What to do with Summer Photos
Fall is here, but it’s not too late to deal with your summer photos. Are you the official photographer in the family? If so, everyone's waiting for you to share your pics. Haven't gotten around to it yet? Or, did you take so many photos that your phone's storage is getting full. But, you don't want to delete them. What to do? We've got some tips.
Saving Photos:
The best way to save photos from one device to another and make sure you have a backup is to save them to “the cloud”. You’ve probably heard this term several times, but what does it mean? Essentially the cloud is just an online storage system which provides a copy or backup of files (photos, videos, and more) that you have on your device or computer.
Previously, you may have plugged your phone or camera into your computer and tirelessly transferred all your photos and videos, one by one. A cloud-based photos and video backup means that photos and videos are automatically backed up and stored so that you can access them from any device in the world as long as you have an internet connection. It’s instant and effortless! Not only will you have a backup in case something happens to your phone, this optimizes storage—you can leave photos on your cloud backup and free up space on your actual device.
There are several ways to save to the cloud including options from Apple, Google, and Dropbox.
Apple Devices
If you are an Apple user, there are two ways to save photos from your phone and make them available on your other devices: iCloud and Photo Stream. It’s a bit confusing, but here are some differences and pros and cons of each:
iCloud is the easier choice—all formats of photos and videos are automatically saved in their original format and can be accessed on any device (including signing into iCloud from a PC). They are saved until you delete them. The downside is that you only get 5GB of free storage with iCloud and after that, you have to pay. You can always buy more storage—50GB is $.99/month.
My Photo Stream is free, but it uploads ONLY the last 30 days of photos, and you must be signed into the same Apple ID account to have access to the photo stream library. And, you MUST save your photos on your device if they are in the Photo Stream; otherwise, after the 30 days those photos will be removed and replaced with newer taken photos. You can then back them up using iCloud or iTunes. Also, my Photo Stream will not upload videos or live photos.
For more information on how to save your photos to the iCloud or Photo Stream from your iPhone, contact Candoo Tech.
Google Photos
Google Photos (available on any phone or computer) provides the option to store photos and video.
Some other useful features of Google Photos are; unlimited free storage up to 16 megapixels and 15GB of free space. You don’t need to be too tech savvy to use Google Photos, it’s also super easy to share your photos and videos with others. There is an option in the application to automatically backup the new photos as they are taken, so it removes the need for one to manually have to back it up themselves.
Other
There are other ways to backup to the cloud. If you are already a Dropbox user, you can also automatically upload and store photos and videos from your phone to your Dropbox account. This can then be viewed on any phone or computer after successfully logging into your account.
Sharing Photos
Shared Albums is a great way to share photos from a family or group trip, or send pictures of the grandchildren so that everyone can see the latest without having to email them around. This feature is available on both Apple and Google Photos. For Apple users, you must be signed into iCloud on all of your devices that you want to use Shared Albums with. If you have a PC, you can download iCloud for Windows.
With Shared albums, you can invite people using email or mobile phone numbers. Once they get an alert and accept, they can see or post photos to the group. Everyone can comment on the photos and videos and save them to their own library!
One disadvantage of sharing with Google Photos is that when you send photos via email, your friend has to click on a link to open a browser window or Google Photo app in order to view the photo.
Other Features
Google Photos search is a little more robust. But, both Apple and Google Photos use facial recognition technology to sort photos—so if you are looking for all of the pictures of your granddaughter, you can sort them into one folder!
Bottom line is whether you prefer Apple or Google, you can easily save and share your photos!
If you have questions or need help setting up a cloud account, email us at support@candootech.com.