I am looking for an online site to store and edit photos. I switched one of my main machines from PC to MAC but I still run a 50% PC environment at home and now I’ve given up with the share drive model and am considering the cloud.
Google+ seems like a strong option. Today I use Picasa for photo editing (it’s free and works on MACS and PC’s) but I think Google is phasing it out and users are being encouraged to move to Google+ for photos. There is an app for IOS so they can be uploaded from phones and iPads too.
There are other tools out there, too. I used to use Shutterfly but I don’t really like how hard it is to get your photos OUT of there. It is more for making books rather than just storing everything from all your sources.
I also use Google for some other things like Blogger but don’t want to link the two. Blogger is also pretty crummy (we use at at LITGM) and probably at some point we will just move that over to hosted word press (which is awesome), but that’s a different (boring) story. I’d get another ID.
Since many, many of the photographers here are probably in the same boat I am looking for advice. I know that the pros will always have photoshop on a hard drive so I am thinking more of the advice for amateurs like me ;)
This WSJ article discusses photo storage and also likes Google+, but there are other contenders as well.
I’d suggest flickr for storage. You get 1 TB free and you have control over licensing and whether or not they are publicly viewable. I’ve never used an online editor but I would suggest Photoshop Elements as an inexpensive yet very versatile editor.
I would stick to google since all my stuff are integrated into the google cloud thus making it more convenient. Logging in google alone gives me access to all its apps but that doesn’t mean google+ is the best for storing photos.
Photoshop 2 is free. I use it, here’s the deal;
Go to
https://www.adobe.com/cfusion/entitlement/index.cfm?e=cs2_downloads
Either create or use your Adobe account to log in and Agree to the next screen.
There ya go all of CS2 and the serials.
Speaking of cameras, this is really cool. Nero automatic camera trigger: http://youtu.be/3V3o6JHd7qE
I’m a serious photography hobbyist and also think G+ is a good choice for your stated needs. They have moved the Snapseed editing product online, but I believe you need to use Chrome to take advantage of it. Just click on the Edit option in the Menu while viewing any of your photos in G+.
You should also look for Google’s Auto Backup product for your computer. If you install it on your machine you can tell it which folder it should search for photos and it will automatically back them up to G Drive and if you tell it to resize all images down to 2048PX on the longest side you get unlimited photo storage for free. Full size images can be stored up to a limit or for a fee.
Jay’s flickr suggestion is also good. Flickr really improved its user experience in the last 2 years for both content creators and viewers, but I don’t know if it offers much in the way of editing. 500px was widely seen as a Flickr killer when it burst on the scene a few years ago, but Flickr got its act together and 500px stumbled in various ways. 500px still showcases images beautifully but some folks are unhappy with its algorithm for ranking images. It also has a freemium model.
Finally, for those willing to pay more for extra features, SmugMug and Zenfolio only offer paid versions from prices ranging from medium to quite expensive for a variety of services including storage of non-compressed non-resized images. I use SmugMug myself.
My stuff, all edited in CS2, and Capture One for RAW extraction. On my own site even, it’s about $70 a year:
http://carnagepro.com/photo/EX1/
Nice images.
For what it is worth, Photoshop CS 5.5 on the PC hard drive. I simply do not trust Adobe enough. Most of my graphic artists friends are mixed on the cloud version. Most are apathetic, or have somebody else pay the Adobe $$$. Oddly enough it is the die hard Illustrator fans such as myself that are not trusting of the cloud.
I do have plenty that use Gimp.
And that is my $0.02 on the matter.
–ZilWerks
Thanks for all the comments! I think I am going to go with Google Plus.
I already use Picasa although that doesn’t help me much because all the editing tools in chrome are new.
I can easily show photos on my ipad and it works well when you have an internet connection. You also can turn on a feature to add incremental photos as you take them (into a pool, and you can delete them later).