My Top Five Photo Sharing Websites

One of my blog readers recently wrote asking me about the best way to share photos with family members who are far away. She was interested in having family members help her identify people in her photos but was hesitant to put the photos in the mail, fearing they may not be returned. This is a pretty important thing to be fearful of and many of my clients have reported losing photos to well-meaning family members. My grandmother was notorious in our family for coming over while we were out of the house and “liberating” select family photos.

Photo sharing on the internet has become big business. From social media sites such as Facebook to dedicated photo sharing sites with various levels of membership, there are options for everyone.

I’ve created a list of the Top Five most popular photo sharing websites that are currently out there. These websites are not geared toward the professional photographer.

# 1 Flickr - Probably the most popular and highest rated site is Flickr. You can upload your photos, then share them through Facebook, Twitter, email blogs and other social media sharing sites.You can create a Flickr site with your Facebook or your Google+ accounts and they have app for pretty much every mobile phone and device. Two levels of service:

FREE: 2 videos and 300MB worth of photos each calendar month.
300 MB monthly photo upload limit (15MB per photo)
2 video uploads each month (90 seconds max, 150MB per video)
Photostream views limited to the 200 most recent images
Post any of your photos in up to 10 group pools
Only smaller (resized) images accessible (though the originals are saved in case you upgrade later)
Privacy – Registered users agree to Yahoo! Terms of Service and Yahoo! Community Guidelines. Yahoo! Takes privacy very seriously.
You can specify whether or not you want your photos to be accessible to the public, accessible to a select few, or private (only you can access them with your Yahoo! ID and password).

PRO: $24.95 a year. Pro gives the following service

Unlimited photo uploads (20MB per photo)
Unlimited video uploads (90 seconds max, 500MB per video)
The ability to show HD Video
Unlimited storage
Unlimited bandwidth
Archiving of high-resolution original images
The ability to replace a photo
Post any of your photos or videos in up to 60 group pools
Ad-free browsing and sharing
View count and referrer statistics

# 2  Photobucket - Upload photos, graphics, and video to share by email or link them to social media websites. They have an editor which allows you to make rudimentary slideshows of your photographs to share with friends. Mobile phone apps are available.

FREE

Unlimited* storage for photos.
Up to 500 videos permitted with up to 10 minutes in length per video. Maximum display size of photos is 2048×1536 pixels each.
Maximum file size permitted is 5MB per photo and 500MB per video.

PRO Account: Monthly – US $2.99, Yearly – US $24.95, Biyearly - US $39.95

Your account not only includes unlimited storage* but also unmetered bandwidth (Photobucket reserves the right to disable direct linking on accounts that use excessive bandwidth or otherwise abuse the system).
Your original size images are stored (up to 20 MB) and you can have web-size images of up to 2 MB or 4000 x 3000 pixels per image. See Set your upload options for details.
There is no advertising in your account or your shared content from your account, although you may still see advertising for sponsored features,  in public search media, and in group albums (group albums receive free account benefits). Photobucket Logos do not count as advertising.
You can upload SWFs (10 MB or less.)
You can upload and download images via FTP.
Your account and your links to third-party websites remain active for the duration of your Pro subscription.
You have access to premium email tech support.

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