I used Shutterfly for a printed book. The 8x8 size is a good compromise between size and cost, the quality was nice, and the website was pretty easy to use, even the custom options.

Great pictures, ElendilPickle! I've never been to the U.K., and now I'm going to have to put it on my ever-growing list of places I'd like to visit.

In case anyone wants to use ElendilPickle's photos to take Picasa for a test-drive, try going to the album that has 220 pictures in it, and clicking "slideshow." Note how easy it is to go to full screen mode. While you're watching the slide show, you can use the left and right arrows to go backward and forward in the show, and as soon as you do that, you'll disable the automatic advancement of the photos. Note how quickly you can jump through the photos, without having to wait for the pictures to load. I like that about Picasa -- it seems to be very good about pre-caching photos so that you don't have to wait for them to load.

Oops, I didn't notice that emalloy and mlgb had also posted albums. Well, at least the New York photos aren't going to make me bust my travel budget, because I already live in New York.

It looks like Flickr is almost as fast as Picasa, but not quite. However, Flickr has a full-screen mode that really takes over your entire screen, which I like. I don't think you can do that with Picasa. And I think Flickr has a more attractive way of putting captions on the screen, too. I didn't like that using manual forward/back controls in Flickr fails to disable automatic advancement. However, once I found the little "help" button, I learned that I could explicitly pause the slide show very easily.

Flickr has free accounts that limit you to uploading 100 MB per month, no more than 10 MB per photo, and no more than 200 photos total. Plus it looks like they stick advertisements on your photos when people look at them, with the free account. A "pro" account costs $25 per year, and give you unlimited (!) uploading and storage capability, and no advertisements.

Did I get all that right?

I've been on pbase for a couple of years, but have never tried the slideshow feature until this thread! It's very basic, but seems to work smoothly. Clicking on the picture toggles a pause, but no way to change image size or go backward that I can see. Those options may exist with some more setup. But sometimes fewer options are good.

Example:
http://www.pbase.com/mangoman/paris&view=slideshow

But Picasa seems pretty nice. I'd consider that if I jumped from pbase.

One feature zenfolio has it allows you to direct the page to your own web address. For example if you had registered www.neopatrick.com, you could enter that and it would redirect to your zenfolio pages. This feature might appeal only to a small set of nerdy users like me.

I didn't care for kodak at all.

I then went to flickr and liked it.

My current favorite is photobucket because I figured out how to mass upload rather than 5 at a time like on the other sites.

hawksbill, one thing I know I CAN do with Picasa is a slideshow in full screen mode. I forget where, but when you open a particular picture there is a place to click for full screen.

I think I'm actually starting to get the hang of Picasa, and now realize the difference between "folders" and albums. I may just stick with that since all my photos are already downloaded there.

May I make a few suggestions.

Digital photos these days can be quite large coming out of the camera. 5 - 10 megabytes or more is the norm. There's no reason to upload files that big to a photo sharing web site. The quality on a computer just isn't good enough.

I would also not save my photos in the default My Pictures folder.


If you aren't comfortable with files and directories read some articles on the web. Is this age of digital photos you should become comfortables with making your own folders and sub-folders. Also, your camera probably has some sort of (at least) simple photos post-processing program. Most images out of the cameras require some work. At least a bit of cropping and sharpening.

Create a structure beneath the c: drive. Something like:
My_Photos
This_trip
Day_1
place images here
Day_2
place images here

etc.

Notice that I make all folder and file names as one word. It is bad practice to use multiple words. If you want multiple words then separate them with and underscore. Do not use a dash as somewhere along the way the computer will thing you are trying to subract.

You can use Windows Explorer. Go into the folder and switch the View to filmstrip. That will show a thumbnail across the bottom and a large version above. Delete the non-keepers here. Then you should have two more sets of images. Those you want to keep but not good enough to share and those to share.

You can now do whatever post-processing the "shared" images need.

I don't remember which size reduction program I used (I do mine in Photoshop but a friend had to reduce a bunch so I downloaded a program) but you can go to www.download.com and search for "resize images" and pick a free program.

Resize your images to 200,000 bytes or less. They also upload faster. Don't resize the original images but have the program make a copy of each.

Some trips about printing photos. Always make sure you crop your images in the same proportions as you will print them. Otherwise the printing service will do it and cut off tops, bottoms or sides. For instance, if you are printing 4x6 prints, make sure that your images are in the proportion of 2 x 3 (or 3 x 2). Similarly, for 8 x 10 make sure they're in the proportion of 4 x 5 (or 5 x 4).

I realize a lot of the above looks confusing. Read and reread it, read articles on the computer and learn about this. You made a decision to go digitial. Now you have to make a decision whether or not you want your images to look better or not.

A lot of people look at my photos and wonder how I can get such great photos of a newborn granddaughter. What they don't realize is that if you take a couple of hundred shots and do a bit of post-processing on the best ones, a few are bound to look great.

Neopatrick, later last night I looked into how to get true full-screen images with Picasa slideshows (as opposed to just full-window). Apparently, on a PC, you can do it by pressing F11 while you're in full-window mode. But it can't be done on a Mac. And I have a Mac.

As Nelson noted, pbase doesn't seem to allow changing the displayed size of each image at all, let alone making it full-screen. At least, it's not immediately obvious how to do it. I suspect this might be because pbase is designed for purists, and a real purist might want to always have one image pixel corresponding to one screen pixel. Changing that one-to-one ratio theoretically would cause blurring, if some sort of smart edge-enhancement algorithm isn't used.

Myer makes some good points about image size. Although, I'd say the best way to choose what image size to upload would probably be to figure out the largest screen resolution that you would ever want to view the photo on, and then save the image at that size. As opposed to picking a fixed file size limit. And if you ever want to order a print, you might want a higher-resolution version of the file. If you don't plan on printing a lot of them, you might just keep high-resolution versions of the files around, but not upload them unless and until you need prints. Another thing to keep in mind is the degree of jpeg compression that you use. More compression means smaller file sizes, but too much causes the images to look distorted. I've started to become sensitive to that distortion, so I tend to save mine at the highest image quality setting. Actually I keep my photos around as TIFF files, which aren't compressed at all, but Picasa won't let me upload TIFF files. If it did, I'd probably use up my disk quote very quickly!

GREAT information about size reduction to lesser megabytes, myers! I did not know that was even possible after having taken the original shots. Thanks for sharing.

I can offer advice only about Shutterfly.

I first used Shutterfly because I got an offer through my frequent flyer program to get a "free" 20-page 8x8 book. I had just been contemplating getting a bunch of prints to send to a friend who has no computer, so this seemed like a good way to send her the photos as a remembrance of our trip. I suppose they hope you will not be satisfied with just 20 pages and purchase more.

I found it easy to upload the photos and create my photo book. (I must admit that I am a graphic designer and work with design programs, so my ease may not be your ease.) My 20-page book had 96 different photos in it because of the layouts I chose for the nature of my photos. Because it was "free" I paid about $7 shipping and handling for what I found to be a nice quality hard-cover book.

Every few months I get an offer from Shutterfly for 20 "free" prints and again pay minimal shipping. Once a year another free book offer comes. I don't do a lot of printing, so the free offers are adequate for me.

These photos had been uploaded to Shutterfly, but were not a proper "share" site. In order to share some photos with Fodorites, I signed up for a free Shutterfly share site. Again, I found it easy to set up. I was able to migrate photos from the other area and also upload new photos. Shutterfly share sites also allow a limited amount of video posting.

I don't pay anything for this, but I really have that many photos or videos on the site. This works well for me, but other sites may offer better features for you.

You can see my simple site here:

http://ellenem.shutterfly.com/

OK. Now you've all given me a splitting headache. I'm now shutting down my computer and having a drink!!!

As a matter of fact, NeoPatrick, when I was looking into photo sharing services, I arrived at exactly the same conclusion as you. And that's why I just went ahead and chose Picasa, stopped thinking about all the other possibly-better alternatives, and poured myself a drink!

For those of you who asked about print books/albums, I highly recommend Blurb -- http://www.blurb.com/. The quality is excellent, and lots of options (softcover vs. hardcover, dust jacket or not, page quality, layout (text, photo, cookbook, etc.), book sizes, etc.). Good online resources, and check out their bookstore to see what others are doing if you'd like some ideas. Others can also view and purchase your book through the bookstore, or you can opt to make it private (viewable only to you and those you invite).

I use WorldIsRound for my photos, very user-friendly. If you want to check my homepage:
http://www.worldisround.com/home/fainaagain/index.html

I didn't put a password on it, but there is an option.

As a backup, and for some photos to print (I still love the old fashioned paper-in-hand) I copy them to Walgreens website and add a CD for $2.99 (the CD is in addition to paper photos). 3 hours later I can pick them up at a Walgreens of my choice when I don't want to wait for them to mail.

Hi Patrick. Feeling a bit better? How was your drink? A nice martini, I hope.

I think that J62 and Nelson are talking about ZenFolio, not Zenphoto. I used www.zenfolio.com for my Tanzania albums. It is not at all overly sophisticated or difficult, but amazingly easy. You can do a one month free trial. I think the cost is $25 per year for a limited amount of space or $50 a year for unlimited space. You can start cheap and upgrade if you need to.

My photos: www.tonna.zenfolio.com

Its easy to share from zenfolio. You just give your address to anyone (like I have above) and they can have a look.

As for a simple slide show on your own computer. If you are running Windows on a PC, try this:

-From "Windows Explorer", double click your pictures file to open the file with your photos.
-Click once to select the first photo.
-Drop down the File Menu - top left of screen.
-Double click "Preview"
-Your photo should then pop up in another window. It won't completely fill the screen.
-At the bottom of that window you will see three little icons in-between the arrow buttons and the zoom buttons.
-Roll over those buttons. One should say "Start Slideshow"
-Click on that one and the photo will fill your screen and the slide show will begin.

I hope this helps. I would love to see your photos.

I need a drink, too. I can't figure out what to do with my digital photographs. Haven't done anything with them ever. It all makes me feel like I'm 115 years old and that life has passed me by.

OK, here's a question. Perhaps it has a simple answer, but I can't figure it out.

I sent our tour leader in Vietnam a great picture I took of him from Picasa. He thanked me but asked if I could send it in a larger size. How do I do that? I've found how to edit everything from the length of his eyelashes to cutting circles out of the picture, but not how to change the overall size.

NeoPatrick, fear not: if you have already figured out how to trim his eyelashes, you've done far more advanced things than changing the size of the image!

By "image size," I assume that your team leader means the number of pixels in the image. That's really the only meaningful way to interpret that request.

Here's a short answer to your question: just email him the image file from your computer, and tell him it's the largest version you have.

Here's a medium answer, assuming you want to use Picasa web albums rather than email: if you uploaded the photo to a Picasa web album just using their web page, and you never explicitly changed its size, then it's already at its full size, and you can tell him you can't give him a larger one. If, however, you upload using Picasa's uploading program, then upload it again now, making sure that where it says "scale photo," you have chosen "Actual Size (slowest upload)." The full-featured Picasa program probably has a similar option. Then send that photo to him, and say that's as big as you can make it.

Here's a long answer, for the benefit of anyone who wants some basic background information: every image is composed of many tiny squares, or pixels ("picture elements"), each of which can be any of many, many different colors. If you zoom way in on an image, you can see the individual pixels. But if they're small enough, which they usually are, they blend together to make what appears to be a smooth image. When you took your photos, you specified how many pixels you'd like to have in each image, by setting something that's probably called "image quality" on your camera (or, at least, you relied on the camera's default image quality setting). For a 5 megapixel camera, the highest possible image quality setting would result in each image having 5 million pixels.

In a Picasa web album, if you punch up the photo (click "My Photos," then the album, then the individual photo), you'll see the pixel dimensions of the image, along with the amount of memory it takes up. It might say for example 4000 x 3000 pixels, 5627 KB. That would be a 12-megapixel image, which takes up over 5 megabytes of memory. More pixels means you can blow up the image to a very large size, on your screen or in a print, and it will still look sharp and not blurry. However, more pixels also means that your image takes up more memory, either on your hard drive or in your Picasa web account. A 12-megapixel image has an awful lot of pixels, and that would be great if you want to print a 24" print. But, as Myer pointed out above, you'll never be able to resolve all that detail on a computer screen, unless you zoom way in on a small part of the image. That's why Myer recommended that you make smaller versions of your images (i.e. with fewer pixels), and upload those instead of the original images. It saves memory, and if people are just going to look at them online anyway, there's no need to keep all those pixels.

Your team leader is implying that you reduced the number of pixels in the image that you sent him, as Myer suggested doing, and that you sent him the smaller version. He is now requesting that you send him the original version, with more pixels. But if you never explicitly reduced the number of pixels in your image, then the only way it would have been reduced is if Picasa did it for you when you uploaded it, trying to be helpful. That's why I suggested re-uploading with "actual size."

If you so desire, it's easy to change the size of an image. I'm sure you can do it with whatever program you used for eyebrow trimming. There are also very simple programs that you already have, which can change image sizes for you, and if you tell us whether you have a Mac or a PC, we can tell you what you could use. However, you won't need to do any image resizing here. That's because, while you might want to reduce the size of an image to save memory, it's not generally useful to increase the number of pixels in an image. You could do it, but it would just result in a larger file, without any improvement in image quality.

>>

Regarding the above, in zenfolio, or picasa, or any of the other sites, how can you share a particular album or photo (on a site like fodor's, or even with friends and family), but NOT allow access to all your albums? I like to share some of my travel photos on here, but not photos of my kids' graduations, for example.

NeoPatrick,

I have to assume the only reason he wants a larger size is:
a) he doesn't know what he's doing (maybe?) or b) he wants to make a large print and the one you sent results in a low quality large print.

Images can be resized down but not up. So if you send him a copy of the original that's as large as it gets.

I'm not sure if you mentioned how large you files are, but like I wrote, the largest will be the original.

The problem may be that it could be too large to go through your email. Some email programs are set to allow sizes up to 2 or 3 megabytes and other will allow up to 10 or more. You'll have to find out.

Of course, there are various ways around that. You could copy it to a CD or DVD and mail it.

Since I have my own web site, I could upload an original to my site and email the URL (the web address www.xxx.com/yyyy.jpg).

Then a person could enter the URL and when the image opens they could right-click on it and save it.

In fact, most images you see on the internet can be save to your computer by using the right-click method.

As I wrote in my previous response, there's a lot to learn and if you reread some of the posts, pick a few topics and learn them you can make the whole digital photo experience much more rewarding.

Just don't get discouraged and throw up your hands.

There are usually many ways to do the same thing. it's a matter of figuring out what you want to do, learn an approach that you're comfortable with and use it.