Top 10 Best Photo Sharing Websites 2013

1. Facebook

Yes facebook too! It is hard to ignore the kind of exposure facebook gives to one. A separate page can be created with all your pictures and updates and you can interact with your fans. This page can be associated with your personal account, so that you can administer the page within your existing setup. The obvious advantage is the social networking and exposure; anyone who ‘like’ your page can view all your daily uploads on their wall. One can upload as many pictures as they want and the word can spread really quickly if you are any good. Many people have gained some kind of recognition through this. Facebook is vast with a lot of possibilities.

2. Instagram

This has become the latest ‘trend’ these days. It was started in 2010 and initially was only a mobile based app allowing users to upload pictures and view other peoples pictures. It also has many available filters that one can use to add effect to their photos. Recently they also made web profiles allowing people to browse peoples work even through a computer. In their latest update they have introduced video sharing as well. Everyone with an android or apple phone definitely has used instagram. One can either take pictures from their phones or upload a DSLR shot and edit and upload them. Your profile can either be private allowing you to choose who can follow you or not or public where everyone can see everything you upload.

3. Flickr

Flickr’s greatest strength is its community. Thousands of other photographers and many other enthusiasts are part of this. Forming many groups and sharing their work with each other. One can submit the pictures to these groups and they feature it on message boards as well as photo feeds, and they are a great way to get exposure for your work. One can store pictures here as well and this becomes like a backup and storage device. With a paid account of course one can upload unlimited pictures. It’s all about uploading your pictures in the right places and within the right crowd to get proper exposure.

4. 500px

Everything about this says high quality. This is a very good site for sharing professional photographs rather than anything else. It allows you to upload a portfolio of pictures and also has a rating system with something known as affection. The more likes, favorites and comments you get, the higher your level of “affection” will be. Snapshots and family pictures do not fit in here. Several high profile and well known photographers have account here and obviously there is quality of the content. However you are limited to only 10 uploads every week on a free account and at this rate it would take you a very long time to get all your pictures uploaded, that is the only drawback.

5. Tumblr

People say Tumblr is a bit of WordPress, Twitter and Flickr all rolled into one. Tumblr allows you to instantly create a presence online and share images, text, audio, video and links to various other sites. Tumblr also comes with a built in audience of all the other bloggers, any of them can ‘like’ your articles or photos and follow you in their content reader. This has become very popular over the years and is available on the web as well as for phones. People click pictures from their phones or camera and upload them for others to view them. It is a great way to share and promote your pictures in a fast, fun, clean and easy way.

6. DeviantART

This caters to artists in general than to photographers in particular, but that shouldn’t stop you from having a quick look. They have a huge and very nice community and it’s easy to get comments and favorites lined up when you are putting good quality pictures. But you should also keep in mind that you are competing against drawings, paintings and sculptors. It allows you to upload, categorize and promote your shots through groups or journals, which are more or less blog entries that people can view. One can also find snapshots, family photos, and even some bad “photographic nudes” are common here but you can turn off any adult content with a check box in the account settings.

7. Kodak Gallery

The Kodak Gallery was Kodak’s consumer online digital photography web site. It features online photo storage, sharing, viewing on a phone. Getting prints and creating personalized photo gifts. It had over 60 billion users and more than billions of pictures. This has unlimited low resolution uploading and paid users can download higher images that they’ve uploaded. Although Kodak gallery has shut down in the year 2012, Shutterfly has taken over. So all the pictures are safe and photo sharing is still possible.

8. Pinterest

Pinterest wasn’t intended to be a photography site first and foremost. This site allows you to take bit and pieces from all over the net, it can be text, articles, or images and ‘pin’ them to various walls you set up on your account. This is not only useful to look for the latest styles or trends or hairstyles but since practically anything can be pinned, it makes for a great area to show off your photography too. There are different categories that one can browse and since it’s a social network, you can collect followers here too for your photography, and follow other people and see their work as well.

9. Twitter

There is no denying the fact that social media has become a mover and shaker in the world of promotion, especially in areas like photography where digital media are being advertised. Twitter wasn’t initially designed around the use of images, but it excels at spreading the work about those images and it raises awareness of your work. One can maintain a base of followers and when you upload texts or pictures they can view them. Although this site isn’t your best choice for graphically displaying your work, its huge user base, quick updates makes it a great supporting addition to help a person promote their photos.

10. Picasa

This is Google’s fast and very easy to use, photo sharing website. It automatically finds and stores all the pictures on your PC. It can be installed through google and one can upload pictures directly via any android phone. It allows users with accounts at Google to store and share at least 1GB of large photos for free. One can also email a private album’s URL to anyone, and the recipient can view the album without having to create a user account. Additionally, the terms permit Google to allow other companies with which they are affiliated to use the uploaded pictures to provide syndicated services. This way a larger crowd can view your pictures. One can edit photos as well, either crop or add many effects and make the photos look better.