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02-19-2014, 10:55 AM   #1
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Photo hosting / sharing websites - whic hone and why ?

I am on the market for something to store and share my photos. Till now I was using my free ImageShack account - since it was free and I was uploading only images shared on PF - was enough and no point for me to go further. But - my free 1-month of free trial is gone and I am about to decide whether pay $20 for hosting on ImageShack, move to Flickr or somewhere else - I ask you for advice and your own personal experience on this topic.

If may I add - I personally lean towards ImageShack for easy of uploading and no ads - from what I hear Flickrs is swarmed by those in order to provide a free service. ImageShack is offering an unlimited storage, a massive 300MB limit per photo ( well over my needs ) fairly intuitive interface and also good access to direct links - important for forums . What it lacks it seems is the community and way to popularize own work as well as order or sell prints , etc.. - not like I care too much but nonetheless these are areas where Flickrs seems to be unbeatable ( at least to my untrained eye).

Thanks in advance for any thoughts! --manntax

PS: To Moderators : please move the thread to more appropriate forum if there is any since I wasn't able to position my thread accurately.

02-19-2014, 11:05 AM   #2
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fwiw I have adblock and there is not one visible ad on my Flickr
02-19-2014, 11:12 AM   #3
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QuoteOriginally posted by Pablom Quote
fwiw I have adblock and there is not one visible ad on my Flickr
I've used Zenfolio for several years. Can't say how it compares with any others, it's the only one I've used, but it seems pretty intuitive. It has enough features for me, for sure.
02-19-2014, 11:13 AM   #4
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I'm actually using both photobucket & flickr.

I pretty much auto backup my phone & straight OOC JPEGs to Photobucket. I'm using Flickr after I edit a picture.


Last edited by dansamy; 02-19-2014 at 12:10 PM.
02-19-2014, 12:04 PM   #5
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I've been on Flickr for years, and like the groups etc. They have improved it over the years, too, which is good. I have thousands of images there, I hope it sticks around.
02-19-2014, 12:06 PM   #6
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I use Flickr. I haven't seen ads even though I occasionally connect from non-adblocked devices.

Flicker made a lot of changes a few months ago. The site was unstable for a few weeks but I think it's mostly worked out now. Lightroom can upload directly to Flickr (and some other sharing sites).

Flickr is good for hobbyists. If I was a pro shooting for clients I would want something more robust with better support.
02-19-2014, 12:15 PM   #7
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Flickr, Google Plus, Facebook offer community but not a lot of customization or password capability. I just don't find them to be professional, but they are social. These are all rather ugly to me as well.

Smugmug I've been with for almost a decade. It has a sales engine that can be turned on. Very customizable and it looks good from baseline templates. I've never minded paying a yearly sub. Zenfolio started as an artier knockoff but also is very good. I believe smugmug is more customizable.

M

02-19-2014, 12:38 PM   #8
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I use Smugmug and like many aspects of it, although there are a few frustrating elements. What I like:

- lots of customizable options for creating an attractive website for photos;
- easy to make some elements private/password-protected and others public, and those settings are relatively user-friendly for people who access your site. (In other words, you can set some galleries to public, give grandma and grandpa (but not the world) access to photos of your kids, and give your buddies (but not grandma and grandpa) access to your Vegas trip photos;
- good quality prints with reasonable pricing for prints and shipping (I know I could do my own printing, but I don't print a lot and Smugmug's prints have been very good so far); their turnaround time is good, too;
- I haven't turned on the shopping option for others, but I like having that flexibility built in.

What I don't like:

- I don't speak Website. And so although I found it easy to set up my Smugmug site 7-8 months ago, when they expanded their customization options last summer, I found it fairly difficult to build a new site. It's still not where I'd like it to be, and I find that the instructional materials are either hard to navigate or pitched at a level of understanding that exceeds my minimal knowledge of how websites work;
- Smart-alecky customer service. A few weeks ago, I was dealing with moo.com and Smugmug in connection with the creation of some Valentine's cards that I had made and was selling as a fundraiser for charity. Moo.com bent over backwards to provide easy-to-access customer service (friendly, helpful live human being on the phone!), good pricing, flexibility and a strong 'fix it" mentality when there was a minor glitch. I couldn't find a live person when I needed to reach out to Smugmug - just an email contact - and the reply I got was snarky and not very helpful. I also wasn't terriby impressed with the quality of the cards.

I also use 500px to share what I think are my best photos (only a tiny fraction of what's on my Smugmug site) for feedback - and I like browsing it to get inspired by others' work. I love how global 500px is - I see the work of, and trade messages, with people around the world.
02-19-2014, 12:44 PM   #9
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QuoteQuote:
Biggr

Others measure in gigabytes, Flickr guarantees 1,000x. An actual terabyte. For free.

That's 500,000 photos* to share and enjoy in their original, brilliant quality. To be exact, 537,731.

Snap away.

* Assuming the resolution of today's most commonly used smartphones

1 terabyte = 537,731 6.5 megapixel photos
https://www.flickr.com/




Build a Website - Squarespace ? Squarespace
02-19-2014, 12:50 PM   #10
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Wow - so much good posts there guys! Thank you - a lot to think about , and looks like we were really missing this thread ! Please keep them coming and thank you again !--manntax
02-19-2014, 12:52 PM   #11
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I have a grandfathered Flickr Pro account somI don't have ads and have unlimited storage...but the free account is 1TB and you can use an ad blocker.

There are lots of Pentax groups there, @Rupert even has his own group if you're into squirrels

Flickr: The Pentaxians Pool
02-19-2014, 01:15 PM   #12
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I started out with Photobucket.

Then I tried Flickr. When Flickr was in flux recently another member here mentioned SlickPic, so I signed up there.

And I stumbled on 500px, got a few photos there but they want you to pay, and with so many great free options I have let that account stay where it is.

I also found 1x. 1x is cool because it allows free usage, with an option to upgrade to a paid membership, but without pressure to do so. The photos you put up there are very well protected against someone snagging them for unauthorized use, something that many other sites claim but don't always deliver.

Right now I mostly use Flickr for my camera photos, and Photobucket to keep the "stolen" pictures I snag from the web to illustrate a point or be goofy when posting on internet forums, like this:

02-19-2014, 01:25 PM   #13
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I use Flickr Pro. A pro friend uses and highly recommends 500px.
For the longest time, I just hosted my own photos using the Gallery software (Gallery | Your photos on your website), but the upgrade from Lightroom 3 killed the plugin I was using for integration there, and doing it manually was a pain. Also the software took forever to build thumbnails and stuff, and the anti-spam filtering wasn't the best.
02-19-2014, 02:50 PM   #14
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These all are great responses guys, thank you ! Could we however get also something like more in-depth comparison between major services like Flickr, SmugMug, PhotoBucket, 500px etc... and ImageShack ( which I personally like for it's not obstructiveness and sticking around for so long ) ? I mean I don't mind paying £20 / year - so what would I get for that in other places than ImageShack ? Thanks !--manntax
02-19-2014, 03:09 PM - 1 Like   #15
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I was thinking that this would be just the kind of thing that would be great to put up on Wikipedia ... and as it turns out, it already is:
List of photo-sharing websites - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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