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How To Put Your Photos
On The Web
Photo Storage and Sharing
By Andrew Hudson
"I want to display my pictures on the Internet. How do I do that? Are there any free services?"
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What a great idea!
Put your wonderful travel photos on the Internet and all your family and friends, and anyone else, can enjoy them.
There are two approaches: use a photo storage site or make your own web site. The former is easier and cheaper (even free), and the latter is more professional and individual. Remember to include your contact information -- perhaps someone will want to buy one of your photos!
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Use A Photo Storage Site
The easiest way to store and share your photos is with an online photo album site. There are many to choose from, and your choice of site would depend upon your application. There are photo communities, photo blog repositories, file storage services, printers that will store your photos, photo album sites supported by advertising, and paid-subscription sites that allow you to license your images.
Many sites are free, which is always a great price. But watch out for restrictions. The sites may have limits for image file size, storage space, and duration of storage (e.g. your photos may get deleted after 90 days of non-usage). For a monthly subscription, you can often upgrade to a "premium" service, which may increase the size of files you can store and reduce the amount of advertising you endure. Some sites permit printing and licensing, so you can make money off your photos, similar to stock photography.
Once you've opened an account, you can "upload" your photos (i.e. transfer/copy them to the site) either from a web browser or by using some software provided by the site. You can arrange your photos in groups or folders (such as "Our Trip To Italy") and even add "tags" (keywords embedded in the image file) to assist with searching.
Store and share your photos with these online photo album sites:
Amateur
AlbumTown Free Online Photo Album Sharing
Buzznet A blogger's site with photo sharing
Flickr Photo Sharing. Store, search, sort and share photos. Owned by Yahoo!
Fotki Photo Sharing And Printing
Fotolog Photo blog community
Fotopic Photo gallery, prints and gifts
Glowfoto Galleries and photo blogs
ImageShack Image hosting service
Magix Online albums
MyPhotoAlbum Online Photo Album. Share and print
One True Media Video, photos and music
Phanfare Online Photo Sharing with no advertising
PhotoBox Shore and share digital photos
Photobucket Free Image and Video Hosting
Picasa Web Albums photo albums from Google
Ringo Photo Sharing Made Easy
Zooomr Photo sharing with GeoTags
Webshots photo sharing community, owned by CNET
Professional
Blish buy and sell digital content
Digital Railroad
ifp3 creative photo solutions
KeenImages
LiveBooks editable websites
PhotoStockPlus
Shutterpoint
Stock sites for photographers:
(see more stock sites here)
Access Stock (div. of OmniPilot Software)
Acclaim Images
AG Pix Since 1982, NY.
IPNStock Independent Photography Network
iStockPro (div. of Getty)
MyLoupe.com Launched 2005. Chicago.
PhotoServe (div. of Photo District News magazine)
PhotoShelter
Stock Photo Index
Stock Visions
Workbook Stock
See more links here.
Photo Finishing
Some printing companies allow you to store your photos. This might not be a good archival or sharing solution, but you can order prints, cards, gifts, books, mugs, mouseapads, and other gifts.
ImageStation by Sony
Kodak EasyShare (once called Ofoto)
Shutterfly
Web-a-Photo Free Online Photo Album
See more links here.
Make Your Own Web Site
Instead of putting your photos on some company's web site, you can put them on your web site. This takes more work and requires more knowledge of programming and software, but the result is more individual and professional.
First you'll need somewhere to store (or "host") your site. Your ISP (Internet Service Provider) may offer this, or you can sign up for a paid account with a hosting company. I pay about $25 a month to host the site you're looking at right now. For about $25 extra per year, you can get your own domain name. I couldn't resist getting AndrewHudson.com.
Once you have a site, you'll need to design some pages. For Apple users, you can use iPhoto with a .Mac account. There are sophisticated web-page design programs such as Adobe GoLive or you can "code" a page using "HTML". Design and test the pages on your computer, then "upload" them to the "host" and instantly your photos are available on the Internet.
Include text to describe the pictures so your site will get found on search engines such as Google. Include an email address and/or phone number so you can be reached. You can include copyright info if you like (e.g. Copyright Jane Doe 2006). Don't fret about people stealing your images -- magazines and other companies respect copyright rules and besides, an image on the Internet is usually too poor quality to be printed properly.
You can allow other people to add photos to your site (making it a photo community) with software such as:
Copyright 2006 Andrew Hudson for Photo Tour Books, Inc. You may reproduce this article for personal, educational, non-commercial and non-Internet use, such as in a local photo club newsletter or school project. No Internet publishing is permitted. For commercial use, please email me for permission.
Also see:
Books about Web Publishing for Photographers
How To Make Prints And Gifts From Your Photos
How To Make Money From Your Photos
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