Shutterfly Review - Photo Storage, Sharing & Printing

Shutterfly offers unlimited and free photo storage for all users, whether hobbyists or professional digital photographers. This is a great feature because some websites limit storage or charge prices to store and share images. There are no apparent bugs when uploading digital photos to the website. Once the user signs up for a free account, the ability to store is quite easy and offers step-by-step support as needed.

There are a couple of ways to share photos using Shutterfly. One is to invite selected people to come view the images. If they want to buy photos, they then sign up for an account. Another method that has become increasingly popular in recent years is to share images publicly with the entire Shutterfly community and effectively, the world. There are general topic areas as well as themes for holidays such as Christmas and Father's Day.

Photo sharing is another easy to use feature that has no apparent bugs and offers any support required during the process.

Basic photo editing can be done right within the image on your Shutterfly account. While this of course cannot substitute for using a photo editing software package, there are some good features available. You can crop photos and change problems such as red eye. Sharpness and contrast can also be adjusted. In addition, you can choose to put one of nearly 400 borders around your pictures if desired. Users can also create captions to be printed on the back of every photo if copies are ordered. This is an ideal way to place names, dates, and places on the image. There is also the capability to have general captions not for printing purposes for those checking out your digital photography online. Overall, Shutterfly has some good basic photo editing tools.

The cost of prints is usually quite good, and there are often free photo and free shipping options available to Shutterfly users. Any size imaginable is available, and there is an assortment of merchandise that you can have images printed onto. There is also an option to pick up prints and some of the products at your local Target store. Basic 4 x 6 images ranged from $.10 to $.15 as of May 2009, with shipping starting at about $1.80. These seem to be good deals, though there is a wait time due to the prints being shipped standard mail.

Over the years, many glossy and matte prints have been ordered by the author of this article. Both formats offer high quality prints. Another great tool when selecting print options is the system tells you the sizes your images will look best in. In general, the quality of both matte and glossy prints, as well as speed of service considering they are shipped first-class mail, has been excellent and merits a recommendation.