Photo Websites: A Post of Reviews

A short while ago I was inspired to create a list of good photo-sharing websites for those who might be interested. I have a collection of photo sites, and I thought I'd write a short review on some of my favorites. (And one I don't like so much..) So here they are- enjoy.

Please note that I'm only reviewing FREE photo sites, or at least the free versions of sites. I'm not judging the "upgraded versions" of some of the sites listed here.

Flickr

I've heard wonderful things about this site. I've also discovered wonderful things, but there are some drawbacks. Firstly, there's a limit to your photo stream. If you want more space, you pay more. Fine for some- but I'm a freebie seeker. Flickr is generous for such a nice site, but it might make you feel more comfortable to relax into an "unlimited," yet free, account. But then again, what free site actually lets you upload as many pictures as you want?

Altogether, Flickr is probably the best out there.

(My other peeve is that you have to have a Yahoo account to gain access. I do have one, but I want to drop-kick it out the window. If I'm wrong about the must-have-account, please correct me. I will be jumping with joy.)

PROS

• PicNik photo editing built-in
• "sets"
• good toolbar including size choices, "add to set" options, etc.
• Flickr mail, groups... where to end?

CONS

• Well, uh... let me think.
• Dependence on Yahoo!

Picasa

Do not reject Picasa because it's run by Google. Do not reject it because of its Googlish appearance. Picasa is wonderful, and if you install the free uploader, that allows you to upload pictures without going to the website- you'll find that Picasa truly does come close to being the best.

(To be fair: Flickr has a software uploader that works just fine, too.)

PROS

• "album" capabilities
• software uploader
• "face" marking
• public album sharing
  
• geographical marking (It's those Google Earth Folks again...)

CONS

• hard to select different viewing sizes when looking through the albums

EchoPic

One of my favorites. EchoPic is Flickr stripped down to the bare necessities, and it does its job well. It offers no groups, printmaking, social networking/comments, public profiles/galleries, but for those of us who just want to protect our pictures from big bad computer bugs and crashes, EchoPic works just fine. You can add tags to photos, embed and link, and view the images full size- if you ever need to save them to your computer. It's fast, clean, ad-free, and convenient. I wish there were a few more features, but right now EchoPic is something of a baby-project, and I wouldn't be surprised if it expanded. It really needs some changes, but, as I said before, it does its job well.

PROS

• simplicity
• uploading speed
• Easy to title, tag
  

CONS

• lack of public "galleries"
• sparse information about the website (i.e. how many pictures are allowed)
• no software uploader
• no batch uploading

Slideroll

Slideroll is a website for making impressive, elegant flash galleries and slideshows. Supposedly you can embed both on your website- but I haven't been able to embed my gallery, which you can see here. I won't talk much about the slideshow function- I haven't used it much. I love the gallery software though, that you download to create your online public "home" for photos. For me, it's been reliable, efficient, and easy to use, which surprised me, because I usually eye free software downloads with a wary eye. Slideroll is useless for storing plain copies of your images. It's just a fun tool to create some beautiful galleries and slideshows.

PROS

• creative fun
• beautiful results
• relatively easy to use

CONS

• Galleries difficult to embed in websites
• No plain and simple photo storage

Tiny Pic

You can register for a free account and get all the account benefits (I haven't bothered to do this), but the real hallmark of this site is the speedy, no-account uploading you can do.

PROS

For the no-account version:

• quick
• NO ACCOUNT NEEDED! So you don't have to give your email address to yet another site that might give it away or sell it. Yay!
• resizing feature available before you even upload.
• great for grabbing html codes for blogs, etc.

CONS

For the no-account version:

• Well, no account limits you considerably

Shutterfly

Hmm. I just tested this one and I don't think I like it for photo storage. I felt like I was shopping online at WalMart. They probably have some cute calendars and mugs you can make- but I was looking for good picture storage.

Don't forget to check out Splashup and Phixr, two photo editing sites that are convenient for adding text to your pictures, etc.

By the way, all you YouTubians, Vimeo is a video sharing website that is sorely overlooked! Not that the user videos are that great. (Well, you know- coming from YouTube). Rather the clean and elegant uploading and display system is something worth trying.