial recognition and the ability to add locations to your photographs using Google Maps.  Picasa’s software also has the ability to index each and every photos on your hard drive if you want it to… no more lost photos if you don’t have a well organized digital filing system.   Picasa’s web albums are well worth a try, however, be VERY careful with the permissions set on your photographs on Picasa, you will want to ensure that only those albums that you want visible to the public are set that way additionally you will want to ensure that persons at large can’t order copies of your images. Review your Picasa settings CAREFULLY!

2.  Flickr has been around for ages and is among the first to offer a viable photo sharing option to the Internet community at large.  The biggest thing Flickr has going for it is its community of photographers and photography lovers.  Its brand recognition is such that most people on the Internet have heard of Flickr.  On the down side, unless you get the paid Pro account (USD $24.95 annually),  Flickr only allows you to upload 300MB of images (max single image file size 15MB) or 2 videos per month.  If you use Flickr, or for that matter any photo sharing service you’d do well to learn how to size your images properly for web viewing.

1. 500px.com is a new entrant to the market but they offer serious competition for the previous entrants.  500px is a site that allows you to concentrate on photography while they give you an ideal site to show your work, it has customizable templates which allows you to create a rather unique site.  500px is becoming the debut site for up and coming photographers who want something a bit more serious than Flickr but are not yet willing to make significant investment in their efforts to have an online presence, this is the best and quickest way to get a free site, despite image upload limitations on the free version.

Top 5 Paid Sites

5. Squarespace is a multipurpose webhosting platform that also includes a facility to make good photography hosting sites.  Squarespace boast of being extremely easy to use even for the newcomer to websites, their cost is $12/month ($144/annually).  Squarespace boast of E-commerce, easy data collection and various apps to increase the functionality of your website.

4. Photoshelter’s standard plan which is the lowest option that allows you to use your own domain

name cost $29.99 per month ($359.88/annually) for a maximum of 35GB of storage. While Photoshelter is a purpose built site, that allows the use of custom domains,  centric around photography, I, personally, find the cost prohibitive. Photoshelter takes a 9% cut of any E-commerce transactions.

3. Zenfolio is another photography centric site that also allows custom domains.  The Zenfolio premium plan that allows for removal of their branding cost $100/annually and they take 12% of the top of your print sales (8% for digital sales) made via the site or 4% if you self fulfill the order.  While Zenfolio is a viable option their brand has not become a household word in the photographic community.

2. 500px.com, the newcomer to the block, allows you to use your own domain name

with their site, providing an instant and portable website.  500px allows you to create your site via customize templates with relative ease.  500px cost $50/annually.  500px is currently in the process of developing iPhone and Android apps.  The Co-Founder and Creative Director of 500px, Evgeny Tchebotarev, is very responsive to any query when contacted on Google+

1. Smugmug, founded in the early 2000s, is the granddaddy of Photographer centric

sites,father and son team Chris and Don MacAskill have developed the site into an industry leader.  Rather than rest on their laurels they consistently innovate their product to offer cutting edge offerings to their customers.  It doesn’t hurt that they have what is undoubtedly the best support team (heroes) in the business.  Smugmugs Pro accounts cost $20/month or $150/annually, and their site literally provides everything including unlimited data transfer (including video).

All of the above free and paid sites are capable of hosting your images, however, with free sites, one should carefully read the terms of service to ensure you are not ceding any right to your images.  It is always best to read prior to clicking OK.

What is your favorite photography hosting site, and why? Share your favorite in the comments section below.