TP: Photo Sharing/Hosting Services

Pegelli - Photobucket is worse than Flickr - you are granting them and all other users royalty free access of all publicly displayed photos for as long as they are on the database - and removing them is most problematic (as it is with Flickr).

DeviantArt requires you to give them royalty free access to distribute the images but the ToS do not describe what limitations exist so assume none....

Smugmug are the only ones I have found which specifically state the limitations of the royalty free licence: ...as we deem appropriate in providing the Services authorized or requested by you ie apart from hosting the photo they have no rights to it. Of course there is still nothing preventing others from accessing your photos but at least they won't sell your photos without your permission.

We've been doing some research on this as I'd like to run competitions for our shop through a sharing service if possible.

One of the greatest dangers with Flickr is that you sign over the rights for them to distribute any photo they have under whatever terms they like - in effect you assign them copyright as you can't control what they do with your images and they are automatically licensed royalty free to Flickr.

Smugmug is a little better in that they guarantee not to sell your images (which Flickr has done in the past - to Virgin no less and without ascertaining whether a model release existed) and they do not claim copyright. The only rights you assign to them are for the use in the website.

Image Shack and Free Image make no claims over the rights of your photos but for our purpose don't suit as they don't have communities.

Bottom line - tread warily, especially if you are a 'good" photographer.

Edited by natamambo - 05 June 2008 at 14:01

Bumped for any new members to see.

All I've ever used is flickr, and knew there were other hosting sites available but didn't realize there were so many. I upgraded to the Pro (paid) account because of upload limitations and it is well worth it. There are no limits on file size, number of pics uploaded at one time and unlimited storage space. I've got a little over 1000 photos online right now. There's also different plug ins such as the Flickr Uploader tool that's really nice. A window will come up that you can drag photos to or you can search files with it too. And it will add a 'Send to My Flickr' command line to the right click mouse menu for a quick upload of a single pic. And recently they added line charts for each pic to track number of views, downloads etc. I've never used them but you can also get prints and then things like coffe mugs, key chains and such.

I also like zenfolio. Now that I have the premium account, I get unlimited storage, uploads via a java tool, file size is a generous 24MB, very good controls over access, 7 different viewing sizes from small thumbnails to original.

It has effectively become my remote 'storage' solution for photos.

The premium account also gives my a shopping cart, and a watermark assignment function.

It's all very easy to set up and use, with some nice 'skins' if you're starting fresh.

They have some more economy orientated packages as well, alongside a free trial.

for pure web hosting, i came by www.awardspace.com which gives almost professional level features in a free package, and this is serious. Best free host i've seen by a far margin.

Photobucket.com is very easy to use.

Edited by wedlpine - 13 May 2007 at 16:59