Imagine this: you’ve got back those priceless pics of your big trip overseas, and want to share them with mates still over there. Do you scan the photos and send them a bunch of attachments, hoping they won’t bounce from their free e-mail account? Or maybe you want to send several friends digital photos of the latest addition to your family. Sending them all at once will exceed your mail limit, but if you send them in separate e-mails, all the captions you’ve created to accompany them could get mixed up. Besides, opening all of those attachments individually is messy.

There is a better solution. Why not post them to your own online photo album and simply send people the URL instead? A range of online photo printing and sharing sites offers this very service. Pro­viding ways to store and display your digital images online, these sites can be an easy and effective way of showing friends your photos in a neat, ordered fashion.

VENDOR-RUN SITES

Fujicolor
This easy-to-use Australian site allows you either to upload digital pics from your PC or have staff at your local Fujifilm outlet post your 35mm film images to your own personal online photo album.

Imaging tools on this site are scarce, but you can create a basic online photo album or e-card to share with friends. Pics are only kept online for 30 days free of charge. After that, you must buy space in blocks of 300 photos for $19.95 annually. You can also get your favourite happy snaps splashed across mugs, calendars and T-shirts.
www.fujicolor.com.au

Extrafilm
This site is not particularly nice to look at, but it does have some useful online photo services, including a free Web photo album.

Unfortunately, uploading pictures from your PC to your Extrafilm online album is slow (ours even timed out when we tried to upload more than one file at a time). Also, getting access to the album is confusing. You must first access the photo album directly from the member confirmation e-mail before you can access it by logging in as a member to the Extrafilm homepage itself.
www.extrafilm.com.au

Agfa photo site
Although the emphasis on this site is generating print orders, the Agfanet My Photo Printing Portal has plenty of photography tips and tricks to perfect your picture-taking skills.

There’s a free monthly newsletter with software reviews and photo tutorials, online photo courses, and an archive of international shots from the Agfanet photo awards. Users can also produce their own mini-slideshow by uploading images to the site.

At time of print, Agfa.net’s new Web album service for editing and sharing images online was not yet available (it’s expected to go live on 1 May 2003).
www.agfanet.com/en/

Ofoto (Kodak International)
As well as a basic online photo-sharing service, users can choose to plaster pics on cards, calendars, in frames, or within personalised albums.

It’s easy to share your images with friends, but to view them they’ll be required to sign in with their own Ofoto password. You’ll also receive a copy of the e-mail to confirm it has been sent.
www.ofoto.com

Kodak Australia
Like Fujicolor, the print@kodak Internet print service allows you to upload your digital images to the site to be developed as printed pics at your nearest Kodak dealer. This is achieved using Kodak’s software upload tool, which you download from the site.

There are no online photo-sharing facilities on this site, nor is there a temporary online photo album to store your images in — so you are restricted to using this service for simply purchasing printed pics from your digital photos.
www.kodak.com.au

Sony ImageStation
This colourful site allows you not only to edit your pics, but also to give your online album a distinct flavour through a range of colour schemes and themes.

What’s most striking about this site, though, is its privacy policy. As well as a password, users will initially be required to enter an activation code, sent by Sony by e-mail, in order to start up an account. Users will also have to tick a box verifying they are over the age of 13 before being able to use any online services.
www.imagestation.com

HP Photo
This photo-sharing service features clear step-by-step instructions on how to post your photos online, making it a pleasant site to visit.

As well as an online album with 100MB of free storage space, the HP photo site has a range of e-greetings and e-postcards to choose from. And those who can’t think of a caption to accompany their image are in luck — this site has a saved list of sayings for every occasion.
www.hpphoto.com

INTERNET PHOTO COMPANIES

Photocat
There are no online photo-sharing facilities on this site, but it’s worth mentioning for its unique Web-based photo restoration services.

To use this service, you scan or digitally capture your damaged pic, and e-mail it to Photocat. The team will then provide you with a quote, based on the level of restoration required. According to the site, repairs to photos are done pixel by pixel.

Ranging from $100 to $150, the restoration process can be pricey, but may well be worth it to save those memories.
www.photocat.com.au

Shutterfly
This site makes it easy to get your digital photos into an album, as well as share them online. You’ll also get instant access to your preferences, and can change your account details at any time.

Adding pics to a Shutterfly album is effortless — you simply drag and drop pics into a specified album using the uploading tool.

There are plenty of other image enhancement tools, and you can store as many photos as you like for as long as you like, for free.
www.shutterfly.com

Snapfish
The amount of info required to sign up to this site seems formidable — but as non-US users cannot use Snapfish’s printing services, Australian residents will only need to specify their country of origin to access the free online services.

The user’s online album itself is a bit plain to look at, but a great feature here is the photo preview box. You can check out the photos you plan to add to your online photo album before you physically upload them — a great way to ensure you’re not putting up any embarrassing pics!
www.snapfish.com

Photoisland
This site has a stack of features besides online photo-sharing. Iwarp is a lot of fun for stretching out faces in your pics, while Funhouse allows you to insert parts of your pic into a range of animals, cartoon characters or scenes.

All the actual photo editing features in your online album, however, are bunched together, so this site is not as easy to use as others. There’s only a limited selection of album styles, which you won’t be able to change once you’ve selected either single or multiple pics for a page album.
http://atlantic.photoisland.com/index.html

Club Photo
Once you’ve signed up to the online photo services on this site, you’ll be pleasantly surprised by the number of features packed into your account.

Three different packages are available here, ranging from a free basic online photo service to a platinum service for $US24.95 per year. Even on the free service, you’ll get access to photo editing tools, as well as different album styles to choose from.

You can also submit your pics to the member’s gallery, accessible to anyone who visits the site.
www.clubphoto.com

COMMUNITY-MINDED SITES

Webshots
With over 35 million amateur and professional images in its gallery to peer at and purchase, this US-based photo-sharing service is sure to have something to take your fancy.

Webshots has a strong community focus, which is evident in the scores of comments listed in each individual images’ guestbook. If you are gallery-shy, however, you can keep your online album for private viewing only. But beware: if you do share your pics publicly, Webshots assumes ownership and can sell your pic to anyone willing to buy it.
www.webshots.com

Yahoo! Photos Australia
Using your existing Yahoo! username, this site gives you a selection of online album themes. 30MB of image storage is free, or pay around $3 per month for 50MB.

The best features on this site are the user-friendly photoshopping effects. You can give your album pics a pastel hue, twist, twirl or zigzag images out of shape, create a fish-eye effect, or simply frame images with one of 20 available border types.
http://au.photos.yahoo.com

MSN Photos
MSN Photos offers a range of tools and information for posting digital pics online, stretching from how-to features on taking and framing images, to a gallery of the best photos submitted.

Like most community photo-sharing sites, MSN has two types of online sharing services: the free MSN Photos service, and MSN Photos Plus. Users of the premium service can access several added benefits, including up to 100MB of storage space for files, and get free access to MSN’s Picture It! photo editing software.
http://photos.msn.com

Picturetrail
Loading images into an online album on the Picturetrail site is quite tricky and involves lots of clicking, so you’ll need patience to put together your collection here. Nevertheless, the site does have its benefits, including the ability to load not only JPEG files, but also BMP and GIF formats.

You can send free digital cards to friends and family using your stored photos, or select an image for your e-card from dozens of generic pics on the site.
www.picturetrail.com