Day.Old.Pizza Loc: Maple Grove, MN

How do I set-up an on-line host site to post my photos on for viewing by friends?

1. Host site recommendations
2. Photo size to discourage theft
3. The software needed to reduce a 14 MB RAW file down to a "small", viewable size for storage.
4. Anything else I should know about that I haven't considered?

Thanks in advance!

CPR Loc: Nature Coast of Florida

Personally I use PBase for photos to share. Also have some on Nikonians. The file size should be well under 1 meg, more like under 100kb.
I use Photoshop/Lightroom for anything needed in post-processing, but that package is $10/month

DWU2 Loc: Phoenix Arizona area

Subscribers to the Adobe Lightroom/Photshop subscription bundle get free hosting space on Adobe's Portfolio service. In response to your question 2, the site has the ability to block downloading. Here's my site, if you'd care to see how it looks, but there are a number of different formats available to users.

https://danumberger.myportfolio.com

TriX Loc: Raleigh, NC

Consider Google Drive.

Day.Old.Pizza Loc: Maple Grove, MN

Thanks, Dan. I'll take it that you are happy with their service.

Ron 717 Loc: Pennsylvania

Check out Dropbox.com

Cdouthitt Loc: Traverse City, MI

I've used smugmug since 2007 and host all my images and videos there. Full high Rez jpgs. Try it free for 14 days. If you like it make sure you use a smugmug users address (like mine...my site can be found by clicking on my user name) so that the both of us get a discount.

I use my site to share with family and friends throughout the us and Europe.

bdk Loc: Sanibel Fl.

Photos that I want to share with my friends are put on facebook. Almost the whole world is on it so its very convenient .
Pictures I dont want stolen are not put on FB

Day.Old.Pizza Loc: Maple Grove, MN

Thanks. I will take a look.
I don't know this site, what do you like about it?
Pat

Day.Old.Pizza Loc: Maple Grove, MN

Thanks. I'll check out your site.
I'm staying in Apache Junction through March. Getting some good pictures of the Superstition Mountain and surrounding area. Taking a photo trip up to Sedona area next week.

Gaddysmom

I often lecture on architecture on tour programs sponsored by museums and other non-profit organizations. Because I take a lot of photos and carry "big" cameras (what various guests have called a Nikon DSLR with a zoom lens) I often get asked, "When will we get to see your photos." I used to edit my thousands down to a couple of hundred and make a slideshow of the few, which I burned to a disc and sent to the passengers. Increasingly, however, people don't have DVD players, so, for the last two years I have uploaded the images to a private group on Flick'r.

To say that this has been problemmatical is an understatement. Every time at least half the group has problems logging on to Flick'r.

One reason I chose Flick'r was so that passengers could add their photos if they wished. The goal was to create a true photo exchange for those who wanted to participate.

So, does anyone have a suggestion for an alternate site?

f8lee Loc: New Mexico

Well, @Day.Old, first allow me to make a clarification… DropBox and Google Drive are effectively remote storage options that allow you to share files (of pretty much any type), but they are not really designed to “display” what you store there. Think of them as cloud based floppy disks or thumb drives - where you can stick files for storage and then share them with friends who can view or download what you put up there. From your post it seems to me this is not what you are looking for (despite the title of your post); you seem to want to have a place to which you can upload images and tell your friends to go there to see or perhaps download ones they like. PBase and Flickr are websites that allow you to upload your images for the express purpose of viewing by others, with galleries and so forth - I suggest you look at them to understand the difference. In other words, they are not designed for remote the storage/backup/sharing of any kinds of digital files but instead for the creation of galleries. And there are other similar sites out there.

As for discouraging theft - uploading small sized files (as @CPR mentioned, about 1MB seems reasonable) will at least make it more difficult for someone who downloads the file to make any kind of large print, though not impossible since digital image software has become quite sophisticated. And you might want to consider a watermark on your images (I have them on some of mine - see website in my signature) but got a bit lazy about that - the idea is that if someone were to want to display the image they would have more trouble eliminating the watermark. Maybe.

I hope that clarifies some concepts for you, at least.

DirtFarmer Loc: Escaped from the NYC area, back to MA

It sounds like you want two things here:
1: A site to share photos with your friends
2: A site to store your photos (backup or archive) including the raw files.

Sharing photos is best done online.
Backing up or archiving is best done with a combination of different methods. The difference between backup and archive is that backup is used for files that you are likely to want to return to in the near future. Archive is for files that you are probably finished using but don't want to throw away (e.g. your raw files of events from years ago).

In my opinion, your primary file backups and archives should be done locally. Online storage generally entails annual fees and if there are a lot of files you can have significant bandwidth limitations trying to recover them. In addition, you are handing off your files to someone else to preserve and you generally have no say in their business. I'm sure that the major online storage suppliers have safeguards in case of malfunction of their storage systems, but you're still trusting that they will stay in business for the long term. Local storage is not without risk either. While external hard drives have become inexpensive, they are still prone to occasional failure or damage. For that reason I would recommend using at least three external hard drives. I keep one attached to my desktop. One is stored elsewhere in the house, and the third is stored at a remote location. If my computer is damaged by a surge, the attached hard drive may not survive but the other one in the house should be OK since it wasn't powered up. If the house burns down I still have the data on the remote drive.

There's nothing wrong with a secondary backup/archive using online storage. When it comes to backups you can't be too paranoid.

As far as photo or file sharing I like Dropbox. You can get a couple of Gigs storage for free. You can share individual files or folders by using a link. You just send the link to your friends and they can access the files. If you need more than a couple Gigs they have more available for an annual fee.

As far as image theft, if it's available to the public, it can be stolen. Screen grabbers can download files even if they are marked "no download". Software is available to remove watermarks. The best deterrent is to show only small size images so the value is diminished. Dropbox has the advantage that you need the link to access the file, so you can use the full-sized file.

You don't really need (or want) the online site to take your raw files and display them. There are too many parameters you have to apply to make a raw file into an image and doing it online would be cumbersome. You're better doing all that by yourself and posting the images rather than the raw files.

Lance Pearson Loc: Viriginia

I use smugmug.com and you can set whether or not you want to let them be downloaded at all which removes the threat of theft for the most part and can even control access.

retlaw Loc: Northern New Jersey

Take a look at Nikon Image Space.