sharing images among friends

[jelloshotsrule]

so here's my dilemma.

in my immediate family of 6, any given family event there can be 6 (or more) digital cameras being used to capture the festivities. this typically leads to everyone seeing their own photos, but usually they don't see anyone else's... occasionally, someone will send an email with a handful of pictures they liked (at email res), or the more tech savvy might even post a quick iphoto photo gallery to a site to share. but again, these are low-medium resolution and generally edited down heavily.

the question is: how can my family set up a system/server whereupon we can each have our own photos on our computers as we normally would, but we can also share photos fairly easily for all of us to grab full res versions of as desired, etc? i've found seefile which is very cool but expensive and definitely aimed at professionals wanting to share with clients and/or sell images...

does anyone know of a similar type thing that is not as expensive? or would a site like flickr or snapfish do the trick? i'd be happy to get a big HDD and serve it from a central computer of one of ours, but not sure if that's feasible without seefile type software. any thoughts would be cool

[iBookG4user]

I'd try flickr to start out, and if you find that you need more, find something better. Flickr is free, so you have nothing to lose.

[F15Todd]

I'm a fan of PBase, but I don't put up full resolution photos on it.

[Abstract]

Can't you set up a network in your house, and have iPhoto Sharing turned on? It works for iTunes quite well. I can see the name of every person using iTunes (with iTunes sharing turned on) along the left column in iTunes, click on their name, and see all their music.

I though iPhoto had this sort of functionality. And besides, think of it this way: iPhoto was designed to allow this type of functionality between people on opposite sides of the world. You just create an album, pick an album to share with a particular friend of yours, and this friend can see your photo album as though it was on their computer!


If you're in a non-Mac household, or one with Macs and PCs mixed, why not just set up a network and declare their picture folders as "Shared" folders. The Macs will be able to see the PCs, but if PCs running WinXP can't see the Macs, then download a program called "Sharepoints", which will be self-explanatory in setting up.

[compuwar]

Originally Posted by jelloshotsrule

so here's my dilemma.

in my immediate family of 6, any given family event there can be 6 (or more) digital cameras being used to capture the festivities. this typically leads to everyone seeing their own photos, but usually they don't see anyone else's... occasionally, someone will send an email with a handful of pictures they liked (at email res), or the more tech savvy might even post a quick iphoto photo gallery to a site to share. but again, these are low-medium resolution and generally edited down heavily.

the question is: how can my family set up a system/server whereupon we can each have our own photos on our computers as we normally would, but we can also share photos fairly easily for all of us to grab full res versions of as desired, etc? i've found seefile which is very cool but expensive and definitely aimed at professionals wanting to share with clients and/or sell images...

does anyone know of a similar type thing that is not as expensive? or would a site like flickr or snapfish do the trick? i'd be happy to get a big HDD and serve it from a central computer of one of ours, but not sure if that's feasible without seefile type software. any thoughts would be cool

Most of the flickr-type sites have a way to share things, I think Kodak's online offering is also set up for sharing. Finally, you could put any image gallery software on a Web site and give family members the ability to upload and view the images. Most managed hosting environments can set this up relatively quickly/cheaply though if the pictures are big bandwidth costs might make it better to DIY. I particularly like Photo Organizer on Linux, but something like Coppermine is less stock agency-like and more themeable.

[jelloshotsrule]

thanks all!

Originally Posted by iBookG4user

I'd try flickr to start out, and if you find that you need more, find something better. Flickr is free, so you have nothing to lose.

yeah, definitely worth a shot. would need the upgraded program i think, but not a bad price.

Originally Posted by Abstract

Can't you set up a network in your house, and have iPhoto Sharing turned on? It works for iTunes quite well. I can see the name of every person using iTunes (with iTunes sharing turned on) along the left column in iTunes, click on their name, and see all their music.

I though iPhoto had this sort of functionality. And besides, think of it this way: iPhoto was designed to allow this type of functionality between people on opposite sides of the world. You just create an album, pick an album to share with a particular friend of yours, and this friend can see your photo album as though it was on their computer!

If you're in a non-Mac household, or one with Macs and PCs mixed, why not just set up a network and declare their picture folders as "Shared" folders. The Macs will be able to see the PCs, but if PCs running WinXP can't see the Macs, then download a program called "Sharepoints", which will be self-explanatory in setting up.

we're 90% mac, but a mix of aperture and iphoto... i've thought about having a shared folder.... the only thing that lacks is the ability to view photos via the web in a handy way, just requires a tad bit more tech savvyness... which is fine for most of us, but my parents... hah. i'll definitely check into the idea of sharing a folder on a drive. i have wireless with cable though and i'm worried about dynamic ip and connecting remotely. not sure how to tackle that issue.

Originally Posted by compuwar

Most of the flickr-type sites have a way to share things, I think Kodak's online offering is also set up for sharing. Finally, you could put any image gallery software on a Web site and give family members the ability to upload and view the images. Most managed hosting environments can set this up relatively quickly/cheaply though if the pictures are big bandwidth costs might make it better to DIY. I particularly like Photo Organizer on Linux, but something like Coppermine is less stock agency-like and more themeable.

hmm. i'm on dreamhost... i'm trying to figure out if they have coppermine... maybe that'd be the way to go. is it fairly easy to set up and use?

thanks again all!

[ChrisBrightwell]

Take a laptop to the event, bring a card reader, dump cards from everyone, and burn CDs for everyone.

[jelloshotsrule]

Originally Posted by ChrisBrightwell

Take a laptop to the event, bring a card reader, dump cards from everyone, and burn CDs for everyone.

"Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication."

[ChrisBrightwell]

Originally Posted by jelloshotsrule

"Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication."

I can't tell if you're being sarcastic or not, but that's the idea. :P

You're asking for a client/server solution when all you need is a laptop, a card reader, and some blank CDs.

[jelloshotsrule]

Originally Posted by ChrisBrightwell

I can't tell if you're being sarcastic or not, but that's the idea. :P

You're asking for a client/server solution when all you need is a laptop, a card reader, and some blank CDs.

hah just messing around.

you're right to some extent. i am sorta heading this up, and i don't have a laptop (yet..) so it's tough for me to do, but the other thing is that i want all photos to be accessible by all (not just the person with the laptop) down the road, and ideally not having to use up a bunch of discs in the process.

i think a shared network drive could do the trick, just have to figure out the deal with dynamic IPs and test it out.

[compuwar]

Originally Posted by jelloshotsrule

hmm. i'm on dreamhost... i'm trying to figure out if they have coppermine... maybe that'd be the way to go. is it fairly easy to set up and use?

thanks again all!

It's the most popular app of that class, I'd be very surprised if it wasn't easy to set up and fairly readily available. I 've not messed with it though.

[failsafe1]

You can upload photos to an online printing service that allows galleries. From there you can send invites to people you want to share the galleries with and they can actually order prints from there. This gives you freedom from having to get the photos to them or deliver prints they want. I do this with snapshots that I upload to Walgreen's. This allows my family in other towns to see photos and gets rid of the burden of getting prints to them.

[jorre]

I think you might love our McNucle.

This solution could be just ideal for your purpose. You map a folder in the McNucle and send out invitations to your family members. They get a full fletched metadata browser which allows them to view and search within that particular folder. If you give them the rights, they can also upload files to it.

Now, they can do the same for you too. So with one single browser, you would be looking at 6 folders. One from yourself, and 5 from the family. You can even search accross all those folders simultaneously...

Requirement: the 'server' component is only running on mac for now, but for the 'viewers' can use both windows and mac to connect.

And on top, it is cheap, as in freeware.

Feel free to try it out and let us know what your experience is.

Cheers, Jorre.

[termina3]

SmugMug is a service similar to Flickr (haven't used Flickr, have over a year with SmugMug), and you can allow guest admin-types to upload/edit/delete photos. Two problems: it requires a (cheap) annual fee, and I haven't found a way to batch download files (although it batch uploads nicely)