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Photo & Video sharing – professional and otherwise
After having tried several alternatives, I use Dropbox (paid version) for sending rough cuts & stills to clients. It works well.
Just this week, a client and a colleague (different people) used Google Drive to send me files. It also worked well.
On the non-professional side of life, I’ve had a lot of problems, and I would appreciate your advice.
Today, I used the blizzard down-time to send my family and friends several albums of family-occasion photographs. I used Picasa, which used to work very easily – but it was a nightmare. Many people wrote back that they were getting “File Not Found” web pages instead of the photo albums – while others were fine. I’ve spent at least two hours on the phone and email, guiding family members through the process of Google+, Google Photos, and Picasaweb. I’m really surprised — Google, how could you be so difficult?
I’m looking for a great solution for (1) organizing my extensive photography collection, and (2) sharing albums with ordinary citizens (as opposed to professional colleagues who have Dropbox, etc., already on their computers and phones). I wonder whether any of you have had experience with any of the classic photo-sharing sites (Picasa, SmugMug, even Facebook) and what you have found most widely compatible.
I used to like Picasa, but even for basic organizing, it has started misbehaving: sorting photos in reverse chronological order and refusing to change that… ditto folders… I tend to organize photographs in directories according to logical divisions, and it feels as though Picasa is fighting me every step of the way.
And while I’m at it: what do you use for professional file transfers?
Thanks!
Bob C
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4 Replies
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Hi Bob,
I use Flickr.com (paid) for photos and TransferBigFiles.com (paid) for sending client files.Steve
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Icloud photos for sharing and sorting photos and vids for family.
Box.com for file sharing with clients.
Frame.io for client video sharing.
John Davidson | President / Creative Director | Magic Feather Inc.
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I currently am storing most everything on Smugmug (paid pro version). Very flexible. And if you have family members who like to get actual prints from shots, Smugmug has a brain dead way to have them buy a print. You can actually set your own prices per print or per client, etc.
I have also used Apple’s Photos, but the new changes to Photos is so bad, (automatic opening of the app when you insert a card, no option not to, is one example) that I’ve just gave up and downloaded all my files back to my laptop and moved them over to Smugmug. Sheesh. Apple sometimes.
Flickr is good! I have actually gotten work from art directors who have followed Flickr, but again, you have to pay after a certain limit.
My computer based photo software is Lightroom. The best product I’ve ever bought from Adobe. Works just like I expect it to.
Al
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Just a heads up for those who use Dropbox to send video edits to clients:
Here’s what your client sees when they follow the link to their video: a nice big video freeze frame with a clickable arrow on it. Naturally, clients click it, rather than the sometimes-hidden “download” option off to the upper right. And then, they freak out when they see the extremely compressed preview video which Dropbox generates. Very “pixilated” and ugly.
So here is the tip (from the Dropbox Forum) for anyone using Dropbox for this purpose: Send your clients the download link, but change the ?dl=0 at the end of the link to ?dl=1, forcing a download.
Bob C
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