On-line Photo Repositories

[tastrekker]

I'm looking for a suitable place to use as an on-line photo repository. I have heard of a few here such as flickr, imagebam, photobucket. I've also noticed, some people use the photo album feature of their ISP, blog engine or social networking site. Some sites seem geared toward photo printing (e.g. HP's snapfish) but do not allow public sharing of photos. Another approach is to host photos on your own website.

I would love to hear what photo repository sites forum members are using and why.

[tasadam]

Have a look at this topic...

Not sure what the latest is...

[Son of a Beach]

If you have your own website, and have access to install PHP/MySQL stuff, the open source and free "Gallery" software is very good. It's what I use (not many photos yet), and it is very good - highly customisable. If you don't have your own place to install this, go for taswaterfalls' installation of Gallery which he's making available to other users (as linked by tasadam above).

[tas-man]

There is an incredible range of options "out there" at the moment, and it all depends on what you really are looking for as far as accessibility, public exposure, or just image links for something like this forum. Having had a long standing interest in photography, I joined up with http://photo.net/ some years ago to get some of my photos on line so I could send links to friends in the dial up days that were not kind to 1Mb photo files. PhotoNet has become a very "high brow" photography site in recent years with its member's critiquing system, and now requires you to be a paid up member to have more than 5 photos in your gallery. Full details of their services and costs are here http://photo.net/register/index.tcl?ret ... rectory%2f. A sample of one of my photos there is here http://photo.net/photodb/photo?photo_id=5995605.

A newer photography forum that I had a look at some time back is MyShots http://www.myshots.com/ but this site is also into displaying your photos in galleries and scoring "brownie points" so I have not ventured there yet.

When I had an immediate need to include a photo in on one of my first posts in this forum, I checked out a few "free" photo hosting sites and just happened to work out how to use Imagebam first up so have stuck with that so far even though it means that only a thumbnail can be included in a post which links to the original on Imagebam. The constraints on the free hosting there are that (1) you get adverts when accessing the original and (2) the link expires if no access occurs for a month. I have considered getting a DotMac account which would also provide a photo sharing facility. with the ever increasing speed of broadband, we are getting used to accessing and sending larger and larger files. I can remember sending a 80Kb DXF file from Brisbane to Sydney for plotting via a 300 baud modem in 1989 which took over half an hour! I am currently sending PDF drawings up to 10Mb! So I am still learning and look forward to hearing about what others are doing to share photos.

[Joe]

Im in process of setting up a free repository for folks from this forum. you will be able to upload to your hearts content with no fear of adverts or restrictions. My host is just being a pain with a single small feature not working, as soon as i overcome this its all go

For the minute im more than happy to set people up with thier own subdomain@taswaterfalls eg tasadam.taswaterfalls.com for gallery usage. Ill even install a gallery on it for you if you arent web savvy. Just PM me and we can get it organised

[Son of a Beach]

For my online photo repository, I use my own installation of the open source free "Gallery2" software. It's been very good so far, although I've only got a few photos there.

I've just heard of another package, which is also free and open source, and is also based on PHP/MySQL...
zenphoto is not quite as feature rich as Gallery, but it has a much smaller code base, and is meant to be faster and easier to use.

Has anyone tried zenphoto?

What other software do you guys use to host your photos in the web? Why do/don't you like any particular applications?

[Joe]

yeah I gave it a run when it first came out. Was ok...little stunted in some areas. My favourite of that style of gallery is Singapore:

http://www.sgal.org/

I used it for a long while...actually think i still do for my crappy photodump site. Ill pm you the address to it.

[Son of a Beach]

PS. I actually think that "Gallery2" is very good. The only problems I have with it are:

• It does not easily integrate with phpBB3 for authentication/account management (neither does anything else). It can be done (using 3rd party "Nuked Gallery"), but that requires a LOT of source code changes, making phpBB3 unmaintainable for upgrades, etc.
• The only way to add photos is via the web interface (no automated addition of photos/albums when photos are uploaded by FTP/SCP/etc or sent by email) - unless this feature is there and I just haven't found it (I've not really used it a lot so far). (just found info that says there's a zillion different ways to get photos into Gallery2, including FTP/SCP/etc - I'll have to try looking again)

[tasadam]

On my site http://www.tasadam.com I use Coppermine. (EDIT - Coppermine site now offline) There's a link at the bottom of each page (I think). I can FTP photos in and out, I can URL the images. It comes with heaps of themes. I just haven't had time to play with all the themes yet to get it perfect - which is holding me back a bit - have to start from scratch if I want to resize default image from 640w to 800w, which I wouldn't mind doing.
Is this the same sort of thing?

[Son of a Beach]

On my site http://www.tasadam.com I use Coppermine. There's a link at the bottom of each page (I think). I can FTP photos in and out, I can URL the images. It comes with heaps of themes. I just haven't had time to play with all the themes yet to get it perfect - which is holding me back a bit - have to start from scratch if I want to resize default image from 640w to 800w, which I wouldn't mind doing.
Is this the same sort of thing?

Yep, that's the same kind of thing. I think I need to find a good comparative review of some of the different products. Still, none of them seem to integrate well with phpBB3 without severe hacking of code, which is my main problem. Wikipedia has a tabular comparison of many of the products. There sure are a lot out there. I found another page that lists 45!

[Joe]

there is gallery remote too...which is cross platform java doover which is very nice. well worth checking out.

[dtasker]

PS. I actually think that "Gallery2" is very good. The only problems I have with it are:

[*][s]The only way to add photos is via the web interface (no automated addition of photos/albums when photos are uploaded

Check out Gallery remote - a free add on tool taht allows you to create albums, add phota and text.

david T

[lexharris]

Like others above I use the open source Gallery2 with Gallery Remote to upload. No complaints. My web host provides unlimited space which suits me because I have a lot of images to upload (eventually)! Send me a PM if you want host details. Of course running your own site does involve a certain amount of work and at least some basic knowledge of web design. If you're not into that then taswaterfalls offer of a group Gallery2 site with user galleries would be a good way to go.
Lex
http://www.lexharris.net

[the_camera_poser]

I just opened up a Zenfolio account- it's awesome. Way superior to Photobucket or Flikr IMHO. Very easy to use, customizable, and nicely presented. I was able ot link it to a domain name of my choosing as well.

Have a look, just ignore the crappy photos.

http://www.away-from-it-all.net

Cheers, Bob

[Son of a Beach]

It's a nice look Bob.

I've recently switched from Gallery2 to Zenphoto (not Zenfolio) for my own website, on the recommendation of a couple of forum members.

When I first tried Zenphoto it was a bit new and lacking in features. But it is now a worth competitor to Gallery2 without quite as much bloat, and is easier to use. It also allows to add photos, or create new albums (and sub-albums) merely by uploading (or copying) folders of photos into place. This made it trivially easy to transfer all my photos over from Gallery2.

[dtasker]

The thing to remember here is that Zenfolio, Flickr and the like are Public Hosts - where as Gallery2 needs to be installed on a server and it is essentially private.
While it is possible for someone to set up Gallery2 and then give out account details so that other people can upload image sthat is not what it was originally developed for and its a poor choice for that unless teh photo site is collaborative.

Its possibly a minor point that I am bringing as so far I get the feeling that those of you posting into this discussion understand this, but new readers might not realise the difference.
So just to clarify. If you own you own domain name, have a hosting plan and have a bit of technical skill and computer knowledge then Gallery 2 is somthing that you could look at.
But it is not easy to set up and get working, permissions have to be set, php pages have to be edited and a lot of customiszation.

Flickr and Zenfolio and other Public Hosts work pretty much as soon as you create an account with them. The problen with Flickr and like site is that you cant customise the look. And they are really just a place to dump and share. Zenfolio certainly looks much better ( at first glance) as being easy to use and custimizable with a range of themes

If I had abit more time ( Hey I am busy publishing some photo books on Blurb ) I would - should do a comparison but then Google probably has something out tehre.

Flickr is free - Zenfolio is Userpay and their fees are reasonable - after all their offering Website Hosting effectively for $40US where you can link your domain name ( if you own one) to them.

I currently use gallery2 on http://www.davidtasker.com but have planned for sometime now to move to some software that my son Sean has developed. ( This is not an advertisement)
Even with remote upload I still dont do it often enough - in fact its been over a year since I uploaded anything and Gallery2 is awkward to re-arrange things.

As I have my own hosting company I am reluctant to use ( pay someone else) for Zenfolio as obviously I want to use my own hosting space
But what I have seen so far Zenfolio is a pretty good deal at $40US - Oh if only the OZ dollar wasnt so weak we wouldnt even think about it. Just do it.
David T

[the_camera_poser]

David- that site is stunning, as is your photography. Do you have a gallery, or do you sell stuff in this area?

[dtasker]

Thanks for that "Camera User"

I don't have a gallery - but I do have a passion.
I have sold images in the past and one day I hope to have a shopping cart on my site. My Son promised for my
birthday (last July LOL)

I am working on a number of books at the moment. I am still unsure if I will make the books public or just do a short
run for family and friends.

Best email me at dtasker AT netspace dot net dot au
I dont like to solicit on-line Nik will be after me

[farefam]

Try the Google product Picasa. It is free (unless you exceed 1GB). I think you'll find it very easy to use and share with friends. As an example try going to my public page on Picasa which contains a selection of Tasmanian, New Zealand and NSW shots http://picasaweb.google.com.au/farefam

[Steve]

Another one, if not already mentioned, is DeviantArt.

My page is the standard (and free!), you can pay a membership to get more features.

http://stevejchristie.deviantart.com/

[stoogest]

I just signed up to SmugMug. It's incredible. Very easy to simply add photos to an existing template/theme, but at the same time infinitely customisable.

[Mickeymoo]

I just signed up to SmugMug. It's incredible. Very easy to simply add photos to an existing template/theme, but at the same time infinitely customisable.

I also signed up to smugmug a few months ago and have found it to be very good, as you can easily customise and can even use your own web address instead of the default .smugmug one, the option of upgrading to the pro account with full sale capabilities is also good if you decide that you want to get real serious later on, would definantly recommend it.

Michael.