Reading mode: Light Dark

News Reviews Articles Buying Guide Sample Images Videos Cameras Lenses Phones Printers Forums Galleries Challenges

Now reading: Photographer uses Google Drive to share full resolution images on Google+ 38 comments

Photographer uses Google Drive to share full resolution images on Google+

Published Mar 22, 2013 | dpreview staff

Frustrated by size limitations when uploading images to Google+, photographer Trey Ratcliff discovered a way to get around the limitations, and upload original full-resolution photos. In a blog post, he has put together a step-by-step guide on how to do it, which involves using Google Drive - Google's cloud storage service - and sharing images directly from there to Google+. Click the link below to read about how - and why - he did it. Would you share full-resolution images on social media sites? Let us know in the comments.

Click here for the link to Trey Ratcliff's blog post

Photographer Trey Ratcliff has highlighted the Exif data in the picture above illustrating that uploading via Google Drive enables users to share full resolution images on Google+

Tags: google, other-news, resolution

Comments

All (38)

Most popular (6)

Editors' picks (0)

DPR staff (0)

Oldest first

jaygeephoto

Professionals usually spring for a service such as Dropbox or add and ftp to their website's server using an application such as Fetch. Both work well.

Mar 26, 2013permalink

Dionis

Original Size does not mean original quality. I have been using Picasa for years (still do) and used to upload original sizes. I have looked into every possible setting so the file would look its best online. The compression process when uploading reduces sharpness and brightness even when using Lightroom.

I have looked at many online albums (fee and free ones) and I have not seen any I would consider high resolution. It seems like the equivalent of posting videos to You Tube or Vimeo.

Mar 25, 2013permalink

perrycas

I have been using flickr for a while now, it does similar things, I have posted some wide pans and the quality is a bit poor. I had been thinking of looking elsewhere s,o i am glad to hear your info

Apr 5, 2013permalink

fairchange

Ok, I like picasa too. I think you get to your picasa photos, when you go to your google+ photos. It's google there own picasa, and I get access to my picasa pictures thru photos

https://plus.google.com/u/0/photos

Aug 21, 2013permalink

Cy Cheze

What do "full size" files look like on a 10" display or on even a very large 1920x1080 screen?

Easy. They look like more money spent on storage space and bandwidth, or else like more time and less capacity for fewer files.

Mar 25, 2013permalink

cordellwillis

I believe that sometimes people do things just because they can. Unfortunately that means waste just to be wasteful.

Are there that many people that *need* these size images from him (to view on a monitor)? OR, is he providing them for prints? Even so smaller files will do the trick too...obviously depending on what they are used for and where they are printed. If he were still in a time when 2, 3...6MP was the largest would he not provide them because they were too small?

He's comparing small watermarked images to these large files he "gives" viewers. Though there is nothing wrong with it, the comparison is no comparison; he can accomplish the same exact thing with smaller unmarked images if it is only for the viewers sake.

Again, some people like to do things just because.

Mar 25, 2013*permalink

stevens37y

clever guy

Mar 24, 2013permalink

johnmcpherson

When a company rises so fast that it thinks it can do no wrong, that's the time to get ready to short-sell...

Mar 23, 2013permalink

jl_smith

Here's an idea, pay the $40 or so for a Smugmug or Flickr account and share whatever size you want without having to jump through some stupid hoops. And Smugmug looks about 50x cooler than anything Google has ever created.

Mar 23, 2013permalink

keeponkeepingon

Trey already had that idea:

http://stuckincustoms.smugmug.com/

He's had the smugmug site forever with original download sizes so I don't know why this is important to him.

Mar 25, 2013permalink

ThePhilips

People finding a Google's product useful? That's a good sign that Google would soon shut it down.

Mar 23, 2013permalink

Timmbits

well said!
they're shutting down igoogle although it's the best start page ever

Mar 23, 2013permalink

stevens37y

...because there is something better.

Mar 24, 2013permalink

huyzer

Man, he's got nice images. I, almost, can't believe he's sharing them full resolution. More power to him.

Mar 23, 2013permalink

OxKing

Can't you simply use picasa?
My 12 MP Images are full resolution there and show in G+ anyway.

Mar 23, 2013permalink

Timmbits

picasa is being shut down - it's all being transferred to g+ in case you haven't heard

Mar 23, 2013*permalink

Holger Drallmeyer

Mew, Tray Ratcliff, zzzzzzzz.....

Mar 22, 2013permalink

KodaChrome25

Ditto...

Mar 23, 2013permalink

albertTD

Same sentiment with Luna at first, but otoh it makes great backup alternative. If they offer same privacy option as G+, which I believe G drive does. Cmiiw

Mar 22, 2013permalink

Kabe Luna

Why in the world would I want to make full resolution images freely available to the public?

Mar 22, 2013permalink

Curt Geiger

...because no-one would pay for them?

Mar 23, 2013*permalink

jaeming

From his site: "Basically, I want people to have the original-sized photo to enjoy! I know many other photographers disagree with me and they only want to share tiny images with huge watermarks using horrible fonts. That’s okay. This isn’t for them."

Mar 23, 2013permalink

arno bothof

Because he wants it!

Mar 23, 2013permalink

graybalanced

Trey Ratcliff does it as a form of marketing. Photography sales is actually his primary source of income, according to his site. He's written long (and controversial, if you read the comments) posts about why he thinks photographers are shooting themselves in the foot by watermarking their tiny images to death.

I'm not saying I totally agree, but he has achieved economic self-sufficiency through photography and some measure of fame.

Mar 23, 2013permalink

HubertChen

Motivations to deliver full resolution images for free:
a) Teaching
b) Show potential customers the quality of the full resolution image and then offer sales of prints. Almost nobody has a 24" printer at home. And your license can be made so that printing is not permitted.

Mar 24, 2013permalink

Paul Guba

I guess if you want to distribute your high resolution images for free that is great. I am unsure why I would want to do that.

Mar 22, 2013permalink

wlad

to share them with your family so they can edit & print them for example

Mar 22, 2013permalink

psn

Uh, if I share it to the public I'm not just sharing it to my family. You don't need Google+ to share hi res pics with your family.

I guess he wants to share it to the public and he does use a Creative Commons Non-commercial license. So that's good. You don't want ambiguous rights for everyone when you share your work to the public.

Mar 22, 2013*permalink

Mollysnoot2

You can make albums private, so only people who you specifically choose can view the album, not the public at large. That would be a valid reason for wanting full resolution images.

Mar 22, 2013permalink

wlad

@psn - I have a private picasa web album where I share full resolution pictures with my family. Only specific google accounts can access this album, and they receive a notification whenever I add new pictures.

Mar 24, 2013permalink

psn

@Mollysnoot2, @wlad: Sharing your albums privately is just that. Not public.

However, as already said, the photographer really wants to share his work publicly and he's put a license on it with explicit usage terms. So, it's all good.

Mar 25, 2013permalink

fuego6

Folks actually use google+?

Mar 22, 2013permalink

AndreyT

Huh? This, if you noticed, is about publishing your photographs on the Net. I would be surprised to find someone who's NOT using Google+ for that purpose.

Mar 22, 2013*permalink

psn

Where have you been these past 2 years?

Mar 22, 2013permalink

graybalanced

Photographers are one of the largest and most active communities on G+. I don't spend much time on there and don't have a lot of contacts but my feed is overflowing with photo posts daily.

Mar 23, 2013permalink

Abaregi

lol the photography commutative on g+ is huge.
Time to wake up and stop hating.

Mar 24, 2013permalink

seanny

Well, you could already do this pre-Drive since forever by uploading directly to PicasaWeb and then sharing it to Google+. I suppose because Picasa is being retired or merged with G+ & Drive, they're introducing this Drive-based method of doing the same thing.

And as mentioned earlier, uploads via G+ are rescaled to 2048px (largest axis), but on the plus side those don't count against your quota.

Mar 22, 2013permalink

Timmbits

OK great!
The main difference here is that when you do the normal posting, it doesn't count towards your drive quota, hence the limitations. By sharing from your drive, it does, but allows you to share larger ones. Makes perfect sense. I'm only puzzled that google+ hasn't publicized this in the form of tips.

Mar 22, 2013*permalink


PhotoShelter releases free professional food photography guide Oct 21, 2015	LG 360 CAM captures spherical images optimized for Google Street View Mar 10, 2016	Picasa will be phased out in favor of Google Photos Feb 15, 2016	Google launches Cardboard Camera VR app for Android Dec 4, 2015


Johan Willem Friso by I am Legend from Macro - Money	The Gateway of India - Mumbai by AKHS from departures.india	Perth. Australia by Nilesh Trivedi from Your City - Through a Window	Macro fly by dbwelds from A bugs life	Hovering by anisah from My Best Photo of the Week

84	Why so few member galleries ???
51	16-50 kit vs 24mm 1.8
50	FF snobbishness takes a hit now MF accessible
49	The strategy and technology behind the Sony A99 II
46	Panasonic or Olympus - and why?
46	PART 3 This Week Through your m4/3 2016.09.24
46	[Equiv] A different take on equivalence
44	Ozray's post on MF has maxed out
43	How often do you upgrade your camera body?
40	24mp - In need of a little reassuranceI
39	New E-M1 mk II for 2.000.00 Euros...
39	MINI CHALLENGE # 435- THE BEACH
39	Testing the Sigma sd Quattro
36	The mirror-less pickle...
36	The Sony A7RII - A Year Later
35	Equivalency: Things We Can Agree On
35	SDQ and SDQ H
35	Need To Step My Game Up...
34	I need some help ...
29	Best 2 Or 3 Lens Combo