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Digital Photography

Do It Yourself Online by Jon Sienkiewicz Online photo services you should not be without Article rating: 9.37

Picture this. You just attended a friend’s daughter’s sixth birthday party. You had the only camera there. Encouraged by the host you shot about a hundred images. Your friends are leaving for an extended vacation and would like to have prints (two copies of each, please) by next Friday. And, of course, his wife says it would be great if she could share the image files with relatives in Egypt, Hawaii and Kansas—but not all of the relatives, mind you—she’d just like to show certain pictures to certain kinfolk. And last but not least, could you save all of those precious images of their little princess forever and ever? (Did I mention that you’re visiting these friends while en route to a bass fishing tournament in Mississippi and won’t even be near your printer for another two weeks?

Mission impossible? Nope. All of this—and much more—is child’s play if you use the right online services.

Where photography is concerned, online services excel in four areas. First, they can deliver perfect physical prints—of any size or shape—fast. All you need is an Internet connection to transmit the data. When you’re traveling on vacation or business you can beam your images to the online service and your finished prints will be home before you are.

Second, they can store digital image files forever. When it comes to permanent, archival storage, online services are second to none. Because of the gargantuan volume of data they store, they enjoy an enormous economy of scale. This allows them to deploy multiple redundancies that reduce the likelihood of failure to virtually zero.

Third, online services are the place to turn for poster-size prints, specialty printed items like calendars or jigsaw puzzles, and unique gifts like printed tee shirts or mugs. If you need a couple perfect 16x20 inch prints you can have them delivered to your door within a day to two.

Finally, online photo sites are unbeatable for sharing images with others. That’s probably the biggest argument for keeping all or part of your image library online. With many services it’s possible to create password protected albums and grant access on an individual basis. When Uncle Ralph asks for a copy of every shot you took at the family reunion you can give him the link to an album instead. Some online services will even print his favorites for him—at his expense—and handle all of the delivery, etc., directly with him. Whew!

Printing Experts
Amateur and professional photographers alike use the wide-ranging services of MPix as an extension of their own digital darkroom. It’s easy to understand why. MPix is a division of Miller Labs—the largest professional photo lab in the country. They’ve been serving professional photographers for decades (Miller was founded in 1939) and have the experience to deliver the highest quality prints at reasonable prices and shortest turn-around times (usually 24 hours). Miller’s and Mpix have made their bones with demanding professionals because they deliver prints of outstanding quality. Their experienced technicians apply professional color management standards that they have perfected over the course of several years.

They also offer a broad assortment of services, including bound picture books, calendars, greeting cards, gallery wraps and the like. And they offer true digital black and white services using Ilford professional black and white paper. The prints are packaged the way you’d pack them yourself, and print orders are generally shipped within 24 hours.

Bound picture books are the latest rage. Creating a picture book using Mpix is a snap. Download their proprietary software. You’ll find that the interface is very flexible and easy to use. It allows you to design the book exactly the way you want it and produce a .pdf file which is then uploaded to Mpix for printing. Turnaround (after Mpix receives the file) time is about 24 hours. Visit www.mpix.com to get started.

Best Bet for Online Storage
Phanfare (www.phanfare.com) is one of the fastest growing online video and photo sharing services. This is image sharing at its best. Create albums and grant access only to those people with whom you want to share. You can even store frequent recipients’ e-mail addresses online, so that when you catch that shot of a UFO hovering overhead you can spread it all over town with just a few key clicks.  Phanfare also provides tools to help you create online screensavers and downloadable slideshows, printed giftware and, of course, traditional prints. 

Phanfare uses the Amazon Simple Storage Service (Amazon S3) to provide unlimited storage and backup for all of their customers' videos and photos at multiple secure locations across the United States. Their customers have the added serenity of knowing that there are copies of their important image files at both a secure Phanfare datacenter in New Jersey and at Amazon.com's datacenters. Forever and ever.

Selling Your Images
For those who are looking to sell their images, the world of licensing, royalties, connecting with buyers, and pricing can be very difficult to navigate.  Thanks to the new PhotoShelter Collection (psc.photoshelter.com), there is now an open, online marketplace where photographers from hobbyists to professionals can upload their images and make them available for sale.  With guidance from the staff and photo editors at PhotoShelter, images are quality-sorted, keyworded, priced, and licensed, then made available for instant purchasing.  Anyone can apply to be a part of the PhotoShelter Collection, membership is completely free, and 70% of all sales go straight to the photographer.  The site has become a fan favorite rapidly – in its first eight weeks, more than 5,000 photographers uploaded more than 225,000 images.

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Hello, This article was very helpful, supplying me with specific names. I'm a mac user and want to store photos online. Snapfish only lets mac users upload 10 photos at a time and that's too tedious. What specific online storage system (preferably one where you can also order prints) would you recommend for me a mac user? Ideally there is one that is free or low price! Thanks for any suggestions. S.R. Posted by: Sarah Rosenbaum Sep 7, 2008 @ 3:22 AM EST

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