Photo Share Website help!! AAARRGH!

[Simistar]

Hello ladies...

 

I'm REALLY hoping some of you can help me out here:-)

I've read through a ka-billion posts on photo share sites...but am still confused!

 

 

I will go with either Shuttferfly or Kodak I think, based on what I've read.

 

BUT, I have questions about each, and I'm hoping someone -- ANYONE -- who's used either (or both!) can help me out here...

(I need to decide so I can print up my freakin' welcome letter! But I haven't been able to, b/c I can't figure this out! Sigh.)

 

Okay, first of all...Shutterfly:

 

- if I use my regular Shuttferly account, can everyone else access the site, and view and order prints WITHOUT registering an account of their own?

- also, if I use my own Shutterfly account, will I get e-mails everytime someone else orders prints, etc?

- are the site (and pictures) there for an unlimited amount of time? Or does the site expire after a year, etc...?

 

 

Next...Kodak:

 

- I've had trouble finding information on the Kodak site about their photoshare websites... Do I just register for a premier account, and then I am set up with a site?

- do I use my own Kodak account, or should I make a new gmail account and use that so I don't get e-mails everytime someone orders a print?

- can everyone else access the site and view and order prints WITHOUT registering an account of their own...?

- after the premier account expires, can I move the albums to my regular account, or do they just disappear, or...?

 

 

THANKS to ANYONE who can help me out here!

[DanielleNDerek]

i used kodak. if i remembering correctly i just signed up for a kodak premiere account. I used my actual email address but you might want to make a new one so you dont get a lot of emails for it. Since we just got back not everyone has posted their pics on the site. But kodak will give you your own gallery and marketplace like for example our site is www.kodakgallery.thesmiths (but we arent the smiths) and when someone goes to that site they can see all the albums you published (that's just you giving permission for them to view them) and they can hit marketplace and order prints of everyones pics on there. So when one of my guests wants to upload their pics I just gave them my email address that i signed up for the account and the password to get on.

 

i hope that makes sense. If you want to look at mine i can email you the web address.

[Simistar]

THANK YOU DANIELLE!

 

This is totally the kind of info I was looking for!

Would you mind terribly if I looked at your site...?

I've seen some shutterfly ones, but never a Kodak one...

I'll PM you my e-mail address right now...

 

Also, do you know what happens to your photos once your account expires...?

 

Thanks!

[DanielleNDerek]

hmm htat's a good question. i think your pics still stay on kodak you just dont have the personal gallery website address and marketplace. So it's like a regular kodak account. like shutterfly it saves your pics on there for you to look at whenever.

[sunsetbride1]

I agree... I would go with KodakGallery.

Many of my friends started with Shutterfly and their server is not often very good... there are constant problems with people not being able to get on or havng very slow connections once they do get on.

I use their regular gallery now and have never had a problem. I plan on going with what Danielle did and signing up for a premier gallery when the time comes for our wedding.

[nylalany]

You can just create a free Picasa web album account and give the email and password to everyone and then they can all upload photos to one account, as well as download them to their computer so do what they want with them - that way they can upload them to whatever site they want for printing or just have them on their computer. Or, if everyone creates their own account, you can always download from other people's albums. Picasa software is also free, and offers you the ability to click on photos and order from random sites (kodakgallery, snapfish, etc.). And you can edit your photos on there too - kinda like a much more basic version of photoshop or something.

[Simistar]

So Nylalany -- with a picasa site, people don't actually order prints through there...? They have to order them through another site...(do I have this right..?)

Dumb question...but how do you get the photos to the other site...?

I'm just worried that won't be easy enough for some of the less tech savvy guests...myself included:)

[nylalany]

Actually it is even easier than what I said!

 

Ok, so you can actually just go to your web album and select the Prints dropdown. If you want a specific photo only, click on that first and the select the Prints dropdown. Or if you want the whole album, do it from the whole album view. Anyhow, from the Prints dropdown, select "Order Prints".

 

You don't have to order prints right away - you can even go to another album and do the same thing, and then view your entire "order" by selecting "View Order" from the Prints dropdown.

 

Then, when you view your order, you can remove whatever photos you don't want to order.

 

To actually order prints, click on "Select Print Provider". It will give you the option of shutterfly, W photo (Walgreens), Photoworks, and snapfish.

(Sorry, I was wrong - no kodakgallery option, but if you prefer kodakgallery or any other site, you can simply download the photos to your desktop and upload them to your preferred printer).

 

Click ok, and then click "Continue to Print Provider". A new window for that print provider will open, and you can continue like you would normally to order on that site.

 

Anyhow, the nice thing about Picasa is that even if you don't give anybody else the email address or password to sign into your web album, you can still share the album with them, the album can be private (select private and not public when creating the album if you only want people you email it to to see it), you can still make the permissions so that they can order prints from the album, you can still make the permissions so that they can download the original resolution photos to their computers (if you upload photos in original resolution, which is an option), and Picasa doesn't have a time limitation of how long they keep your photos (Photoworks erased some of mine b/c I didn't order from them in years, and now I only have the prints I made, sadly, as those weren't from a digital camera).

 

The added bonus of the software part (which is also free) is that you can edit your photos before uploading them to the web album - and it is really easy. All of this is quite easy once you're actually looking at the interface. You might need a gmail account - but when creating your Picasa web album account, I believe you create a gmail account too (and you should be using gmail anyway as it is great).

 

If you don't actually care about other people uploading photos to the album, and you just want them to be able to view, order prints, or download the photos, then you can have your private account w/o giving them email/pwd.

 

I was very dumb when doing this and just told everyone to create their own accounts and upload their wedding photos of my wedding in original resolution, so that I could download the photos I liked from their albums, edit them (b/c some silly people are too lazy to even get rid of the red-eye, which is just 1 click), and the upload them into a master album, but that took a while, and I'm just a bit of a control freak. I think it would have been easier, if you want other people's photos, to have a shared accout.

[nylalany]

Oh, and for some reason, there are more printer company options in the actual software than in the web albums, so you personally, if you download the software, can order from more printers (including kodakgallery). Sorry if this is confusing. I swear if you see it it isn't.

 

This is the software:

Picasa 3: Free download from Google

 

This is to get started w/the web albums:

Picasa Web Albums Features

[Simistar]

Thanks Nylalany!

I'll definitely check picasa out...although I am leaning towards Koadak I think...

But picasa also sounds like it's very user friendly...

Arrrgh...again:-)

Decisions...decisions...:-)