I’m curious what other people use to share sets of photos with different groups. I had been using shared albums, and was happy until recently when I noticed a photo was getting downsized. After several attempts thinking it was on my end found this in Apple Support:
“Shared Albums also support special formats that you capture with your iPhone, like slo-mo, time-lapse, Live Photos, and Memory videos. When shared, photos are reduced to 2048 pixels on the long edge”
So that seemed a hugely annoying limitation, esp with such an otherwise useful feature. I know Apple introduced the shared library feature recently, but my memory of it’s features/functions was that it was much more involved for sharing photos from some activity with a few friends (think a hike etc)
Ideals are:
Easy from photo library (iPhone, Mac, etc)
allow additions from anyone in group
support for Live Photos, videos, jpeg, and hvec
full resolution/image quality
Everyone I would primarily be sharing with is in the apple ecosystem, at least for phones. Haven’t checked a lot, but there’s a few obvious options:
Google Photos - have used it before, but it’s always an extra step back on my Mac vs on phone
Photos Shared Library - Don’t remember all the details, but seems like a lot for albums for one off events
??
Would love to hear what other people are using in similar circumstances.
Mostly I send them with iMessage, rarely I’ll create a shared library. (Almost every friend and family member has an iPhone and uses iMessage.) I don’t know too many people who would care all that much, if not notice, that there was a small reduction in resolution. I know I don’t. People just want to see photos, not examine every possible captured detail.
My wife and I do have shared library and I try to remember to turn it on when we take a trip together, but sometimes I move photos there after the trip.
Sometimes my wife and I will create a print copy of a photo, or a photo book of a trip, but maybe once every couple of years. I never think of making a print of a photo taken by somebody else.
I, too, get really frustrated with reduced rez on photos and videos. Especially with videos, as I capture them in 4k on my iPhone, but they seem to look really fuzzy and bad when down-rezzed.
I think iCloud Links are a potential good solution, as you’re simply sharing a URL with folks. They then get access to the full-resolution originals.
A few limitations:
• you must be using iCloud Photos to store your media
• on iPhone and iPad, you can gen iCloud links directly from the Photos app, but you have to use iCloud.com when doing it on Mac
• recipients have 30 days to download what you’ve shared, thought there’s supposedly a way to “renew” that period
Finally, I think I remember recently reading that there’s a nice way for recipients to then add their own shots as a reply.
On the mac: There is another way to do this if you do not use Photos or like me use several photo softwares. Make a Folder in iCloud Drive/Documents/. Put your photos in the folder. Right Click (or ctrl click or two finger click) the folder and select share. You can select Collaborate or Send Copy. You will get a link to share.
And you can use Export in Photos. Save the export in the same folder.