Comparing Photo-Sharing Sites

Comment Written by jenny on August 20, 2010 – 9:03 am

I recently read this article comparing Flickr and Picasa.  I thought the author did a good job highlighting some of the major differences between the two photo-sharing sites with a pretty unbiased opinion.  I think both services are actually pretty great for sharing and storing your personal photos and there is no doubt that they are two of the most popular options for photo sharing in general.  I, myself, use Picasa quite often to share photos with others.

However, when it comes to weddings and wedding photo sharing, Flickr and Picasa have a very difficult time keeping up with The Wedding Lens.  Using the same criteria as the other article and adding a few more, here’s a look at how they compare:

Storage

Flickr – Unlimited*
Picasa – 1GB free
The Wedding Lens – Unlimited

Given the fact that over 75% of Americans now own digital cameras, you can expect tons of photos to be taken at any given wedding.  From our experience, most weddings collect well over 500 photos, with 18% collecting over 1,000.  Given the average full-resolution photo is about 4 Mb, that means a single wedding requires about 4 GB of storage!

Uploads

Flickr – Free account limits photos to 10 MB each, max 2 videos of 150 MB each/month; Pro account supports photos up to 20 MB each, videos up to 500 MB each
Picasa – Photos up to 20 MB each, no limit on videos
The Wedding Lens – Photos up to 20 MB each, video up to 200 MB each

All three are comparable, although users should be careful of the storage restrictions mentioned earlier.

Quality

Flickr – Supports GIF, PNG, and JPG; TIFF and other image files are converted to JPG.  Originals available with Pro account only.
Picasa – Supports most image files, but all files converted to JPG
The Wedding Lens – Supports GIF, PNG, JPG in original format

The JPEG format is considered a lossy compression format.  In other words, when a PNG image file is converted into JPEG, certain details are lost.  With The Wedding Lens’ Premium and Ultimate albums, you and your guests will all be able to download original, untouched, full-resolution copies of everyone’s photos.  In the Standard album, while full-resolution downloading is not supported, a photo DVD of all the original files can be ordered at an additional cost.

Social vs. Privacy

Flickr – RSS feeds, commenting, friends & groups, public vs. private settings
Picasa – easily embed to websites, share on Buzz, Twitter, Blogger, email contacts, public vs. private settings
The Wedding Lens – email contacts, commenting, embed to websites, FULLY PRIVATE

Unlike some other photography situations, many couples getting married see their wedding photos as being private events only to be shared with friends and family.  In fact, in a recent WeddingChannel.com Digital Wedding Guest Etiquette Poll (June 2010), 40% of brides said posting photos online without permission or even a heads-up was their biggest digital wedding gripe.  While The Wedding Lens allows hosts to invite guests to their site via email or by providing the access code, The Wedding Lens albums are always private.  There is no obscure setting to look for to ensure that photos don’t end up somewhere on the internet – they will always be protected.  In the end it is controlled sharing.

– Additional Criteria –

Guest Access to Upload Photos

Flickr – Must be member
Picasa – Must be member
The Wedding Lens – Registration-free guest access

While all the sites have ways to let everyone view photos, Flickr and Picasa only allow members of their sites to share photos with each other.  In Flickr, you can use Groups or photostreams to combine separate members’ photos.  In Picasa it is accomplished through collaborative albums and contributors.  The Wedding Lens does not force your wedding guests to sign up to the site to view or upload pictures.  They simply need the access code and can begin sharing all those beautiful wedding photos.

Wedding-specific Experience

Flickr -not available
Picasa – not available
The Wedding Lens – of course!

Finally, while Flickr and Picasa are great general photo sharing tools, they just aren’t designed specifically for weddings, from the ground up.  Here are just a few of the many wedding-specific details included into The Wedding Lens:

• Customized URL so that couples can provide an easy-to-remember place to go (Example: http://[brideandgroom].theweddinglens.com)
• Personalized welcome page so that couples can welcome their guests and provide any special instructions
• Automated timed emails that gently remind your guests to bring their cameras before the wedding and upload their photos after
• Warm and friendly wedding theme that is as elegant as your wedding

The Wedding Lens provides an entirely unique experience that is catered to making the collection of wedding photos easy and secure.  Try it for yourself today by signing up for your own free trial at http://www.theweddinglens.com/signup.