Quick Tip #7:
Pick your best online sharing option

Technology has made it possible to share our images with others in an instant! It's one of the best things about the digital age.

But like all things tech-y, online
sharing is rapidly changing and can
be a bit confusing. In this Quick Tip,
I'll demystify your options and help
you choose the best one for your needs.

To share online, or not to share online?
Are your friends and family tech-savvy? Some may still prefer to receive prints. With modern digital scrapbook pages, you can share online and also print to give as a treasured gift. If you create them in the Square format, you can print as 12 X 12s for your own Fusion Album, but also as 8 X 8s to make a mini-album. You can give an 8 X 8 album with a few pages as a holiday gift, then send along new prints your family can insert.

Consider sharing the gift of sharing
If you want to share online with an older family member who hasn't connected with the Internet yet, you could offer to help them learn the basics about the computer, email, and even Facebook. Recent studies show that elderly people who learn to use the Internet feel more connected with the world and their families. Most senior centers and assisted living facilities have shared computers available. You may help them open a whole new world!

Should you share snapshots or digital scrapbook pages?
Naturally, I believe that there is a place for both! It's great to post snapshots. People love to share your life, even if it's only with a small caption. It is also easier to send small, lower-res snapshots as attachments to emails than to send whole digital scrapbook files.

But a modern digital scrapbook page, shared online, makes a big impact because several well-chosen images from an event are seen together, giving a quick overall view; thoughtful journaling adds a depth of understanding about the subject; and your digital scrapbook pages will stand as beautiful creative works, complementing your photos.

MOST POPULAR METHODS OF SHARING SNAPSHOTS

Email. You can add a snapshot as an attachment. You should only attach files that equal 5 MB or less for most servers; for example, one 5 MB photos or 5 one-MB photos. A good rule of thumb is to not send photos that are over 600 pixels in width. You can easily resize any photo in Photoshop Elements by going to Image>Resize>Image Size and make it 600 pixels in width. Just be sure to save it with a new name after reducing, because you cannot resize it larger again without losing resolution.

Blogs. Setting up a blog is easy, and in many cases, free. Popular hosting sites include Blogger.com, Typepad.com, and Wordpress.com. It is easy to drag and drop your images into your blogs. Most sites will automatically resize your images to fit their parameters.

Photosharing sites. If you would like to share your images with a minimum of captions, and maintain a gallery where your visitors can look at your new and old photos anytime, photosharing sites can be perfect. They usually also offer links to printing services. Once your account is setup, you keep your gallery private by only allowing registered members (whom you have invited) to access your photos. Popular sharing websites include Flickr.com, Picasa.com, and Photobucket.com.

Facebook. More than 250 million people are active Facebook users (myself included!), with over 120 million logging on at least once a day. It's easy photo sharing capability is one reason for its popularity. It takes just seconds to create a photo album. Go to Facebook.com and check it out. Chances are many of your real-life friends are already there!

Printing from Facebook and photo sharing sites. A 12 X 12 300 dpi JPEG image (a typical modern digital scrapbook page suitable for printing), posted on Flickr, ends up at 1024 X 1024 pixels (or 3.4 X 3.4 inches, 300 dpi), legible for reading but not suitable for print. The same image shared on Facebook and downloaded to the desktop ends up at 604 X 604 pixels (or 2 X 2, 300 dpi), also legible for reading but not suitable for print.

Retail photo printers. Virtually all large retail printers, such as Costco.com and Shutterfly.com, create galleries with your uploaded photos. You can make these galleries accessible to visitors, even setting your preferences to notify your contacts when you upload new photos. The advantage to this is that your contacts can order their own high-resolution prints and pay for them independently.

NOTE: Some retail photo printers store your photos online only as long as you are an active customer; they may delete them if you don't order a print in a certain period of time (a year, for example). Be sure to check this out before relying on a retailer for online storage.

YOUR PRIVACY

Every site you post photos to, whether it is for photosharing, printing, or social networking, will give you privacy options when you set up your account. You will be able to limit your photosharing to only your contacts or to a larger audience, even opening it to unlimited Internet access. Please take a moment to make sure you are comfortable with the privacy level you select; remember, once posted on the Internet, an image cannot be completely removed; although you may be able to remove it from a gallery, it may have already been downloaded by an individual.