Photo Sharing Websites

Rather than sending photos by email you can upload them to a photo sharing website and then send a link to people with whom you want to share the photos.

There are a number of advantages to this approach:

  • Email providers often limit the size of emails which means that if you want to, for example, share 20 photos of a family reunion then you may have to send multiple emails each with one or two photos.

  • If people have a slow Internet connection then they will not be happy to receive large photo emails which might take some time to download.

  • A photo sharing website provides another form of back up of your photos (though it would be unwise to use It as a primary back up)

  • Some photo sharing sites allow you to order prints or to use your photos to create photo books or calendars.

A number of photo sharing sites which offer free storage space are available, eg Flickr or Google Photos. The free space provided is usually ample for personal use but can be increased by paying an annual subscription. You usually need to register to use the service and then to sign in when you want to use your account. Choice of photo sharing website is a matter of personal preference and may be influenced by which ones your friends and family already use.

Once you've registered and signed in you can start to upload your photos. Sites differ in how they do this but there is usually an "Upload" command available and then you can select one or more pictures on your computer and upload them to your photo sharing sites. Some sites also allow you to select whether to upload the original size photo or whether to resize it when uploading to save space.

Once pictures have been uploaded then you can share them with other people. Look for a "Share" button and then follow the instructions. This will send an email to the person(s) you wish to share with. They then simply click on the link and can view your photos. You can also usually share photos as a slide show, ie send a link which will automatically display the photos as a slide show to the recipient.

Many people also use social networking sites such as Facebook for photo sharing.

Join one of our digital photographs courses for more information or create an account for yourself and see what you can do with a photo sharing website!