Sharing Your Digital Photos
By Debbie Ridpath Ohi, N2Arts Correspondent
How to share your digital photos with your friends and family
 

o you’ve got a great digital camera and have taken some great shots you’d like to share with friends and family. What’s the best way to go about it?

Much will depend on the people you want to see the photos. If one of your friends only uses a dial-up line with no high-speed access, for example, they won’t appreciate you sending a two megabyte file (no matter how cute your cat looks in it) since it will take a while to download. On the other hand, some other friend may have acres of bandwidth and want you to send them a high-quality file so that they can make their own prints.

In general, however, it’s best that you keep your file sizes small for online use. Some photographers purposely only post low-resolution images to discourage image theft. Even if someone copies the file, they will not be able to get a good print.

How do I shrink my file size?

There are several ways to decrease the size of your digital photo files, but before you start fiddling with any particular file, save a copy of the original first.

You can shrink your file size by:

* Cropping. Crop out unneeded areas, and you could reduce your photo size considerably. Cropping is also a good opportunity to improve your photo as well.

* Changing the resolution. For display on a computer monitor, a resolution of 72 dpi is fine.

* Using compression. Most graphic programs give you options when saving a file. Opting for a lower compression ("low quality” or “medium quality” rather than “high quality") can help reduce file size.

Different methods for sharing your digital photos:

* Print your photos and then give out copies.

* Send them by e-mail. Be sure to ask your intended recipient for permission first! Some people don’t like getting attachments because of fear of viruses, and may even delete your photos without looking at them if they don’t know what they are.

* Post them online and invite friends and family to view them. If you don’t have your own Web space where you can post your photos, there are many online services which will allow you to do this for free or for a small charge.

Online photo sharing sites:

How online photo sharing services work:

1. Upload your photos. You are given a URL of the page where your photos are displayed.

2. Send this URL of the page to friends and family along with the password, if you are using a service which uses password-protected photo pages.

Some services also offer print options as well, where you pay a fee per printed photo.

Paid services vary widely in price and offerings but not surprisingly, most give you more flexibility than the free services.

In general, a paid service will give you more storage space and extra perks like customizable photo albums, discount on prints. Be sure to read the terms of service before signing up.

Questions to ask yourself before signing up for a service:

- How much storage space does it offer? How many photos?

- Can photo pages be password-protected?

- Can you get your photos printed if you want? How much?

- How fast is picture uploading? (Test this by signing up and uploading a few photos)

- How is personal information used by the company? Some may harvest your e-mail address as well as any friends you notify about photo albums, so be sure to check the fine print.

- How long will photos be displayed? Some free services will delete the pictures after a certain amount of time.

Debbie Ridpath Ohi is a Toronto-based freelance writer and photographer who has several online comic strips and performs with the music group Urban Tapestry. Her Web site can be found at http://www.inkygirl.com.