Photo Sharing Sites - Looking for Advice

Hi there!

I use www.kodakgallery.com

It is really easy to use. Just create a user account (free) and then upload your pictures. You can create an address book of e-mail addresses and even create different groups. For example, I have a small group who gets pictures ALOT (my parents, my in laws, my sister, etc...). Then I have a larger group who gets 6 month updates. Extended family and such. Once you 'share' the photos, they get an e-mail with a link from kodak. They click that and then a seperate window opens with a slideshow. They have the option to view it in different formats... slide show, mosaic, etc....

The only downside is you can not download right from the site. Meaning, you can't right click and then do a 'save as' function. The pictures are too small. You USED to be able to do that, but then kodak wised up. ;-) Anyway, there aren't any sites out there that do allow you to do that withou paying for a premium membership. Trust me... I've looked. My inlaws are overseas and they like digital photos ... they were used to downloading from the site. Now we have to send them seperately in an e-mail.

Anyway.... other than that, the site is super easy to use.

My mother orders pictures from the site ALL the time. Seriously, every time I send a link, she orders some. The pictures look great. Just like if you took a roll and developed the roll. The other thing my mom REALLY likes is the delivery options. She can choose to either have them mailed to her at home, OR pick them up at CVS. I think there are other pick up options...but she shops at CVS so that is where she has them sent. She said when she has them sent to CVS, often times she can pick them up in about 3 days! Whereas if she mails them it can take more then a week.

I have used Snapfish before as well, and like you, were not impressed with the quality of photos. The one thing I WILL say about Snapfish is I really love their calendar options. I created a calendar for my mom last year and it turned out BEAUTIFUL! Seriously wonderful. I love the option they have of putting photos INTO the actual calendar days. So, on my mom's birthday I put a picture of she and my daughter, and the same for my dad, and my sister and BIL. Then, photos of them on their anniversary. It just gave it a little extra something special. Kodakgallery has some great calendar options as well...but you can't put pictures into the calendar days. I also made a tie for my dad...which turned out really great. So, even though Snapfish prints aren't great, the products are pretty good.

Now, there is another site called ... smilebox. I used that for our Christmas Card. For like $4 I sent out an e-card with a mini-slide show with a holiday theme and Christmas music. They also have other options where you can send out slide shows with up to like 500 pictures. They tend to be more scrab-booky kind of layouts. It's cool, and certainly has a purpose. I don't know if all of them have a fee or not. The other thing is you create these 'projects'. Whereas in Kodakgallery you create folders of pictures, like on your hard drive. Kodak has a TON of product options that you can put your pictures into. You just choose the product and then pick the picture. It's super easy. Also, I trust Kodak. They have a reputation for photos and when you are sharing memories I think that is important.

Good luck!

P. K ~
I also use kodakgallery.com. I started there when I bought my first kodak digital cameral. It is very easy to use. I have also ordered from snapfish and winkflash, but they crop funny. Kodak is exactly what you would expect from kodak. They do have a slideshow presentation, but it's not set to music. They have a ton of items you can order, including cards. I have done a photobook (as well as a couple people from work), and they a really beautiful! Right now their prints are on sale for 150 prints/$15 (usually 15 cents/print). You can adjust the cropping. And I always have them shipped to CVS...it's only $2.50, compared to shipping to my home. I do copy pictures that my step-daughter uploads all the time...I click on the picture, make it full-sized, right click "save as" and save them.
have fun!
D.

Another Walgreens fan here. All of our family is all over the country and it's so easy to upload the photos, then anyone can print any photo at a store convenient to them. We set up a generic account of sorts so everyone uploads to the same account, organized by album and I've not had a problem with the quality at all.

My only issue is that I like the matte finish so I have to call my local store once I've sent an order and request that they print them on the matte paper instead of glossy. Most of the employees there will do it without hesitation - I'm not so sure they just "know" me by now and expect my call when they see my order.

I've not used anyone else, and not sure about your slide show option since I've not had a need to use it.

WWW.Photoworks.com

Its user friendly.
I can't comment on the quality because I myself have not printed from there I only send out pictures.
Most people have said to me that they prefer this over shutterfly.

I love shutterfly! I have used them for basic pictures, calendars, cards, photo books and have a site where I share my pictures with my family and friends. Its super easy to use, great quality prints and inexpensive. Only con is the site sometimes runs a little slowly, but that is typically due to me waiting months to upload my pictures. I would highly recommend it!

I LOVE Photomax. I have used them for years and to answer all your questions, they're great! I have ordered all my baby announcements from them and the quality is great. They also have the music for the slideshows. I have been really happy with their site.
www.photomax.com

Hi! We alternate between shutterfly.com and walgreens.com. I've found with gifts like cards, calendars, photo books, shutterfly's quality is MUCH better than snapfish. We also use walgreens because you can pick-up from any store. So if my mom who lives in Northern MI wants pictures of her grandchild, I load them onto Walgreens website, and put her zip code in, and she can pick them up in a hour at the Walgreens by her. So easy!

I have used snapfish and shutterfly. I have always had a super fast turn around with shutterfly. I have never ordered anything from snapfish except getting film developed. I have done cards with shutterfly and was happy.

I use yorkphoto.com. The per picture price is typically lower than Snapfish, and the picture quality is WAY better than a roll of 35mm film. (Well, at least the last roll I developed which was about four years ago!) Good luck!

I too use snapfish, however I just started using Picasa. It's a free download, I haven not ordered any pictures yet but there is a musical slideshow option and it's great. The quality of the digital image comes across in full resolution when you share your album...unlike Snapfish. The pictures can be displayed on a full screen which is great because you can see it much better.

Hope you find what you are looking for!

i have just recently used a photo site for the first time. i don't have anything to compare it to but i used shutterfly. when i signed up i got 50 free prints (i don't know if that is all the time or if it was some special at the time). it was easy for me to use and my pictures came sooner than expected.

Picaboo is great, makes good prints and you can also do photo books. I also use Phanfare. You can put together slide shows with music and different photo albums.

I've tried several different sites and honestly wal-mart has worked the best for me. You can opt to do 1hr. or home or store delivery with a longer turn around time. I usually do the one hour(I usually decide I need pics printed at the last minute) so I'm not sure of the quality on the other options. Wal-mart offers what they call group rooms where you can upload your photos and invite family and friends to join the room and view or print your pics. So everyone uploads to one place and everyone can print what they want at whatever store they want. I guess the only downfall is I can't put pictures that someone else uploaded on a disk. They offer lots of projects such as mugs, cards, digital scrapbooks, etc. I have done cards that turned out great. It's very user friendly. I've had no need for customer service and I'm not sure about the slide show options. Good luck

I tried both Shutterfly and Kodak. I like them both. With Kodak, you have to make at least one purchase per year to use their service for free. You can order one picture, and that counts as a your purchase.

With Shutterfly, you can type little messages on the back of your photo when you have them printed. That has come in handy when I've sent pictures to my relatives and wanted to name who was in the pictures, for example. That feature is free. I don't know of any other service that offers that.