Snap decision: sharing your photos online

Fotango 
This is a great site for sharing your photos with friends and family – it’s free to use and there is no limit on storage space, so you can safely upload all your holiday shots in one session.

One feature we didn’t find anywhere else is the option to send film rolls for processing, for those who still use a film camera as well as digital devices. Part of the package is that the pictures on the rolls of film are scanned and put online so they can be shared along with your digital snaps. You can mix and match them in the albums as you wish.

While this is a great site for sharing your photos, it’s one of the more expensive ones for printing them. Ordering only a few prints will set you back 49p per standard 6 x 4in photo and prices don’t go below 24p per print if you order 40 or more. There are plenty of gift options, however, ranging from fridge magnets and t-shirts, to posters and frames. Users are also credited with three free prints every time a friend registers.

Our photos arrived within 36 hours of placing the order, making Fotango one of the quicker services here. The prints were excellent, with good detail and well-saturated, true colours. For digital prints that differ from the standard photo sizes, there are various cropping options available, so you can choose which area of a picture you want printed.

Jessops
The Jessops photo-printing service differs slightly from the others we’ve looked at here, as it offers free in-store collection. Customers can choose whether they want to pay for first-class post and wait up to five days for delivery or select a preferred Jessops store and pick them up after two days.

Sharing your photos is simple, as the site is easy to navigate and uploading photos is quick, although it doesn’t work as well on browsers such as Opera and Mozilla as it does on Internet Explorer. Bear in mind that storage space is limited to 70MB though, before you attempt to upload higher resolution shots.

When you’re ordering prints, the photo size always defaults to 7 x 5in rather than the standard 6 x 4in. Should you want to change the print size, there is no ‘select all’ option, which is annoying, especially if you’ve just uploaded hundreds of photos and want to order the same print size for each.

We chose to pick up our ordered prints in store and this process works in the same way as picking up your developed 35mm film – remember to take the confirmation email with you and the prints should be available behind the counter. Prints are reasonably priced at 25p each for 6 x 4in copies and 15p each for orders exceeding 100 prints.

Our pictures were available for collection two days after our order was placed, but there is no notification when prints are available in store – you either have to take your chances or phone to check. Quality was good – the prints came out very well, with a good level of detail and decent colour reproduction, if a little over-saturated – but it was one of the best on test.

Kodak Easyshare Gallery 
This site, previously known as Ofoto, offers high-quality photos at affordable prices. The service is free and offers good value for photo sharing, as there is no limit on storage space. With impressive image-editing tools, this site is really worth a visit if you don’t already have a photo-editing application on your computer. Besides the usual rotating and cropping tools, you can reduce red-eye, add tints and filters and correct imperfect exposure of your images.

The cost of 6 x 4in prints is 19p, which is reasonable, but there are no discounts for large volumes. New users receive 10 free prints when they first register with the site. Any free credits that you’re entitled to are shown at the top of all ordering pages, which makes it easier to see what you can get without paying if you’re planning on placing an order. The help section is one of the best we’ve seen and offers answers to even our most intricate queries.

The prints arrived within 48 hours of placing the order, which is not bad, although some of Kodak’s competitors beat this delivery time. The prints didn’t disappoint either. Printed on thick glossy paper with a decent level of detail, the colour reproduction was good although the photos were slightly dark.

Photobox
Compared to some of the other sites reviewed in this test, Photobox might look pretty basic. Storage space is limited to 200MB, so if you’re planning to add a lot of high-resolution snaps, you might be in trouble. For every order placed, though, your storage space is increased by 50MB, so if you order lots of prints, you’ll be able to beef up your storage quickly.

Prints are not the cheapest we’ve seen, but acceptable, starting at 29p each and dropping depending on the size of your order. There are lots of gift options available – you can see your photo on mugs, calendars, mousemats and other novelty items.
The prints from Photobox were the first to arrive, within 24 hours of placing the order, but the quality could have been better.

Compared to those ordered from other sites, the paper quality isn’t great. Colour reproduction isn’t that bad, if a little over-saturated, but the details still came out reasonably well compared to prints ordered from other sites.

Photobox also has an option to send photos to a UK-based mobile phone. The service is free for subscribers to the site, but the recipient will be charged at the normal MMS rate of their operator.