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How to Set Up a Picture Sharing Site

The advent of digital photography has not only changed the way people take pictures, it has provided a way to share those images with family and friends around the world. Before digital photography, sending photos usually required additional prints and mailing them. This resulted in both printing and mailing costs and the risk that the pictures might get damaged or even lost. With digital photos, you can easily set up an online gallery, assign a password and invite the people you want to view the images.

Instructions

- 1
  Open a free account with "Flickr, "Picassa" or "Photoshelter." Review the accounts and how they are used to see which one will work the best for your needs. The providers allow you to send email invitations to view your pictures and let you set up passwords to stop others from having access to them.
- 2
  Create a new folder on your computer to hold the pictures you want to upload to your online gallery. Some sites automatically resize your photos and lower the resolution to 72 dots per inch, reducing the file size to save storage space. Flickr and Picasa will automatically do this as your photos are up loaded. Photoshelter will not. Ensure your photos meet size limitations if they will not be resized automatically.
- 3
  Upload the pictures to your online gallery following the instructions specific to the site you selected. While the actual steps may vary from site to site, you will create a gallery on the site, upload pictures to the gallery, set the privacy settings and invite individuals whom you want to view the site.
- 4
  Email your family and friends and include a link to the gallery and the password you selected for access. You can create a distribution list in most email programs, making it easier to send out a new bulk email whenever you add pictures to the site.

Photography