Originally posted by hadi google photos is my go-to for sharing the entire set of images from a certain day. Why? because:
1) its free
2) unlike facebook, it does not deteriorate the images
3) its easy to access and download for whoever has that link
4) its easy to share via phone/laptop/email/etc
5) it has no ads in between, unlike flickr
the only downside to this is that if i'm doing MASSIVE images where i am compiling some 20-40 images into one massive panorama (ie, trying to replicate a field of view of a 14mm through a 100mm lens), then google photos unfortunately falls apart and wont let us download such huge images.
for those huge images, i have flickr.
I also use 500PX to show case my best of the best of the best images. that is essentially my portfolio.
I also have instagram that i showcase my 'average' shots. it gains more publicity, but if someone wants to see my work, i throw them towards 500px before insta. part of it being that i dont like how limiting insta is.
i only use facebook to upload images just to share with family. i wont ever use that to attract potential clients as the image quality is really horrible on it.
just my two cents
That is a good shout about facebook - I definitely couldn't use it for any "serious" work: the best usage case I can make for what a business would refer to as "outreach". I think I may use it as a way of drawing folk towards the "real" portfolio.
Google photos is an interesting call actually - I was looking into that yesterday. It seems they have a limit of 16mp on their "free" storage (otherwise it takes up your storage space... of 15GB, but that includes your gmail and googleDrive as well) - I'm not sure how that would work with my uncropped photos being 16.3mp - but even then, it'd be great for sharing images even with those limitations!
It will also handle my cropped images no bother (as long as I trim at least 300'000 pixels off!) - so that'd be a good backup solution for a lot of things too.
Originally posted by K1N8 I use my own small server.
no upload limitations. anything goes.
no terrible terms of services
not giving away my copyright
support for creative commons
no policy changes
no ad networks
no company take-overs
no account removals
no feature changes/removals
no subscription and payment changes
full control over my data
no comments
It's also a very stable long term solution, think >5-10 years, without any data lock-in. Even if the hosting goes bankrupt, it's easy to transfer everything to a new machine.
Go ask a tech savvy friend, there are plenty of gallery software and hosting options.
I've actually had a website (both hosted from my house and using 3rd party hosting) in the past - so I have a touch of experience in setting them up (though my web design skills may leave a lot to be desired... at the time I was using it for business, so it had to be sleek and minimalist - but in doing so, it was kinda boring and to-the-point.)
My plan was to "upgrade" to a personal website if my photos start garnering any real interest. I'd get it hosted though - I'm not hosting it myself again - too much hassle dealing with the constant stream of updating modules and security patches and firewalling that comes with dealing with an internet-facing computer - might as well pay a company to do it as part of their standard upkeep!
That's certainly an option - but at the same time, it's a hassle I don't
really need at this stage. On the other hand, if my photos start garnering interest then it's definitely going to be on the to-do list!
I think I'll use Flickr as my main portfolio, link to it via facebook, and I'll maybe also maintain a portfolio on 500px of my best work (just using the 7-uploads/7-days free account).
I'll code up some scripts to automate all that so I can upload quickly to multiple locations too. What I'd really like to do is set it up such that I have a folder on my desktop - so I just go through my workflow and drop the files into the folders and it automatically categorises them and fires them online. It shouldn't be too hard to do as long as I tag them correctly in the exif data.
Python to the rescue! If I'm doing that, then shoving it on other free sites too shouldn't really be problematic - though if I'm doing that I should really put a little more work into it, and maybe code a GUI so I can select which sites to upload it to.
--EDIT--
I'll automate the upload process later - for now I'll do it ye aulde fashioned way! Im not going to wait until I'm done procrastinating over my code before I start uploading!
Last edited by cprobertson1; 10-03-2019 at 12:51 AM.