There are a number of ways to share photos with friends and family online. You can either post your photos on Facebook (and send a link to the album to those who aren't on Facebook) or you can use a photo hosting site online such as Picasa which is linked with Google or Flickr which is linked with Yahoo!

Facebook

If you wish to post photos on FB go to your Profile page and click on 'Photos'.
This will take you to a page where you can create an album to organize your photos in. Add in whatever information you like, or none if you wish.
When you have finished click 'Create Album' and this will take you to the uploading page where there are options at the bottom to use 'Simple Uploader' or to download a Facebook Exporter that works well (and easily!) with iPhoto. There are also directions here telling you how to upload photos directly from your phone. Once your photos are uploaded you will see an option at the bottom of the page to "Share this album with anyone by sending them this public link". You can copy and paste this into an email to share your album with anyone who doesn't have a Facebook account.

Picasa

This is a good choice if you've already got a gmail account, but is also very easy to use especially if you want to upload a lot of photos at once from a Mac. Picasa also has it's own editing facility that you can use for free to make your photos even better! If you search for Picasa on Google it will take you to an introductory page. It will detect if you are using a Mac or PC and tailor the information to suit your computer.
Once you have signed up for Picasa you can go directly to Picasa Web Albums from the main page. Picasa Web Albums allows you to let friends and family easily upload your photos and let's you organize your photos into albums with comments and descriptions.
With Picasa you can check for duplicates, rotate the image, and do other simple editing. If you use iPhoto it will automatically sync when you launch the Picasa uploader. If there are photos that you don't want to share you simply choose not to import them when Picasa launches.


From your library you can email, print, or export. You can also make a collage/contact sheet of several photos and this can be uploaded as a single photo. There are auto editing options to help you straighten your photo or fix the contrast or add text.

Flickr

On Flickr you can register - if you don't already have one - for a Yahoo! Account.
Once you've done this you can import and organize your photos into sets to share with friends and family.
You can add tags, descriptions, and titles as well as rotate your photos under the Batch Organize tab. Here you can also sort permissions and add tags. You can also order prints. Once you've selected a photo (or more), click on 'Order Prints' and Flickr will let you set up printing preferences and direct you to printing services in your area.

Your photos can be shared by clicking 'Share this' and adding the appropriate email addresses. You can add a short message if you like.


If your friends or family are already on flickr you simply need to type in their screen name. You can also 'Send to a friend' (at the bottom of the page) if you want to email the link to one person directly and send a longer message or description of the photos.