Best way to share photos for identification / comment?

[Undecided]

I scanned in thousands of my parents' old family slides. What I'd like to do is post them somewhere online or on a home server, with a password, in a way that enables other family members to indicate who's who in the photos, and add notes. The files are large. There are free sites that allow commenting but storage and/or file size is limited. I suppose Facebook would do what I want, and is integrated with Aperture (which is what I use), but man.....Facebook? I hate the idea of handing over all that info. And it would have to be public since some folks I want to share it with are not in my "friends" list (at least I think that's how it would work).

I have my own domains (on netsol) and so would rather put it there.

Ideally, it would be iWeb + hosting on my domains + ability to comment. But iWeb only allows commenting on Apple's site (which is gone). Netsol has built in photo hosting, but it's crap and doesn't allow commenting.

I guess the best thing would be to add some functionality to my domains on Netsol to allow commenting and/or identifying faces. It wouldn't integrate with Aperture, so it might be a pain to pull down any new info people post. Oh, well.

Any suggestions?

 

[snberk103]

Not specific help, but a hint. The photos you post probably don't have to be full sized. A scan that is good enough for printing is generally at about 200 to 300dpi. A web posted photo only needs to be 72dpi. As a comparison, a web optimized photo at 72dpi is 1/4 the file size of the same photo at 140dpi - even if printed at the same physical dimensions as the web page photo. And that's not getting into JPG vs TIFs.

As for a commenting system... that one is tough. The obvious easy answer is to just give each photo a reference number and ask people to email you the names using the R#. But, I think it would be better if your "invited" list could add names directly. Then other members could either agree or correct spellings, etc.

What about setting up a Google Docs account, and put the images into a spreadsheet. One column for images, the 2nd column used for people to add names? Kludgey - but it may work?

Good Luck.

 

[RHVC59]

You could use as flikerPro account and upload through Lightroom publishing service, restricting the access to family. The comments family members can then be synced back to your lightroom database where you can include them in the file info.

see http://x-equals.com/blog/?p=7007

twards the bottom of the page.

 

[miles01110]

Flickr or SmugMug both have "pro" options that allow you to use your own domain.

 

[Undecided]

Thanks for the tips! I heard a rumor (here!) that iCloud will enable photo sharing with commenting later this year, so that might work.

I also found gallery (gallery2.org) for a more roll-my-own solution.

I will also look over the other options below more closely.

Thanks!

 

[Undecided]

Hi. It looks like my best option is to just pony up for Flickr and and the connectedflow flickrexport plugin for Aperture.

I don't relish the thought of having to move to Lightroom, so I'll stick with Aperture.

People can comment on pictures, and theoretically the flickrexport plugin can swap out a picture with a new one if, for example, I modify a picture to clean it up after initially uploading it. (I say theoretically because I downloaded the demo and the option was greyed out.)

One limitation though is faces - no one will know which of the people in a picture I've already identified because the info doesn't get uploaded.

It does get uploaded with the built-in Facebook syncing service, though. Mmmm, maybe I should just create a separate facebook account for these pictures, invite family to join that account?

 

[davidinva]

Also consider Facebook for some of them.

I have posted several photos like this on Facebook and have had good luck in getting people identified. My photos are from my small home town and have folks who are not close relatives in them. My mother was a teacher and some of her class photos with upwards of 40 children in them. Lots of ids from FB. Also the tagging in FB puts a name on each face. And, much depends on whether of not you have relatives or family friends on FB.

Oops, posted this on without reading your last paragraph. Anyhow, recommend trying FB.

 

[mtbdudex]

+1 on facebook, as a matter of fact, I'm class of 1980, and I scanned then posted grades K-6 class rooster (thx to my dad for keeping them) to our 30 year class reunion facebook page and we had so much fun identifying all the class members!

It was fun reading all the comments and stories that went along, plus helped refresh memories of years gone-by.

 

[Undecided]

I'm having a little trouble getting FB to work. I created a "facebook page" instead of a whole new personal profile. It has it's own login / email. I put the credentials in Aperture and they are accepted. If I publish a test pic (creating a new album), Aperture thinks it's uploaded - and indeed if I tell Aperture to take me to the album online, it does so (directly). But the album is not showing up under the 'facebook page's' album list.

If I put my credentials for my personal profile page, then it works.

So I guess the integrated FB feature doesn't work with 'facebook pages' (for organizations, communities, etc.)?

 

[Undecided]

OK, so I created a second personal page / profile, and the syncing via Aperture is working great. Other than the unease with handing all my pictures over to FB, this is a rather good solution.