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Possible Duplicate:
How do you sync photos with your family?

What is the simplest way to send a large batch of pictures to a friend, colleague or to a group?

I know about social sites like Picasa or Facebook but not everyone in my group has an account, nor I want to make any of the pictures public.

Uploading repeated batches won't do for this and definitely sending through email won't cut it. Also Ftp solutions are just too technical.

Is there just a simple tool for this?

Update: I have found one suitable: SendGenie - it seems to do exactly what I need. Update 1: I am not interested in sharing or synchronizing the pictures. Just a simple send.

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  • @studiohack: no, not really, this is for a one way send and not for a sharing solution
    – Notitze
    Dec 31, 2010 at 0:07
  • my apologies then. you as the OP understand the situation best... :-)
    – studiohack
    Dec 31, 2010 at 0:18
  • 2
    What size is the file set?
    – Moab
    Dec 31, 2010 at 3:04
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    This is NOT an exact duplicate. The other question is about sharing in all directions, this is one-way
    – Daniel Beck
    Jan 2, 2011 at 17:28
  • 1
    By comparing the content of both questions, as well as the answers, one way or not, it is still a duplicate. Jan 3, 2011 at 11:43

12 Answers 12

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DROPBOX!

Dropbox acts like a folder on you computer. All you need to do it to drag and drop. You have 2 ways of sending the images:

(1) Using the public folder. You will be supplied a URL which you can send to your friends. This is less secure as someone else can download the images (if they somehow manage to randomly guess your URL). One workaround is to zip all the images, then password protect the archive. You can then send the password to your friends separately.

(2) Have a shared folder. This, however, requires your friends to download DropBox as well.

It can give you up to 8GB of space (2GB when you first use it).

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  • 2
    I love Dropbox. The public folder (and ability to get a URL by right-clicking in the Finder) has completely demolished any need I had for those annoying upload/download websites.
    – NReilingh
    Dec 31, 2010 at 1:16
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16 gig SD card sent by postal service - then they can send it back to you with their photos. Cost about 1.00 USD round trip.

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  • even better, a microSD card.
    – studiohack
    Dec 30, 2010 at 23:56
  • @studiohack Well he did say simplest.
    – bahamat
    Dec 30, 2010 at 23:57
  • @hahamat: meaning?
    – studiohack
    Dec 30, 2010 at 23:57
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    I am looking for a software solution that I could reuse. I could reuse the SD card, but to send to 10 people would take me a while ;)
    – Notitze
    Dec 31, 2010 at 0:08
  • And DVD is much cheeper. Dec 31, 2010 at 9:16
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Torrents are one of the best ways to send large files. Just make a private torrent and let your friends download with their client of choice.

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  • This means that your machine must be online seeding it all this time. A reasonable choice when both machines are NATted, though.
    – 9000
    Jan 3, 2011 at 1:52
  • @9000 I think it is safe to assume that most computers have a high speed internet connection these days. Also, setting up NAT for P2P is not always necessary, even with private torrents. If a router has UPNP support a good bit torrent client will configure all the necessary ports, even randomizing them when the client starts for increased security. Jan 3, 2011 at 17:42
  • @typoknig: yes, my point was exactly that torrent clients sort these things out automatically, while e.g. setting up a web server on my machine and letting my friend access it may be tricky.
    – 9000
    Jan 3, 2011 at 21:39
  • The users I am sending to do not know nor care to know what a torrent is.
    – Notitze
    Jan 28, 2011 at 15:06
  • @Notitze You write "The users I am sending to do not know nor care to know what a torrent is." like it is an impossible task to educate them. Are the people you are sending files to incapable of learning new things? Jan 28, 2011 at 18:55
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Isn't this exactly what sites like https://www.yousendit.com/ are for?

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You could post them on a Windows Live Skydrive, and then send them a private viewing URL.

Or put all the photos in a .zip file, and upload to a site like http://ge.tt/ or http://letscrate.com/.

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  • 1
    +1 for an alternative to Dropbox, but Dropbox is my preferred way
    – Sathyajith Bhat
    Dec 31, 2010 at 14:42
  • @Sathya: you can't view photos on Dropbox online as well...Skydrive shows a grid, and you can even use a slideshow...
    – studiohack
    Dec 31, 2010 at 15:34
  • put them in pictures folder & you can. dropbox.com/gallery/3353/1/Chip%20Chennai%20Meet?h=a4a419
    – Sathyajith Bhat
    Dec 31, 2010 at 15:51
  • @Sathya: wow, interesting. I never knew one could do that. Do I need to name the folder a particular one, in order to get that?
    – studiohack
    Dec 31, 2010 at 16:23
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    Dropbox has few special folders - creating a new folder under "Photos" will create an album & and image dropped under Photos / subdirectories under Photos can be accessed using the gallery link.
    – Sathyajith Bhat
    Dec 31, 2010 at 16:35
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min.us works great for this. I don't think there's a limit on it IIRC.

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Skydrive is mentioned above, but not in the context that Skydrive outshines EVERYONE by multiple "lumens". Simply open a Windows Live Mail account and send your photos as an album rather than a standard attachment. I have sent 50 to 60 photos in the range of 3 to 5 megabytes each with no problem. The recipient can then view and disregard the pictures or they can view and selectively download and save (or print) any or all of the album photos. The recipient is not required to have a Windows Live account to use this service, but they must install Silverlight on their computer (A very small, unobtrusive application). This procedure does not take space on the recipient's harddrive until the pictures are downloaded and saved. Unlike typical photo sharing services that prohibit downloading and saving files without paying something, somewhere; Windows Live Mail is free, Skydrive is free, and Silverlight is free so there is no cost to either party for this fabulous photo sharing service. Beats EVERYBODY else, hands down!

edit: These albums can also be sent to multiple recipients just as a standard eamil can.

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  • You do not actually need Silverlight, but it makes the interface a bit better when uploading through the webpage. Windows Live Photo Gallery is a better way to upload. The recipient is also able to download all the photos in a single .zip file.
    – paradroid
    Jan 3, 2011 at 1:59
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How about Google Docs? You can share just the docs/pics you want with whomever you want. Or in my case, just opened a second Google account and gave user name/password to family members who wanted to see the photos.

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If you have a Windows Live account, you can use the Mail application or Hotmail site to create a "Photo email" that automatically hosts on the Web any pictures you "attach," and presents the photos neatly in the email. When a recipient clicks on a photo or the link to all photos, he is taken to where they are hosted.

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You can post a private album to picasa, and then send people a URL that includes an authorization key.

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If you are uploading many pictures, it may be a good idea to compress them. Somebody mentioned a .zip file, but if you think the people you're sending the pictures to are tech-savvy enough, you could be better off using a .7z or .rar, since the file size will be considerably smaller. You can create both archive types with 7-zip if you are in windows, and many other programs in both windows and other OS's. just google it

As to sending the file, you could use http duhshare.com, which is a peer to peer sharing website, and there is no need to install anything. It was featured in LifeHacker.

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  • In fact most of the people I needed to send to are not at all tech-savvy.
    – Notitze
    Jan 9, 2011 at 0:24
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If you want to share a lot of files instantly, you could use Opera Unite. You install the browser Opera, you enable Unite, you download the Opera Unite Firesharing plugin, you assign a shared folder on your disk through Opera, set a password for it, and you give the link of your filesharing (you will see it there) to your friend. That way, he can browse the folder on your disk through his browser without downloading anything, until he clicks on a picture to view it in his browser.

The point is that he can start viewing the pictures without downloading them all at once, and that you need not upload any individual pictures.

If he wants to download all the pictures with one click, you could put all the pictures in a zip file, put it in your Unite shared folder that you made earlier, and he will see it instantly in his browser, so that he can click to start downloading the entire file.

See here an explanation of how it works: http://lifehacker.com/5472050/whats-the-easiest-way-to-share-large-files-and-media-with-friends

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