Recently, some photo sharing sites have been in the news.
Not because of amazing new features they just released, or because they had such amazing products, but for the wrong reasons.
Some of the most popular sites upset some users because they either deleted the users photos or downsized the quality so it was impossible for them to ever get their full size images back.
Why is this important? Because the user's computer crashed and They lost all their precious photos forever! Simply put: Most Free sites will delete your account unless you purchase one item per year, and worse yet, will never let you download your full size images if your computer crashes (but sometimes you can buy the photos on a CD for big $$).
On the other hand, there have been several photo sharing services popping up over the last couple years that charge either a monthly or yearly fee to use the service.
Many people have been asking the question, are they worth it? Well, of course, it depends.
Some examples of things you can get in a paid service but not in a "free" service: o No ads: Most "pay" sites have no ads o Unlimited storage for all your photos o Your guests do not have to sign up to view your photos.
o You won't have your account deleted if you don't buy prints once a year (some "free" services are notorious for this) o No small resolution photos ("free" sites often reduce the resolution of your photos that they do store) o No "free for a few photos, expensive for more" plans like Picasaweb's or Flickr o Custom themes and gallery personalization, along with full screen slide shows o More safety for your photos.
Pay sites rarely close; many free sites-even from Yahoo, HP, Canon and Microsoft-have closed.
The main reason to use a paid service is for the archival ability (they store all your photos online in case your computer or hard drive ever crashes), and the ability to let your friends download full sized images.
I can simply email my family and friends a simple URL, where they go to my gallery and download the full size image for free! This is very useful when you want to email many large picture files that may be over 2 megabytes each! Ouch, that's a quick way to clog up somebody's email.
Now if you don't need those two features, then paying may not make sense for you.
If you just want cheap prints, and have many safe backup copies of your photos, then the pay sites are probably not your best resource, as their prints are often very high quality but also double the price of the "free" sites.
So in the end, it really comes down to this: -For cheap prints, use the "free" sites where you can find the best deals on prints, photobooks, calendars, etc -For a back-up of your precious and irreplaceable photos, to email your photos, and to create custom galleries use one of the premium services.
Happy Shooting!
Not because of amazing new features they just released, or because they had such amazing products, but for the wrong reasons.
Some of the most popular sites upset some users because they either deleted the users photos or downsized the quality so it was impossible for them to ever get their full size images back.
Why is this important? Because the user's computer crashed and They lost all their precious photos forever! Simply put: Most Free sites will delete your account unless you purchase one item per year, and worse yet, will never let you download your full size images if your computer crashes (but sometimes you can buy the photos on a CD for big $$).
On the other hand, there have been several photo sharing services popping up over the last couple years that charge either a monthly or yearly fee to use the service.
Many people have been asking the question, are they worth it? Well, of course, it depends.
Some examples of things you can get in a paid service but not in a "free" service: o No ads: Most "pay" sites have no ads o Unlimited storage for all your photos o Your guests do not have to sign up to view your photos.
o You won't have your account deleted if you don't buy prints once a year (some "free" services are notorious for this) o No small resolution photos ("free" sites often reduce the resolution of your photos that they do store) o No "free for a few photos, expensive for more" plans like Picasaweb's or Flickr o Custom themes and gallery personalization, along with full screen slide shows o More safety for your photos.
Pay sites rarely close; many free sites-even from Yahoo, HP, Canon and Microsoft-have closed.
The main reason to use a paid service is for the archival ability (they store all your photos online in case your computer or hard drive ever crashes), and the ability to let your friends download full sized images.
I can simply email my family and friends a simple URL, where they go to my gallery and download the full size image for free! This is very useful when you want to email many large picture files that may be over 2 megabytes each! Ouch, that's a quick way to clog up somebody's email.
Now if you don't need those two features, then paying may not make sense for you.
If you just want cheap prints, and have many safe backup copies of your photos, then the pay sites are probably not your best resource, as their prints are often very high quality but also double the price of the "free" sites.
So in the end, it really comes down to this: -For cheap prints, use the "free" sites where you can find the best deals on prints, photobooks, calendars, etc -For a back-up of your precious and irreplaceable photos, to email your photos, and to create custom galleries use one of the premium services.
Happy Shooting!
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