Flickr, Picasa, Panoramio - or Other?

[Poriotis]

Hi, Sorry if this has been posted already in another section or by someone else - if so, please feel free to close this thread and point me in the right direction.

I had a look but couldn't find a clear answer to what I'm about to ask, so wondering if you can provide some help.

As photographers (beginners, amateurs, pro's alike) what photography photo-sharing site do you use to manage your photos, share with friends, colleagues, forums and clients - and why? I see a lot of people use Flickr - I don't "see" what the big fuss is about, unless I'm missing something - I find it difficult to navigate as a site. I use Blogspot to put a lot of my photos on and leave room for comments, with tags, etc for easy finding.

I'm really opening this up to everyone to give thoughts, feedback, etc as you are all more experienced than what I would be in photo-management styles and techniques.

Over to you

[donoreo]

I do not use any. I used to use Picasa at one time. I need to set something up myself. I agree with the flikr comment.

[markescapes]

Guess it depends what you want. For serious critique there may be other places to go but I have to say Flickr is a friendly place that gives novices the confidence to share their work and mingle with the more talented.

[chris-p]

I use Flickr but more for storage than anything else. It gives clients somewhere to look at previous work as well, although I only show them Flickr through the Fluidr interface.

[Dagwood]

I'm just about to download the RAW codecs from FastPictureViewer, I notice they do a viewer package which you can purchase as a combined deal with the Codecs. Has anyone used this and do they have anything to say about it?
Dagwood

[PolaroidSky]

I can't knock Flickr, I've had countless mags/books contact me through it requesting images, 1000 contacts, 150,000 plus views a year, easy to find great images and made some great friends... wonderful! Like any site of that ilk... you get back what you put into it : )

[Cathus]

I store my shots on my own web server & then link to them from forums.

For my blog the shots are stored in the blog space.

I have a Flickr account but don't have anything on there as I don't really like the layout/presentation of the site.

[ABERS]

Flickr allows you make contact with people that have the same aspirations as you. The group system can be a little overdone though, but if you want your pictures to rack up 1,000's of views, join as many groups as you can, but that then becomes almost unmageable. Keep it to no more than a dozen. It's easy to fall into the trap of accepting every invite to join a group, you can easily find yourself a member of a 100+!

The contact system is great, over the couple of years I've been a Flickr member I've met with people that have an affinity to photography much in the same way as myself.

[Ashleyj]

I think it depends upon what you want from a hosting service. Personally I use Picasa as I also use that on my computers for viewing slide shows of photos and it makes uploading to web albums very easy.

I'm only really interested in uploading them to share with my family and friends, but if you want to have your pictures viewed by a wider audience I think that Flickr would probably be a better service to use.

I do have a couple of my photos on Flickr, but to be honest I found uploading a bit of a pain. No doubt that is because I do not use it enough to get familiar with the process.

[Poriotis]

Thanks guys, definately a lot of good information and comparisons. I think, if I can, summarise it as follows:

Flickr - Used more by the "professional" type photographer who has a Pro account and can store up to GB's worth of photos, can share with magazines, etc.

Pros: Has the groups option, well known throughout the photography world
Cons: Limits to 300MB per month upload unless you have a Pro account, Not easy to navigate

Picasa - Seems to be for the more "relaxed, home" person who wants to share 10 or so photos with friends/families.

Pros: Easy to use and navigate
Cons: Only 2GB worth of space.

Keep it coming folks!