Sharing your photos should be just as much fun as taking them. Every good photo sharing web site combines innovative features with a simple, useable interface. Read on to learn about good photo sharing sites and which one can best meet your needs.
Post your photos on any one of the free photo sharing websites and you can share your photos with friends and family. Some of the full-featured photo websites allow captions, comments, and full interaction with your users.
Many of these sites have advanced features such as batch-upload and image editing functions that help you quickly edit and post all of your new photos online. In this article we review some of the best free photo sharing websites available.
Imgur
Imgur (www.imgur.com) calls itself “the simple image sharer” with good reason. The Imgur home page consists of two columns: one for uploading images of your own, the other for browsing a gallery of other users’ images. You can drag-and-drop images right onto the page and then upload them with a single click of the mouse.
Once you’ve uploaded your photos, you can sort them into albums and give them titles and descriptions. Imgur makes it easy to share photos via Facebook, Twitter, other social networking sites, and email. It’s also easy to find an audience for your photos within Imgur itself. Users can vote images up or down and comment on them within Imgur; conversations often spring up in image comments (called “Captions”). The site’s gallery section prominently features images which attract the most votes.
Two drawbacks of using Imgur are that you cannot tag the images you upload and that the site offers no photo-editing capabilities of its own.
Picasa Web Albums
Google’s Picasa web site (picasaweb.google.com) sports a simple user interface and an assortment of features. You can upload photos to Picasa Web Albums just by dragging-and-dropping photos onto the web page, without needing to download any software. This photo-sharing service is easy to use and rich in features, allowing you to assign titles, descriptions, keyword tags, people tags, and even location data to your photos. It integrates seamlessly with Google+ social networking and also allows easy sharing via Twitter.
The Picasa website offers both a “My Photos” tab and an “Explore” tab, so other people can discover your photos based on their tags and locations. Like Imgur, however, Picasa Web Albums offers no photo-editing capabilities of its own; you’ll have to download the Picasa software to tweak your photos.
Splashup
Splashup (www.splashup.com) is a full-featured online photo editor with photo-sharing capabilities. Rotating and cropping are just the beginning; Splashup allows you to edit multiple images down to the level of single pixels. You can add layers to your photos, applying different effects (filters) to different layers.
Splashup lacks some of the social networking features which other sites mentioned in this review possess, but it integrates well with other social networking sites. You can import images into Splashup from your computer or from any web site, with special support for Facebook, Flickr, Picasa, Smugmug, and Photobucket. Once you’ve tweaked your photos to your heart’s content, you can then share them through any of those sites.
Pho.to
Pho.to (www.pho.to) is similar to Splashup, except that it is more closely tailored specifically to photographs of people. Use Pho.to to remedy red-eye and digital noise, to correct and sharpen colors, and to enhance portraits.
One specific feature, called Makeup.Pho.to, allows you to “make any person in a photo look like a model in a glossy magazine” by smoothing out skin imperfections and whitening teeth.
Pho.to is ideal for retouching and sharing family photographs. After you’ve edited your photos online, you can share them via Twitter or Facebook, or you can create a custom e-card that includes them.
Flickr
Flickr (www.flickr.com) is probably the best-known photo sharing site. Conveniently, you can use your existing Google or Facebook account with Flickr. In addition to sharing photos with friends, you can make them visible to Flickr’s massive community of over 60 million photographers. Easy-to-use privacy settings allow you to control exactly who is able to see of your photos.
Like Imgur, Flickr sports a simple user interface; like Picasa Web Albums, Flickr allows you to attach titles, descriptions, keyword tags, people tags, and location information to your photos. Tell your story through your photographs by adding comments and notes to your albums. Flickr’s emphasis on community creates a haven for photographers of all skill levels.
Best Photo Sharing Site
If you need to retouch your images before sharing them, consider Pho.to. Overall, however, Flickr is the best choice for uploading, sorting, and sharing your photographs. You might be a photography aficionado with a high-quality digital camera, or you might just like to take the occasional snapshot with your cell phone. Regardless of skill level, you will appreciate Flickr’s assortment of features and ease-of-use.
