The Basics of Photo Gallery Software

Author: Ron McNeil

Taking photos can be a lot of fun. It doesn't matter if you're taking images of pets, family, sports or scenery, it's still enjoyable for you. Part of the enjoyment of taking photos is sharing them with others. While before to do this you might have had to send them via snail mail, now all you need to do is go on the computer and use photo gallery software to share them with as many people as you like. It's a much more convenient way of sharing photos with the people you care about. You'll learn the basics of photo gallery software in this article.

What is Photo Gallery Software?

So what exactly is photo gallery software? Well, it's kinda like a digital version of a photo album. If you've taken lots of pictures with older cameras (you know, before they were digital), you've probably created some photo albums to keep the photos organized. Photo software is just like this, except instead of holding a photo album in your hands, you'll instead have one on the computer.

A traditional photo gallery software program will allow you to import photos. That is, you'll be allowed to press a button, select photos from your harddrive, and then put them in your photo by using the software. When you've added in all the photos and pressed the button to create the photo gallery, your online photo will be created instantly.

How does Photo Gallery Software Work?

No two photo gallery software programs are alike, but most offer the some of the same features to customers. Usually, when you use the photo software to add images, the program then creates a photo album to house the images. Depending on the software program you are using, during this process, you might be able to choose between different themes for the album. For instance, you might get to customize the gallery's border, background, text etc.

When the photo album is created, other things are created as well. Thumbnails for the images are also created, which allows people to see a small version of the image and then decide, based on that, whether to click the thumbnail (to see the whole image) or not. This is very handy if you want to have a page for your photos which doesn't take forever to load. All the HTML coding is also taken care of by the photo gallery software. This is probably a huge relief for those webmasters who can't be bothered with coding their own photo gallery for their site.

Some photo software programs will allow you to add image captions in when you are adding the images to the program. This allows you to take care of everything within the album while adding the photos in, rather than having to wait until later.

Depending on the photo gallery software program you use, you might also have a great selection of file formats to use. A lot of the best photo software programs will accept many image formats ranging from jpeg and gif to psp. This allows you to upload virtually any type of image format you may have.

Web or Computer?

Not all photo gallery software is the same. Some are focused more on uploading images to the web, while others will only help you to create photo albums for people to browse while using your computer. Usually when you are looking at the information about the program, you'll be able to tell where the images go. If they are uploaded to a web site, it could be either the photo software maker's web site, or it could be your own.

Uploading to Your Web Site/Their Web Site

If you're new to the whole photo gallery thing, it can be difficult to choose the best photo software for your needs. You're not sure which is the best, and to make this decision, it's important to think things through. Do you have plans for hosting the photo album on your web site? Do you want the URL (web site address) to be your own? If so, you're going to want a photo gallery software program that does this for you. Keep in mind that such a program will have to have FTP support, so make sure it does this.

But what if you don't want to host your own images? While most photo software programs that offer web capabilities are built to work with existing web sites, some offer the ability to upload images to the photo gallery software program's web site. Your photo along with your photos will be given space on their web site and you'll be able to pass that link on to others.

About the Author:

Ron McNeil promotes software to sell photos online and to start your own photo gallery software and run your own stock photography software site powered by Web Scribble software located at http://www.webscribble.com/products/webstore/

Article Source: ArticlesBase.com - The Basics of Photo Gallery Software

What Is Easy Photo Sharing?

Author: Matt Smolsky

There are quite a few photo sharing sites on the Internet these days. But just because some have millions of users, does that make them ideal for easy photo sharing?

It depends on what you want to do. If you want to show your photos to the whole world, then a site that touts open sharing is right for you. However, if you consider your photos to be private between you and your family and friends, then you'll want to look for a site that is built for easy photo sharing, but allows you to easily restrict who can and cannot see your photos.

Easy photo sharing is more than just transferring or scanning your photos into your computer and uploading them to a sharing site. There are lots of sites that allow you to do that. The thing you need to watch out for is what happens to your photos once they're on the photo sharing website, and does the site really feature easy photo sharing.

A brief history of easy photo sharing

The very early easy photo sharing sites appeared in the mid to late 1990s, but were mostly created to provide online print ordering. More appeared in the early part of this century, primarily to provide centralized access to photos.

At the same time, desktop photo management systems appeared. These were not Internet based, and still aren't. They provide a way to manage photos on your computer, and sometimes have links to online storage sites.

A true easy photo sharing site will allow you to easily share your photos across the Internet with the people of your choice. Exposing all your photos for the entire world to see is not really sharing - it's really more like a neighborhood open house for your photos and lacks the intimacy of sending a photo to a friend or relative.

Getting your photos onto an easy photo sharing site

Of course, photo sharing starts with a camera. Whether it's a camera phone or a high-end digital Single Lens Reflex camera, you need to take the picture before you can share the picture. You may have some older prints around the house that you'd like to digitize and save to an easy photo sharing site.

With that in mind, a true easy photo sharing site will feature easy one step scanning and whole folder uploads.

With one step scanning, all you do is place your photo on your scanner and push a button. With whole folder uploads, you can upload hundreds of photos all at once, rather than browsing them in one at a time. With these two features, you can get the photos you want online as fast as possible, so you can start sharing them with the people you care about.

Free membership or paid subscription?

Many easy photo sharing sites require membership. But some will allow you to upload as many as 500 photos free, no membership required. If you have a digital camera, you likely already know that you will reach the upper limits of any free membership very quickly.

Some sites also put a limit on the maximum size of the photos you can upload. This is very inconvenient as the upload process will be stopped or paused as photos that are too large are kicked out of the process. Sites that put limits on the size of individual photos cannot be referred to as easy photo sharing sites.

Easy photo sharing means more than just sending an email

Sites that offer printing services are also convenient. Most do, and many offer roughly the same price and quality, so pay particular attention to how easy it is to order the prints, how easy it is to upload your photos, customer service, shipping options, etc. How well a site handles these services is an indication of whether or not it is an easy photo sharing site.

Also, true easy photo sharing sites will allow you to create, print and share photo albums, story books, greeting cards, calendars, and other photo gifts. These items should be easy to create, and feature high quality, both in terms of service and the finished product you receive.

About the Author:
Matt Smolsky develops marketing programs and has written articles for a variety of clients, including Hoorray, a new website for easy photo sharing and easy photo printing.

Article Source: ArticlesBase.com - What Is Easy Photo Sharing?

How to Sell Your Photos

Author: Jason Kay

Stories of ordinary people becoming millionaires overnight with the help of some wonderful programs are flooding us from all directions and even though many of these stories are exaggerated at best and total lies at worst, there are many ways in which you can make money, even if you are not a unique talent. Well, I don't mean that photography does not require talent, but even beginner photographers can make money by selling their photos. Most likely you will not make your first million selling photos, but this is a viable way to earn some extra cash. Photos are a product and as with all products, you need to know what to offer and where to sell it.

What You Can Sell

For those people, who have no idea about photography, a photo is just a photo, but for people who are familiar with photography and arts in general, there are separate distinct groups of photos. The most obvious distinction of photos is based on their content, but for the purposes of selling photos, this distinction is not as important as what the photo can be used for.

The two major uses of photos are for the Web and in print. Web photos tend to be low resolution and lower quality is acceptable for them, while print photos generally are high resolution and low quality is unacceptable. As a beginner photographer, you will most likely target the Web market first because the entry barrier there is not as high as with the printing market. Additionally, if your camera is not a high-end one, your skills in photo processing will hardly be able to compensate for this, so in this case, print photos are not an option for you because of technical reasons. This shouldn't discourage you because the Web market is vast and there is a lot of space for beginners.

The main buyers on the Web market are Web designers, who make sites for their clients. For many Web designers it is much easier and cheaper to buy ready-made photos than to take the pictures themselves. A solo Web designer can make 10 or even more middle-sized sites a month, which means that he or she will need at least 200-300 photos and illustrations. This does not mean that you will be able to sell 200-300 photos a month to each Web designer you contact, but even if you manage to sell him or her 10-20 photos a month, or more realistically a batch of several hundred photos for him or her to use in the next year, then you can make a lot of money.

Similar to other arts, photography also has genres. Not surprisingly, photos of people, nature and cities sell best. Another category, which is especially popular with designers, is objects of different kinds. You can shoot a light bulb, a pen, some pills, or whatever object you choose, and this may be enough. Add some unobtrusive background to it and you get a cool photo for a Web site. But be careful with copyrights because not all manufacturers will be happy if you shoot their products and make money from this. Try shooting generic products, which have no visible branding.

Similar copyright issues apply to people. If you want to shoot people and you want to be on the safe side, ask them to sign a model contract, which clarifies all the issues in regard to copyrights and sales. Very often you won't have to hire professional models and you can shoot your friends and relatives instead. Your models don't have to be extremely beautiful because pictures of ordinary people also sell well. Shooting friends and relatives has one more advantage - they work cheaply or free.

Nature and urban photos are always in demand, but avoid photos which look as if they were taken by tourists because they simply look too unprofessional to be sold. Abstractions are also popular, so if you are creative with PhotoShop or another image processing program you can wake up the Picasso in you.

Where You Can Sell

The type of photos you have is one of the major factors in choosing your sales channels. Basically, the options to sell your photos are the following:

1. Stock photo sites. Stock photo sites are the most popular sales channel. Stock photos are photos you have already taken, i.e. you have in stock. You open an account with a stock photo site, upload your images and every time somebody downloads your photo, you earn a commission. Different sites have different policies, but it's not unusual to earn $40 per photo each time it is downloaded.

If your photos are popular, it is not impossible to reach dozens of downloads per week. One of the prerequisites for success is to submit sought after photos and to use the right keywords in the descriptions of your photos. The best stock photo site I have found is Shutterpoint. They provide photographers an e-commerce store-front for selling photos, handle advertising and promotion, handle all purchase transactions, provide customer service, and securely deliver images to buyers. All of these features are provided for a very reasonable fee, and in addition, other members often provide valuable feedback on your photos. This is a great way to begin your career as a professional photographer.

2. Stock agencies. Stock agencies are similar to stock photo sites, but in addition to listing your photos, they consult buyers and handle all the legal and logistical matters. Stock agencies usually deal with professional photographers mainly but there are stock agencies, which are beginner-friendly. As with stock photo sites, you usually have to decide (if you have the choice of course) whether you want to sell exclusive rights or only per use rights.

3. Sell directly to newspapers and magazines. Although this is hardly the easiest way to sell your photographs, it is worth trying. Newspapers and magazines are a very tough market to get into but can be a very high paying one. For a start, you can try your local or community media.

4. eBay and similar auctions. Auction sites, such as eBay, are one more sales outlet you can try. Yes you really can earn decent income from selling photos on eBay. This is a good alternative if you sell other products in addition to photos, but even if photos are the only thing you sell, eBay and the other auction sites can do a lot for you. Make sure to avoid small and dark photos. Listings should be created which are descriptive and include realistic prices. Check the Completed Listings option when searching to see examples of photos which have sold.

5. Freelance sites. Unlike the other options listed up to here, freelance sites are generally a place for work for hire projects. This means that usually a buyer comes and asks you to make some photos especially for him or her, but very often there are buyers who offer to purchase your already made (or stock) photos as well.

6. Your own website. Even if the other options work great for you, having your own website is a valuable sales channel. You can offer everything you like - i.e. low resolution mockups for free, paid downloads, etc. The downside is that you need to market your site, otherwise you will hardly get much traffic and, respectively, sales. Search engine optimization is a must and if you are really serious about selling your photos via your website, you can even consider starting an affiliate program.

7. Free samples. These days advertisements are something one can hardly sell without. Instead of launching an expensive campaign, you can give photos away for free but keep your logo on them. This is a kind of advertisement and it will bring you new customers.

About the Author:
Jason Kay recommends you sell your photos on Shutterpoint, which offers a store-front to showcase and sell your photos and handles all transactions for you.

Article Source: ArticlesBase.com - How to Sell Your Photos