The simplest option is to use email to distribute digital photos. However, image files tend to be pretty beefy and, unless the intended recipient has a broadband internet connection, a large email attachment will leave them racking up call charges as they hang around online waiting for the email to download.
You could save images on a CD and drop them in the post but that's not really taking advantage of the benefits of digital photography. There is a far better way: online photo-sharing services.
These sites, many of them free, let you set up online photo albums to which you can upload your photos. All you have to do then is email your friends, often through the website itself, and tell them how to access your album.
They'll be able to see your snaps on screen and most sites let them order photographic prints, which will be delivered to their door. Interested? Join us then, as we profile six of the best photo-sharing sites and take a closer look at the options they offer.
What's the score?
Most online photo-sharing websites operate in the same way. Before you can use the site, you need to register. It's often free to do so but you do have to give your name, email address and sometimes your postal address and phone number too.
Once registered, you can set up online albums to which you assign a name, such as 'Walking in the Lake District', and a description, for example, 'A photo diary of our hiking holiday'. Now you can start uploading photos into your album. Bear in mind that only JPEG files tend to be supported.
All the sites we looked at have a dedicated upload page that guides you through the process. While this is adequate for uploading a few photographs (generally you're limited to uploading 10 images in one go), for larger numbers some sites provide software you can download and install onto your PC.
This allows you to take your time and select the photos you want to upload while offline and then upload them once you log on to the site.
Most sites also offer the option of editing uploaded photos, with tools available to rotate images, add text labels and frames and borders to each photo and a selection of special effects and filters. Occasionally, you'll have a fully featured image-editing application at your disposal too.
The next task is to decide who you want to share your album with and invite them to view it online. Typically, there'll be a link on the site, after the album-creation stage, to a screen where you can enter the email addresses of intended recipients.
They are each sent an automated message informing them that your photos are available to view. Usually the message will give the album's name, the brief description and sometimes it will include a thumbnail of the first photo.
The message will tell your friends how to view the album, often by providing a link which they can click on or a URL which they can paste into their browser. They can then take a look at your photos, although many of the sites limit the size at which they can be viewed to around 640 x 480 pixels.
Often your friends or family will also be able to order physical prints online. These are printed on proper photographic paper and are delivered within a few days.
Prices vary and you should be aware that the print sales effectively allow these sites to offer free photo-sharing. This means that the cost of prints from free sites is often a lot more expensive than they would be if ordered from a site that charges you to put your photos online. Often you can buy fun products such as photo-mugs, jigsaws, and T-shirts too.
Fotango
http://photos.fotango.com
This site is free to use and there's no limit on the amount of photo-storage space you're allocated. As a result, it's great for sharing photos with friends. As you might expect, however, there are hidden costs when it comes to ordering prints.
These start at 49p each for normal 6 x 4in photos and only drop to 24p when you order 40 or more at once. If you're looking for a photo-sharing service that friends and family can order prints from, this is the most expensive site here. As a sweetener, however, you get three free prints each time a friend registers.
For those who still shoot on film as well as digitally, Fotango has a nice feature that isn't found on the other sites. If you send the firm rolls of film for processing these are scanned and put online. You can then include them in albums alongside digital photos.
Kapture-it
www.kapture-it.co.uk
Kapture-it differs from most of the other sites here in two respects. First of all, it is solely a photo-sharing site and there is no print service attached to it.
Secondly, apart from the free trial that allows just 50 photographs to be posted online and only allows them to be uploaded three at a time, you have to pay for the service.
The charge of £3 per month or £30 per year limits you to 250 photos or 170MB of storage space, with a maximum image size of 1MB. Alternatively, £4 per month or £40 annually buys you 1,500 images or 1GB of storage and a 2MB maximum image size.
For those particularly interested in photography, however, there are a few extra features on offer. If you want to learn how to get the best from your digital camera, for example, there are instructive online tutorials written by experts to offer a few pointers.
And if you want to pick up ideas from looking at the work of fellow subscribers, there's a public gallery to which users can choose to contribute images.
Ofoto
www.ofoto.co.uk
Ofoto is a service run by Kodak and, unsurprisingly, it offers a comprehensive and reasonably priced print service. Subscribers are charged 24p for 6 x 4in prints irrespective of volume and 10 free prints when they first register.
Ofoto also offers good value for photo sharing. The service is free and, although the terms and conditions specify that Ofoto reserves the right to impose a storage space limit at some point in the future, at the moment you can store as many photographs as you want.
The most impressive thing about this site, though, is its image editor. While other sites we have looked at include tools that allow you to rotate images and some that allow you to add borders to photos, the Ofoto image editor offers many more features.
You can reduce red-eye in your photos, correct dodgy exposure and add a number of special effects and tints to your digital images. This will prove to be very useful if you don't already have a photo-editing application on your PC.
PhotoBox
www.photobox.co.uk
The basic PhotoBox service is free although, unlike some of the other free sites, it does not offer unlimited storage space. Subscribers are given just 30MB when they first register and this rises to 100MB when a print order is first placed.
If you have a 5-megapixel camera, you could fill this with a mere 100 photos. If more space is required, then the site charges a one-off fee of £10 for every additional 100MB of space.
At 29p each, dropping to 24p for an order of 20 or more, the 6 x 4in prints are neither cheap nor overly expensive. Also on offer is a huge range of novelty items - you can order photos on mouse mats, calendars, etched glass paperweights, polo shirts and more.
PhotoBox also has an interesting service that it claims is a first. You can select any photo in your album and send it to a UK mobile phone. This is free, although your friends will pay a normal MMS charge to receive it.
Pixagogo
www.pixagogo.com
Pixagogo is one of only two sites we have featured not to offer any kind of free service. After a 15-day free trial subscribers must pay €5 (about £3.30) per month or €50 (just over £33) per year.
This allows unlimited storage space and no limit on the file size of individual photographs. Unlike all the other sites here, photos can be uploaded in most common file formats, so you're not just limited to JPEGs. Pixagogo is also one of the few sites that lets you view images at full size.
In return for the paid-for or photo-sharing service, subscribers can enjoy lower print costs compared to the other sites we have covered. You are charged €0.28 (less than 20p) for 6 x 4in photos with lower prices for larger volumes. But bear in mind that the rival website Pixum (see below) offers a free service with cheaper print prices, especially for low-volume orders.
The blurb on the Pixagogo website suggests that it's very unlikely it will ever lose your photos. That said, you only have their word for it and it's hard to assess the systems underpinning the site, so you might want to think twice about using this - or any of the sites here - for archiving purposes. We advise that you keep a master copy of all your photos on your PC.
Pixum
www.pixum.co.uk
Pixum might be a free service but, unlike some of the other free sites, it does not offer unlimited storage space to its customers. Even so, it will probably take some time to fill up the 200MB allowance so this may not be a major concern.
Where the other sites here offer a webpage interface or a downloadable application for uploading photos, Pixum also provides users with the option to email photos to their albums.
Where the site really comes into its own, though, is when you order prints. At 14p each for 6 x 4 prints, irrespective of the order size but subject to a £2 delivery charge, this is certainly the cheapest source of prints.
And if that isn't enough, new users get 10 prints free. The novelty products, of which Pixum offers a good range, are also reasonably priced.
The final frame
Digital cameras let you see your photos as soon as you've taken them; photo-sharing websites mean that your friends and family can see them straightaway too. What's more, many of them are free and give you the option of ordering proper photographic prints without leaving the house.
Our 'Try It' award goes to Pixum. It's free and although there is a 200MB storage limit, this will be more than enough for most users. The photo-sharing facilities are much like those of the other sites but the prices for prints are unparalleled.
We were also impressed by Ofoto. Like Pixum it's free but there's absolutely no limit on how many shots you put online. Where this site really excels is in its photo-editing facilities, which are second to none.
Security
Putting your photos online might sound like a good idea but what about security? In theory only the people you've chosen to share them with can see your photos, but in practice it's not that simple. With some sites your friends must register in order to view your albums.
This is the most secure option, since only those people with the email addresses you specify will be able to log on and view your photos. With other sites the sharing process just involves the people you want to share your album with being sent a URL that they can type into the address bar on their browser to see your album. If anyone else guesses that URL or if a friend passes it on, they too would be able to see your photos.
If you're really worried about putting photos of your kids online and are not convinced of a site's security then, quite simply, don't do it. Remember that nothing is ever 100 per cent secure.
Do it yourself
Using one of the sites featured here isn't the only way of sharing your photographs. The alternative is to set up your own website. It's a lot more work but there is one major benefit you should consider, namely flexibility.
With a photo-sharing site you choose which photos go in which album, give your albums names and descriptions and you might be able to add descriptions to individual photographs. But that's about as far as it goes.
The layout of the album, the size at which people can view your photos and a range of other factors are all pre-determined. If you create your own website, however, the sky's the limit; the only constraint is your own creativity.
Want something more imaginative than a plain white background? What about some music playing while your family and friends peruse your photos? If you're in control you can do all this and more.
And don't think that creating an ordinary website means that it's open to all and sundry; it's easy to make your site, or parts of it, accessible only to those people you choose to see it. If you want to learn more about how you could benefit from setting up your own website, see our feature here.
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