Tuesday, March 19, 2013

Ways to Share Photos

I have been looking at alternative ways to share photos with clients and family besides the typical outlets. I usually use my Wix website to share images, but I don't like to keep the images up there forever. I also use Facebook, but I try to keep the number of files to a minimum. These are two things that I have started to use:

E-books through Blurb (http://www.blurb.com/ebook). These are a great way to share images with anyone that has an Ipad. You can create an e-book in conjunction with a physical book or by itself. 
Benefits/Drawbacks:
  • Easy to create: There are several options for designing your book - either by using their propitiatory software, Adobe® InDesign® or Adobe® Photoshop® Lightroom® 4. I used Lightroom and found it very straightforward and easy to use. The great thing about Lightroom, is that you can also export the file as a PDF. This can be helpful if you want to get approval from clients prior to uploading to Blurb. 
  • Inexpensive: it's only $10 for an e-book. Can't beat that!
  • Accessible: It's set up in the Blurb and Apple bookstore, so anyone can access the book easily.
  • Privacy: You can share it with whoever you want. You can adjust the privacy in the store to allow only those with a specific web address would be able to access the book or make it searchable by anyone.
  • Ipad only: I'm sure in the future, they will expand it to other devices

Slideshows: Slideshows created in Adobe® Photoshop® Lightroom® are another great way to share images. Benefits/Drawbacks:
  • Layout: Nice to easily scroll through all the images
  • Format: it's created in .mp4 format, so it can be viewed through Windows Media Player or Itunes.
  • File Size: the files can be rather large and need to be shared via Google Drive or something else that can easily share a 500MB files.
These are just things that I have worked for me! I am sure I will find more things as I go along!