Upload times to photo sites

[Amy]

I have a Canon S3 IS, 6mp. When I upload my photos to Photobucket, I'll do 4 or 5 at a time and it takes at least 5 min., sometimes 10 min. (We have Verizon DSL - not the real fast DSL.) Usually when I have a ton of pictures to print, I'll put them on a CD and take the CD to Eckerd or Target to have them printed.

The instructor of my Photoshop Elements 4 class today was talking about how wonderful the Kodak website is, and you should really use the website to have Kodak print your pictures rather than printing them at home, that she does this all the time.

Anyway, I'm concerned about the upload rate, and I asked her about it. She said that it takes about as long as using a card reader to get the photos from your camera vs. using the USB cable connected to your camera. I mentioned how long it takes me just to upload 4 or 5 pix to Photobucket, what am I supposed to do with 300+ vacation pictures this summer. She just kept insisting that it doesn't take long at all to upload photos to Kodak. Another woman in my class said that she has a Verizon FIOS line and it takes her a while to upload photos, too.

Those of you who use Kodak or Snapfish or any of the other on-line sites to have your pictures printed - what's been your experience with upload times? Is Photobucket slower because it's also modifying your photos during the upload?

 

[photo_chick]

because of the size of my files I tend to only upload one at a time when I am getting prints made. Though I use a local lab that lets me upload them from home. I find if I do more than one it really tends to bog down and I get errors more often.

Since I size my stuff down before I upoad to photobucket I don't ever have much wait. It takes a minute or two for 5 photos.

 

[Amy]

because of the size of my files I tend to only upload one at a time when I am getting prints made. Though I use a local lab that lets me upload them from home. I find if I do more than one it really tends to bog down and I get errors more often.

Precisely my point - suppose it's 20-25 pics of a birthday party, you want to upload to Kodak to have nice prints made. You want the larger file size so the prints look good, but to do them one at a time???? You'll be there forever!

Since I size my stuff down before I upoad to photobucket I don't ever have much wait. It takes a minute or two for 5 photos.

Today's Photoshop class also covered resizing images and resampling up and resampling down. I'm going to have a LOT of questions for you guys about this, too, but I just can't wrap my brain around the whole concept to even know what to ask right now. I can understand that you don't need a gazillion pixels to look at a photo on a computer monitor, but I'm totally lost after that. I need to do some reading so I can figure out what I don't understand so I can ask my questions!

 

[Master Mason]

I would say it takes about 10 -15 minutes for me to upload about 50 pictures to Smugmug. Somedays are faster than others, so I am guessing it also depends on the back end hardware and how much it is being taxed as well.

I would highly reccomend smugmug as it does not modify your pictures, so you have an offsite full size backup.

If your interested anyone here with a site can give you a code to save a couple of bucks. The pictures I have odered from them have been great at what to me is a good price.

 

[majimikate]

I don't notice a huge difference in specific photo site upload time, it just seems to take forever no matter what site I use!! I attribute it to my internet connection (Verizon DSL) speed not being fast enough, or at least as fast as I'd like!!

Does anyone else find certain sites better than others?

Chris

 

[Master Mason]

I have only delt with photobucket, walmart.com, and smugmug. Of them photobucket took the longest, and walmart was the fastest. But this is certainly not a sceintific study.

 

[ukcatfan]

This would not help with actual time, but you can use Flock to upload your images easier than the standard Photobucket tool. You just open the upload tool window, drag and drop the images, then upload. It lets you chose a folder or even create a new one. The drag and drop is the real timesaver I guess. I believe it works with Flickr (SP?) also.

BTW... I uploaded about fifteen 6MP images to Walmart about a week ago and it only took about 3-4 minutes. I am on Comcast Cable internet.

Kevin

 

[photo_chick]

Precisely my point - suppose it's 20-25 pics of a birthday party, you want to upload to Kodak to have nice prints made. You want the larger file size so the prints look good, but to do them one at a time???? You'll be there forever!

I do the majority of my printing at home, if I have a ton i just size them exactly how I want them printed and put them on a cd to drop off. I prefer to have my prints done locally. Most of what I have done at the lab is when I want a few bigger than what I print at home, or if they are for someone else (on the rare ocasion I do shoot someone elses kids!).

Today's Photoshop class also covered resizing images and resampling up and resampling down. I'm going to have a LOT of questions for you guys about this, too, but I just can't wrap my brain around the whole concept to even know what to ask right now. I can understand that you don't need a gazillion pixels to look at a photo on a computer monitor, but I'm totally lost after that. I need to do some reading so I can figure out what I don't understand so I can ask my questions!

Yeah, that one took me a while too! MY DH has been working in various graphics fields using photoshop for about 15 years now. It took him forever trying to get me to understand it. It is like algebra I think, once it clicks you feel stupid for not understanding it sooner!