Dropbox
Dropbox becomes larger by the day and is a great solution for hosting your photographs and documents. Its ability to sync with any computer and most smartphones & tablets, allows you to have access to any photograph on all your devices. This often comes in handy when a potential client wants to see some past work, or when you just want to show of some family pictures. As a bonus, all files hosted with dropbox are protected in case your computer crashes, is stolen, or destroyed. 2GB are included for free with larger options available for a fee.
Flickr
Flickr is an excellent method for sharing albums with family, friends, or clients. It also ensures that your photographs are backed up in case of a disaster. Unfortunately the free version does have some strict limits in file sizes, and does not allow you to post photographs at full resolution. Even so, Flickr remains a great option for sharing large batches of photos. This is one of my biggest caveats with sharing on Facebook. It is well-known that Facebook reduced the size and quality of all photos you share to an unbelievably small (though recently increased) quality. This was again apparent a few weeks ago when my parents tried very unsuccessfully to print a photo of their grandchild from Facebook. While Flickr does allow higher quality pictures than Facebook, they do limit the size to around 2000px and also limit how many pictures you can store on the free account.
For $25 a year you can eliminate the size limitation though storage is still not unlimited. With the recent introduction of Google+, Google now offers UNLIMITED photo storage on its servers at a file size of 2000px. In addition, they offer 2gb of space for full resolution photos and video with very inexpensive options for increasing. $5 per year allows 20gb of storage while $20/year ups the number to 80gb. This is enough for most JPEG backups for even frequent photographers at a price cheaper than all other competition. This service also allows others (though only those you allow) to download the full resolution pictures enabling a great way of sharing your photos with family & friends and allowing them to print pictures locally.
Windows Skydrive
Windows Skydrive has changed recently, turning it into a major player for photographs, video, as well as other documents. With the ability to set up individual photo albums, control access for each album, and offer full resolution photographs for download, I have really been impressed with the Skydrive ability. Though it still is difficult to manage folders and has some issues resuming uploads after a session is interrupted, the system works very will and has great potential.
Picasa
Picasa is another option for photo backup and sharing. While it doesn't have as many options as Skydrive, it does have its own limited photo editor that is available for free. Sharing is simple and storage is free though I could not get it to allow full resolution downloads. In any case, it is a compelling option for keeping your photographs safe in the cloud.
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