Sharing photos via the net

[LongQ]

I don;t have much experience of this. Individual photos I can deal with using fotango (for example) but I no have an album with the first 20 odd shots from the Midland karting gig yesterday and I don;t really think people would appreciate it if I posted 20 links into a thread.

I would like to be able to set up the album for public viewing but can't see how to do that readily. Any ideas?

I'm off to get a few shots of something I have been promising to do for a while (though the early morning sunshine I wanted has now disappeared ) and will try and get the 35mm stuff processed tomorrow and add that to the set. So any suggestions welcome before I add another 50Mb to the album and then find I needed to go a different route!

[docevi1]

www.pbase.com/ allow you do that

[GetCarter]

or just buy a cheap domain and some webspace form someone like www.easily.co.uk

edited to add www.longq.co.uk is available £5 per year and web hosting at £10 a year. (But most ISP's give you free webspace anyway)

Steve

>> Edited by GetCarter on Sunday 30th January 11:37

[V6GTO]

I use Smugmug. It cost $30 but if you give the e-mail address of someone with an account you get a $5 discount. Every time you are used to intrduce someone $10 credit goes on your account, so if you introduce 3 people it's free! ([e-mail])
See my site here http://v6gto.smugmug.com , but please bare in mind it's a 'worts and all' place, not just the best of the best.

Martin.

[beano500]

www.webshots.com ?

I find them quite easy to use....

[Phil S]

www.Photobucket.com is perfect in my opinion!

[LongQ]

Thanks guys. I just knew there would be a host of ideas on offer!

Looks like a busy evening.

[2 Smokin Barrels]

Hi all. A little off topic, but maybe you can help. I've recently uploaded some pics to Fotango. If I go to the album, select the pic then select the Get URL link, the page is unavailable. If tried uploading two or three & got the same result. Anybody come across this before?

[LongQ]

2 Smokin Barrels said:

Hi all. A little off topic, but maybe you can help. I've recently uploaded some pics to Fotango. If I go to the album, select the pic then select the Get URL link, the page is unavailable. If tried uploading two or three & got the same result. Anybody come across this before?

I had some odd things yesterday morning when I was seeking a way to sensibly allow access to a large number of shots. Didn't follow it up at the time. Sounds similar to the problem you had.

[Ex-biker]

I was using Fotango. Had some issues with how the pics looks once uploaded. (could have been me).

I now use Photobucket. You can post larger pics and the program auto-resizes the pics.

[rico]

As some of you host your websites with my company i hope you won't mind me asking here.

What sort of package are you guys looking for when it comes to sharing your photos on the net? What is it about fotango and photobucket that you dislike? How much would you be willing to pay for a decent service? Do you want your own domain... or happy with just a url to place in a forum.

I could easily do www.riconian.com/yourname/pic.jpg which means your initial cost of buying the domain name is irradicated.

The main problem with UK hosting is the associated bandwidth charges, which are about £3/GB of data... either uploaded or downloaded. You can go with US based hosting for cheaper but it means slower download speeds.

Any views interested. In the mean time, if anyone wants a pic hosted to post in a forum, just email it to me at andy AT riconian DOT com and i'll chuck it on my server and email you back the link f.o.c

>> Edited by rico on Monday 31st January 09:58

[LongQ]

Ex-biker said:

I was using Fotango. Had some issues with how the pics looks once uploaded. (could have been me). I now use Photobucket. You can post larger pics and the program auto-resizes the pics.

I don't have any problems with the fotango file sizes - I have tended to send 3Mb files and have not spotted a file or space restriction - but the re-presentation when displaying is a little off some times. That said I am not sure that it would be any better saving the files 'for web' locally.

Maybe I got it wrong but the photobucket info I read suggests a limit of 25Mb on the free account. One of the others I rewad as a 3Mb limit.

Now I can understand the limits for a free account on a commercial basis and the need to pay for a full service. However, to cover rico's questions as well, I don't see my use as a commercial operation at all and it would be occasional at most.

If I manage the images to keep the storage down any references posted into other places - like the forums here, will likely have a short life if I start to get fairly active with that. ebay users would have less of a problem - their transaction are short term anyway by nature.

On the other hand any event, such as the Midland Karting gig last Saturday, means I have a few snaps that people might like to see. At full capacity around 3+Mb per file I downloaded about 59Mb to fotango. Now I know that is probably a waste of time as they will be compressed on viewing and I have no plans to use the print service (would max detail be an issue with that anyway?) but it was a quick way to get stuff there without having to do much to it. (I left it downloading overnight).

In either case I have no idea how much bandwidth would be required for download for viewing. Using a service in family one might be able to guess. Using it as a host for external links - who knows? Anything from zero to a very large number I would imagine.

I noticed one offering had a pay-as-you-go option. That could be a good model, except for the proviso's about download capacity usage.

I would have liked to have come up with a business model suggestion but quite honestly this one has be stumped at the moment.

The summary requirement is to have a variable amount of space, perhaps unlimited if required but that is unlikely. To be able to store any file size, with the option for the downloader to specify, roughly, the display quality of those files they view. The download facility should be at a known, low or zero, cost to the client if the use is non-commercial (or prints are provided by the service at normal cost with no profit attributed to the account owner). Bandwidth should be unlimited although it is unlikely that typical current limits on available capacity would be used up.

I have to get out to get some 35mm films processed - so I'll leave it there for now and have a think whilst I am out and about.

[LongQ]

rico said:

Any views interested. In the mean time, if anyone wants a pic hosted to post in a forum, just email it to me at andy AT riconian DOT com and i'll chuck it on my server and email you back the link f.o.c

Briefly, the pic by pic thing is great but after an 'event' I prefer the library/folder browsing basis.

But I'm not a commercial operator and don't expect to be one, so having delivered the images to an unsuspecting public I have no further interest other than hearing the praise or dodging the criticisms!

If anyone wanted an original file I would be happy to send it on but happier if they could simply download it, so long as I was not paying for that! (Other than as part of a low cost general service fee.)

More thinking required. (See previous post)



>> Edited by LongQ on Monday 31st January 12:20

>> Edited by LongQ on Monday 31st January 12:20

>> Edited by LongQ on Monday 31st January 12:37

[rico]

LongQ gives a LongAnswer... cheers

I'll have a think... i wouldn't be in to make a huge profit... its more i don't want to offer a service that becomes popular then i end up loosing money on it!

[2 Smokin Barrels]

LongQ said:

2 Smokin Barrels said: Hi all. A little off topic, but maybe you can help. I've recently uploaded some pics to Fotango. If I go to the album, select the pic then select the Get URL link, the page is unavailable. If tried uploading two or three & got the same result. Anybody come across this before? I had some odd things yesterday morning when I was seeking a way to sensibly allow access to a large number of shots. Didn't follow it up at the time. Sounds similar to the problem you had.

Thanks. I have swapped to Photbucket.