Online Photo Albums
A few people have asked what I use or recommend as an online photo tool. I’ve tried a few from Ofoto to Imagestation and investigated various photoblog systems as well as out of the box php applicaitons like Gallery. Picasa doesn’t quite count as an online tool but I still looked into it. So here’s my take on some of them. I did a huge spreadsheet years ago of older ones like Shutterfly but I haven’t included that information here.
First, what I looked for: - something that could look good with any blog I design - something preferrably free or very cheap - something that lets me store full rez photos and others to download them - sometihng that lets people order prints - tools that help me colour correct, crop and maybe red eye touchup - easy uploading tool - easy organization of photos - easy sharing without viewers needing to get accounts - blog integration (ideally, near one click post to blog)
Ofoto
Pros: - upload tool lets me crop to typical photo ratios or custom ratios and save changes - free - can order prints - don’t need account to view
Cons: - people can’t view or download high rez pictures - stupid photo index always pops up new window - ugly - no blog integration
Picasa
Pros: - “Hello!” integration to Blogger - Great viewing client - lots of basic correction tools built in - can order prints (integration with an online source) - has trouble refreshing directories sometimes to see new photos added
Cons: - no online photo album - only integrates to Blogger - corrections cannot be permanently applied to photos so they get lose when you upload them
Imagestation
Pros: - No disk space limit, full rez downloads - Reasonably usable site - Only online cropping/correction tools which are slow - Can order prints and other photo merchandise like mugs
Cons: - Slow uploader - Slow site. Really, painfully, slow. Seeing a theme here? - Now costs 9.99/mo for ability to share full rez pictures with friends
Flickr
Pros: - don’t need account to view - can set photos to only show friends or family - slick interface - tagging system to organize photos - high rez photos for download - ability to post to blog - no limit on disk storage - free for 10MB of image uploads per month
Cons: - can’t post to blog categories - uploader crashes sometimes and has no editing capabilities other than rotate - if you want print rez pics, you’ll need to go pro ($40/year) for 1GB upload per month (which I couldn’t even exceed when I uploaded my last 3 years of photos) - no print ordering
I considered using Gallery but its default look and feel is ugly and just wasn’t something I’d want. I probably didn’t have the time to spare to make it into what I did want either. So far, none of the applications do the basic photo editing right. Picasa is damn close - if I could just save the damn changes. I’m finally switching off of Imagestation now because I don’t like that people have a barrier to seeing the photos and am in the process of moving our photos to Flickr. You can see our full set of albums and photos here.

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