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What online Picture Site Are You Using?

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Wendell Wagner

Wendell Wagner

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I have been with Flickr for some time -- and before that with fotopic.net. I just got notice from my ISP who are linked with Yahoo and Flickr that the current Pro account which I get for free as part of the Yahoo experience is shortly being downgraded and that I will have to pay extra for the Pro account.

I have a couple of questions:

1. Other than flickr - what sites are people using, and why (Picnic, Picasso, etc.)

2. What value do you find that you get from a paid photo album site.

I like the ease of use with flickr -- although I do have a Picnic account - I only use that, however, for uploading pictures to geograph ( http://www.geograph.org.uk/ ) which is a really cool site - but that's for another thread.
 
Smugmug.

Unlimited photos
Unlimited bandwidth
No ads - anywhere
Ability to customize your site
Ability to sell images for profit

Beautiful galleries with large sizes for large screens (if you choose to enable it)
Watermarking
Two print labs, including a pro lab with hand color correction

Proof delay (you upload, then when a print is ordered, you can tweak the image before it goes to the printer)

Digital downloads (you can sell digital versions of your images at several different resolutions)
Zillions of security and privacy controls for different uses
Online support forum ( http://www.dgrin.com )

Uploaders that allow you to do reliable unattended uploads of hundreds of photos to multiple galleries in one unattended session (e.g. overnight)
Supports HD video
All images backed up to three different sites in three different locations

--
John
Popular: http://jfriend.smugmug.com/popular
Portfolio: http://jfriend.smugmug.com/portfolio
 
Not as pricey as SmugMug, clean basic layout and a good place to start.
I'm still building mine,

but here's a link to show a what a basic newb page can look like without much stress.
http://clockworkcomputer.zenfolio.com/
Use this code to get discount and me a backhander !
EC5-PHN-25Z

regards, Ron

 
I agree with jfriend00 - I've been with Smugmug for almost 4 years now, and they just keep getting better and better. My friends & family find it easy to navigate, I have the ability to sell photos, there are very lively, helpful, and supportive communities & groups there, and the support team is wonderful & responsive.

Give the risk-free 2-week trial a go - you will probably stay, like I did !!

Good Luck !!
--
BigDog Ken Griffith

http://kengriffith.smugmug.com/

Sunny Westchester, NY
 
n/t
 
Because it's easy for friends and family to use.
--
Mayonnaise on white bread, mmmmm!

Now that you've judged the quality of my typing, take a look at my photos. . .
http://glenbarrington.smugmug.com/
 
I am with Zenfolio, nice clean layout, good pricing at $100 per year, commerce enabled and simple to use. I have redirected my domain name directly to the front page Take a look at the link below
--
http://www.jasonrow.co.uk
http://www.jasonrow.wordpress.com
'Travel is the antidote to racism, bigotry and prejudice' Mark Twain
 
jfriend00 said:
No need to switch without a
good reason unless pbase has been failing you for some reason.
--
Click to expand...
No offense but that is pretty obvious, I don't think switching photography sites is the latest fad.

Pbase is very slow in implementing site features. for e.g. they have been implementing a feature for two years that would allow others to buy prints. Their customer service is non existent, you email them and they don't get back to you.

Agreed it's just 23$ a year so may be I need to pay more to get what I want.

--
http://www.pbase.com/milindes
 
mildes said:
jfriend00 said:
No need to switch without a
good reason unless pbase has been failing you for some reason.
--
Click to expand...
No offense but that is pretty obvious, I don't think switching
photography sites is the latest fad.
Click to expand...
I just find it kind of silly when someone who has an existing photo site asks a question about other photo sites and gives us zero context about what they are looking for, what they aren't getting from the site they have that they wish they had, what types of features they want to know about, etc... The only reason you gave us for switching was that you'd been there 5 years. That doesn't help us much.

The reason I said what I said was to try to stimulate you to do some thinking and writing about what you might want that you don't already have.

If customer service and being able to sell your own prints are the features that are important to you, then it's hard to beat Smugmug on both accounts. 14-day trials are free so you can see for yourself if you want. The basic feature set is here: http://www.smugmug.com/photos/photo-sharing-features/ and the other tabs on that screen will give you more of the picture.

--
John
Popular: http://jfriend.smugmug.com/popular
Portfolio: http://jfriend.smugmug.com/portfolio
 
Dude, you need to take a chill pill and stop being judgmental!

I wasn't the OP nor was I asking anyone a question, I just stated I had a website and was wondering whether to change or not. More of a selfl question than a question for someone to answer. Did I say 'can someone tell me if I should change or not?'

The next time you find something silly I think you'd be better off not replying to it.
jfriend00 said:
jfriend00 said:
jfriend00 wrote:
Click to expand...
I just find it kind of silly when someone who has an existing photo
site asks a question about other photo sites and gives us zero
context about what they are looking for
Click to expand...
--
http://www.pbase.com/milindes
 
mildes said:
Dude, you need to take a chill pill and stop being judgmental!

I wasn't the OP nor was I asking anyone a question, I just stated I
had a website and was wondering whether to change or not. More of a
selfl question than a question for someone to answer. Did I say 'can
someone tell me if I should change or not?'

The next time you find something silly I think you'd be better off
not replying to it.
Click to expand...
I looked like a question. I attempted to tell you what would be required to answer it.

Sorry if I misinterpreted the question mark as something that signifies a question. Sorry if I again tried to make a helpful suggestion when you did provide more context.
--
John
Popular: http://jfriend.smugmug.com/popular
Portfolio: http://jfriend.smugmug.com/portfolio
 
Regardless of occasional performance upsets, when it comes to displaying your pictures, PBase is a tough act to follow, and it's not a great surprise that many users soldier on rather than accept the much more limited offerings of rival hosts.

Essentially it works like this:
  • individual pictures can be loaded at any size (and are stored that way, without compression, or only being retrievable if you upgrade to a more expensive account)
  • they can then be viewed at the 'Original' size, or in up to three smaller versions - all with titles, captions, EXIF etc
In this case, from upload size of some 1000 pixels wide



down to a really tiny one, perhaps only suitable for use in sigs here?



http://www.pbase.com/isolaverde/image/111483861
  • images are stored and displayed out in galleries (much like HD folders) which can be given any one of a host of different looks - the simplest is a "photos only" layout where pictures are plain thumbnails - almost like a lightbox - that can then be accessed individually (in any of those 4 sizes), or cycled through using the slideshow facility. For instance
http://www.pbase.com/isolaverde/sgg_lights
  • otherwise you can add descriptions and titles etc:
http://www.pbase.com/isolaverde/greysandmore
http://www.pbase.com/isolaverde/ischiaponte
  • in a different style of layout, the first view of individual images is larger, with plenty of space for descriptive text, either:
as a gallery of 'Photo per day' pictures http://www.pbase.com/isolaverde/recisch

or as a 'lead' gallery, where pictures can be used to direct viewers to particular groups of images: http://www.pbase.com/isolaverde/railmuseo
  • lastly, of course, you can also have a gallery that's just a heap of stuff, Flickr-style!
http://www.pbase.com/isolaverde/dpr

Now, I'd be really interested if anyone knows of a host offering anything similar - I've not found one!

Peter

--
Peter - on the green island of Ischia
http://www.pbase.com/isolaverde/recisch

Using the TZ5: http://www.pbase.com/isolaverde/tz5
 
Isola Verde said:
  • lastly, of course, you can also have a gallery that's just a heap
of stuff, Flickr-style!
Click to expand...
Right! And how often do you open a post here and want to look at the picture, but all you get is something like "Sorry, this picture is currently not available. Flickr" or similar! No, thanks!
Isola Verde said:
Now, I'd be really interested if anyone knows of a host offering
anything similar - I've not found one!
Click to expand...
Neither did I. But I must admit so far I didn´t see a reason to look for something different; Pbase is o.k. for me, I don´t need the silly features others sites are offering.
Isola Verde said:
Peter - on the green island of Ischia
Click to expand...
René - in the middle of the green forests of Naturpark Südeifel (and only 15 minutes from Luxembourg, where gas, coffee, cigarettes and chocolate are a lot cheaper, lol!) But Ischia sounds very good, too!

 
Sorry, but I strongly have to disagree when it comes to PBase...

Sure they offer not a little amount of features... but the user interface (viewer-side) is clearly lacking "ease of use" compared to what hosters like zenfolio or smugmug...)

For me, one thing is backend-options (for which I think not much can beat zenfolio for ease of use on the "Operator" side of things)..... whilst it is important to me to have an easy tool to upload, sort, protect, tag, etc. fotos.... the one thing which is of even more importance is how my photos are being presented to my viewers / customers.

PBase lacks technological advantages like intelligent preloading, thumbnail next to fotos, easy and fast navigation, upsizing, print-ordering, downloading,...
in that regard they really have stopped improving long ago.

also their speed is often an issue ... and believe me, speed might not be an issue for everyone... but internet experience is greatly enhanced by a solid server performance.

Uploading is cumbersome... if I need more than one image I first have to ZIP the folder and then upload the ZIP... no pre-upload reviewing or sorting possible...

the slideshow navigation is a bad joke in todays modern internet world.

neither is there RSS or ATOM feeds (which I use to feed an external flash gallery on my website)...

and Custom Branding isn't really possible either...

and last but absolutely not least: their pricing is ridiculous at best.
60$ a year for 1,5GB ?? in times where storage costs almost nothing?

on my Zenfolio account I have a good amount more than 1,5GB USED ... and storage is unlimited... so I don't have to worry.

if you like PBase - fine, I couldn't care any less...

but hell they're are from being "the best" anymore.... once they've been good... but they never moved forward from there.

--
_
My photography stuff: http://www.dgentile.net
 
Wendell Wagner said:
I have been with Flickr for some time -- and before that with
fotopic.net. I just got notice from my ISP who are linked with Yahoo
and Flickr that the current Pro account which I get for free as part
of the Yahoo experience is shortly being downgraded and that I will
have to pay extra for the Pro account.

I have a couple of questions:

1. Other than flickr - what sites are people using, and why (Picnic,
Picasso, etc.)
Click to expand...
I use Zenfolio and before that used Smugmug... (which of the one is "better" is a personal choice and depends on your required feature set - both do offer a lot).

I chose Zenfolio because:
  • Backend Interface... now that's how an internet application should behave ;)
  • Viewer- Front End: it's fast, easy, intuitive, logical, beautiful and professional.
  • Unlimited Storage
  • Easy resizing (for online display, email inline display...)
  • Superior online Slideshow
  • Speed... it's truly fast
  • Branding.... with their pro account, the only "branding" you have from zenfolio is a rather tiny footer text for the login... that's it.
  • Custom Domain name
  • Privacy & Security features
  • Print ordering on a ton of formats
  • Custom Pricing for prints, downloads...
Wendell Wagner said:
2. What value do you find that you get from a paid photo album site.
Click to expand...
  • Service & Support...
  • Quality "Storage" & Backup
  • Custom Branding & Custom Domains
  • Unlimited Storage
  • SPEED
  • NO ADVERTISEMENT
Wendell Wagner said:
I like the ease of use with flickr -- although I do have a Picnic
account - I only use that, however, for uploading pictures to
geograph ( http://www.geograph.org.uk/ ) which is a really cool site -
but that's for another thread.
Click to expand...
--
_
My photography stuff: http://www.dgentile.net
 
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