Free Image Sharing Resources
Looking for free image sharing? You have heaps of choices and as many options as there are photography styles! Everything from Photobucket to Flickr, and then some. And the best thing? They're all completely free to use...
The fact that there's a wide variety of free image sharing hosts available means you get more choices about what you want to do with your images. Whether that's hosting your images for social networking sites like Hi5.com or just sharing videos and photos with friends and family. Or using online photo gift and print stores to print your own photo product or edit your photos.
Generally speaking a free image sharing host will allow you to upload, share, link and organize your images and videos, all for free. There may be some limits to image sizes but generally these hosts (websites) will offer you unlimited storage space. They also have a community element to them - you can comment on other people's photos and share ideas with other like minded photographers too.
Here's an overview of the popular free image sharing sites:
Photobucket: Photobucket is probably one of the top image sharing sites. They give you a whole gauntlet of options - but the bottom line is that they simplify the photo sharing process. Ie. Instead of emailing attachments just send your friends a link to Photobucket instead. Here's a basic list of what Photobucket offers...
- Built in full featured photo editor
- Slideshow and scrapbook builders
- Group albums so you can collaborate with friends
- A photo and gifts store to sell your own photo products
- Share photos by email and mobile phone too
The best way to become familar with Photobucket is to look at their tutorials page. This goes into depth about using themes, group albums, editing and resizing your images, slideshows, etc. Heck, just go browse the whole site - you'll be impressed! Think of it like a stock photo website with more of a social networking feel.
Flickr: These guys are also hugely popular. In a nutshell Flickr lets you store, share and organize all your images. You can also comment on other people's images, and tell stories about your own. Right now Flickr is free, but with a paid subscription (starting at $24.95 per year) you get unlimited uploads, unlimited storage, ad-free browsing and sharing, statistics for your account, and HD playback for high definition video uploads. A simple benefit to using Flickr is that you can manage ALL those hundreds and hundreds of digital photos you take - OR better still, let your friends or family manage them! (adding comments and tags too!)
ImageNo: ImageNo is a simplified image sharing site. Basically you just upload an image (max 2MB) and make it public (if you want it shown publicly that is). Share your photos with friends, on your blog, on forum posts etc. If no one browses your image page after 30 days your image gets automatically deleted. Completely free to use however you will see ads on your image pages.
ImageHousing: Another similar free image sharing site, ImageHousing is focused more on users who need to host images for social networking websites. Friendster.com, HI5.com and Myspace.com for example. The service is completely free and images must be smaller than 1.5MB or they'll be resized. You don't need to sign up or register to use ImageHousing - just upload the pic, add some information about it, and then you'll have some html link code you can use. Upload as many images as you want.
TinyPic: TinyPic is similar to ImageHousing - no registration or log in required. Simply upload your photos or videos and you'll be presented with a unique URL link for your image. This link points to your image or video. You then add this link to your blog, forum posts, message boards, social networking sites, etc. TinyPic is owned by PhotoBucket.
SmugMug: And last but not least there is SmugMug. They deserve a mention here simply because of the quality and the benefits you get from using them. No, SmugMug is not free (costs about $39.95 to $149.95 a year) but is the sort of image sharing host that you can trust for your most prized photos. Sort of like the pro version of Flickr if you like!
SmugMug also allows you to go crazy with photo merchandise, photo books, canvas prints, photo cards, photo stickers and desktop organizers, just to name a few! With no advertising, SmugMug is a pretty impressive 'serious' photo host. Add videos, slideshows, Google maps or host your own unique photo gallery. Try SmugMug free here.