Best free online photo sharing site?

[JR-Orion]

Like Photobucket, Flikr, Picasa and so on?

Read through some of these reviews

http://photo-sharing-services-review.toptenreviews.com/

and that helped but I'd like to hear some recs from you guys.

Basically I'd like a place that lets me store plenty of pics, let's me and others comment on the pics, and has some privacy settings so in some cases only those I send log in info to can see the albums. And the ability to order prints from the same site would be nice too.

And I guess I wouldn't be opposed to paying for some premium / upgraded service, if the extra features and storage are worth the money.

Thanks!

[NZcaver]

I have all three. In my opinion, there's no contest. Picasa is head and shoulders above the rest. Photobucket has poor layout, and is cluttered with ridiculous amounts of advertising. Flickr is better, but only lets you "display" 200 photos at a time unless you pay for a pro account. Picasa is free, with a gig of free storage per account, no advertising, public and private album options, direct linking to images, and easy access to Blogger, YouTube, Facebook, etc.

I suggest signing up for a free account with each of them, and giving them all a test drive. Upload some photos, share the links with a few friends, and ask what they think. Have fun!

[Scott McCrea]

I pay for a "pro" account at Flickr. Been using it for years. I have only used the others when looking at someones pics. I like the Flickr pro account because I have unlimited storage for pics. I can upload the full res version, so it's like an off-site back-up. I can set the family pics so that only invited people can see them. You can upload videos but they are limited to 90 seconds. There is also a strong community sense within Flickr users.

[David Grimes]

Don't forget we also have the NSS Cavers Flickr photo group which contains thousands of other great caving photos.

[Squirrel Girl]

Anybody know anything about SmugMug? I have a friend who's a professional photographer and that's where she sells her pics. Me? I just use my own website.

[rlboyce]

I second Picasa for the best free site.

[captnemo]

Anybody know anything about SmugMug? I have a friend who's a professional photographer and that's where she sells her pics. Me? I just use my own website.

I for one would highly recommend smugmug, however it's not free.
Standard: $39.95/year • Power: $59.95/year • Pro: $149.95/year

In 2006, after returning from caving in Botswana http://captnemo.smugmug.com/Travel/Botswana-and-South-Africa/Lobatse I had over a thousand pictures I wanted to share with the folks that went on the trip and knew my web server wasn't up to the task, I signed up for smugmug and have been very happy with them. I've since gotten more serious with my photography, shooting the occasional portrait or wedding and upgraded to the pro account.

You can see my smugmug page at http://captnemo.smugmug.com/

[JR-Orion]

Thanks for the input. WIll look into Flikr (pro if I need it) and Picasa.

[Squirrel Girl]

Well, I got a Picasa acct. Then I was persuaded to go to Flickr by co-workers who like it so much more. I went Pro on Flickr 'cuz a friend asked me to shoot a bicycle race. I came home with 418 shots and thought the folks in the pictures/race might like copies.

[self-deleted_user]

I've used Flickr for ages (long since gone pro) and love it. I chose it because just about everyone I know who is a professional photographer uses it, so I can network with them and stuff. Most cave photographers I know (well, more know of, I don't know many personally) are using Flickr too. I like how you can network with it and join groups and whatnot. Last I cheked Pisca you could basically upload photos and there was a shitty interface to organize into albums and such, that was about it. 'Course this was long time ago things may have changed for Pisca it seems to be more and more popular, but still, Flickr seems to get all the pros. And I'm not aware of any others that have the networking like Flickr does.

[NZcaver]

Flickr is nice, but I still much prefer Picasa. Not just because it's free, but also because not everybody who shares their photos wants to "network" with the entire world. Having various privacy options available for albums and linking images is a nice feature.

To each his or her own.

PS - if anybody wonders, yesterday's post promoting the wonders of SmugMug came from a spammer. So I deleted it.

[JR-Orion]

Here it is about a year later, and I never did pick a site.


I've been using photobucket for years to share certain individual pics on various message boards, but never settled on Flikr or Picasa for mass sharing of tons of photos. I really should pick one, as I'm always snapping pictures underground.