[psmith2.0]

First off, I didn't know if I should put this in Third-Party Hardware, Purchasing Advice or Genius Bar...it's a little of each, I suppose, so I just stuck in here in General Discussion. If a mod needed to move it to a better location, that's totally cool. Sorry.

My uncle took a motorcycle trip out west with about 8-10 friends last month. He got back and he's got 250-300 photos. He was wanting all the guys on the trip to have their own, so he and my Mom were going to a) import them into her iMac and b) burn 10 separate DVDs for these people (none of whom are on Macs, so burning out of iPhoto wouldn't have helped, or would've been a file they could've dealt with, from what I understand).

Thankfully, I caught them before all this (they never called and asked what I'd do in this scenario).

But in this day of fading optical media (and new laptops not having the drives), and with more and more people on tablets and smartphones, I told them that I think putting them online and simply giving everyone the link is a much easier, faster and more efficient (and, via comments, rating, download, etc.) a more fun and "social" way to go about it. Some of those people, even if they had a Mac (they don't) may not have a computer with an optical drive (if they've got one of those MacBook Air-inspired PCs).

I prefer Flickr, only because it's baked into iPhoto and he can just lay his photos out, group them however and push the "publish to Flickr" button. People can comment, download ones they like, etc. They're visible on any platform, and any sort of mobile device too.

Is this how you guys would approach this? My uncle isn't tech-minded at all, so this can't be some crazy, multi-step/multi-app deal. He has an iMac, and he already uses (and is pretty familiar with) iPhoto (the one-click enhance, straightening, etc.). So I'm thinking he should just stay in there, and publish them out to Flickr via iPhoto.

Is there any other consumer-oriented product or service that you think is better for this specific scenario?

I think burning a bunch of DVDs (to people who may not even fool with it) seems like a 2004-era waste-of-time (and discs). Don't you? All those guys are online...they all have cable or DSL (or fiber). Most have smartphones and fairly modern (within three or so years) computers. My uncle can add to/delete from any time he needed and have full, real-time control over it all, right there from his iMac.

Plus, for any future trips (he's retired, so he's always taking off somewhere and doing something), he'd be able to come home and upload a new gallery to everyone. He's one of those guys who knows a million people, so when he sends out an email with photos or whatever, he goes to a ton of people. But also, these friends of his who were on the trip, if these photos are online (vs. a DVD) they can, in turn, share that link with all their friends and family (who my uncle my not even know). I just think more people will see and enjoy the photos if they're in Flickr (or wherever).

I just don't know what all is out there because I don't fool with this stuff much. There's Shutterfly? And Picasa?

[Dorian Gray]

I think uploading to Flickr directly from iPhoto sounds like a pretty safe bet here.

I personally use ImageShack. It was free (and awful) for years, but fairly recently they had a remake and got all pro. They now charge $3.99 a month, but the whole thing now works very well so I’m happy to pay (though I confess I got onboard at an earlier $1.99/month offer). Uploading can be as simple as drag and drop (or you can upload loads of files at a time in a variety of ways), the uploaded files aren’t resized or compressed or stripped of their colour profiles or anything, and you can share them in a variety of ways including a direct URL (which I use to post screen captures on AppleNova, for example).

But yeah, it’s not free. And the chances are good that your uncle and his friends already sort of know the Flickr interface (though they keep changing it), so Flickr has that advantage too.

[drewprops]

Paul another "cheapie" option is Imgur, and then there's 500px, which is aimed at "Photographers" and not just schmucks like us.

Sidenote: one interesting feature of Flickr is that if you have the app open on your phone and are logged into your account, it will upload your photos to your Flickr photostream and mark them as PRIVATE so that only YOU can see them.

It's so stupid easy and I understand that in ways that I still do not understand iCloud.



...

[PB PM]

500px is nice, but free accounts can only upload 10 pictures a week, not exactly ideal. I think Flickr is the best route to go in this case.

[turtle]

Dropbox works pretty well too. You might have them consider it if they use Dropbox.

[psmith2.0]

Flickr recently upped their limit too, right? I know a few years ago, it was 1,000 or something (wasn't very much, and you had to pay $20 or something to display more than that). But didn't they go way above that a year or so ago? I've not really looked into it in a while.

EDIT: I just checked their site. It says everyone gets 1,000GB(!) of free storage (enough for 500,000 photos). I think that's more than enough for his needs.

For this specific situation, I'll probably need to go the Flickr route (just since it's nicely built-in and fool-proof). He's not tech-minded at all, and he lives more than 30 minutes away...so the thought of trying to troubleshoot or talk him through stuff via FaceTime or screen-sharing (or having to schlep up to his place any more than necessary) isn't good. I wanted to make sure I wasn't overlooking something obvious or even (somehow) easier and more straightforward. But I guess it's hard to beat "built-in" for something like this.

I do wonder, come 2015 when that new Photos app rolls out, if they'll still have this feature? Or will they just make everything iCloud-based/centric? If anything, I think it would be nice if they rolled a few of these other services into iPhoto, for people who had a preference of one over the others.

[torifile]

Another vote for Flickr. It's easy, free and not likely going anywhere anytime soon.

[psmith2.0]

Yeah, I agree. I may be shooting up there tomorrow afternoon to get it all set up, show him how to do it, etc. and then he'll be able to manage from there out.