Anoop Varma
The proliferation of smart devices has made it easy for anyone to click pictures on the go. Snapping pictures at random intervals is now a popular pastime, and we are having a deluge of pictures in our lives. Most of these randomly clicked pictures are not worth storing, but quite a few of them are. However, even the better quality pictures tend to remain uncategorised in all kinds of storage systems, and they often remain trapped in the mists of digital obscurity.
The cloud offers a much better way of keeping track of the happiest memories of your life. It is easy to categorise pictures on the cloud and the pictures are also searchable. Uploading photos on the cloud also makes it easier for you to share the albums with others. It is possible for you to access your pictures, anytime, anywhere. The cloud space also serves as a reliable backup system, in case anything happens to your locally stored pictures.
Depending on the nature of the device that you are using to snap the pictures, there are different strategies that you can use to store pictures in the cloud.
Pictures taken though Smartphone
Both Android and iOS, two of the most popular Smartphone operating systems, come with variety of apps or built-in features through which you can upload your photos to the cloud, in most cases automatically. The Apple devices come with Photostream, which is very popular system for putting pictures on the cloud. However, Photostream has a limit of about 1,000 pictures, so if you are a prolific photographer, the app might not be able to meet your needs.
Everpix, a photo-organisation service, is also a good option for iPhone users. The app does two key things: It offers you a way to access your entire photo collection from your phone, plus it automatically uploads all your iPhone photos to the Everpix cloud. The app can be downloaded for free from the iTunes store.
For Android users (and for iOS users as well), Dropbox and Google+ apps are a good option. The Google+ app comes with a feature called Instant Upload, which will automatically upload any picture you take on your iPhone or Android device to an album called Instant Upload on Google+ Photos. With the Dropbox app, you can basically “drop” files into a bucket that is then available on any device or computer in which you have installed Dropbox. Dropbox also comes with a “Camera Upload” feature, which is capable of uploading pictures automatically like Google+.
Uploading through your digital camera
The modern digital cameras also come with many innovative options for uploading your photos directly to the cloud. Some cameras come with Flickr app for online cloud storage for photos. You can also access Dropbox and Google+ through your digital cameras. With the pressing of few buttons, you can upload your pictures directly to Picasa Web Albums, which is a very versatile editing, photo-sharing and storage system.
These days many cameras are coming with WiFi–capability, which makes it even easier for us to back up pictures. All you need to do is turn on the Auto Backup feature on any Smart Camera and your shots will be wirelessly transferred to your PC or to the cloud. You can use the WiFi connectivity to upload and share pictures on popular social networks like Facebook, YouTube, Picassa and others. Emailing pictures directly to your contacts through the Smart Camera is also an option.
There is no doubt that it is a good idea to store your photos in the cloud along with having a local backup copy.
