The Basics of Photo Gallery Software

By: Ron McNeil

Taking photos can be a lot of fun. It doesn't matter if you're taking images of pets, family, sports or scenery, it's still enjoyable for you. Part of the enjoyment of taking photos is sharing them with others. While before to do this you might have had to send them via snail mail, now all you need to do is go on the computer and use photo gallery software to share them with as many people as you like. It's a much more convenient way of sharing photos with the people you care about. You'll learn the basics of photo gallery software in this article.



What is Photo Gallery Software?



So what exactly is photo gallery software? Well, it's kinda like a digital version of a photo album. If you've taken lots of pictures with older cameras (you know, before they were digital), you've probably created some photo albums to keep the photos organized. Photo software is just like this, except instead of holding a photo album in your hands, you'll instead have one on the computer.



A traditional photo gallery software program will allow you to import photos. That is, you'll be allowed to press a button, select photos from your harddrive, and then put them in your photo by using the software. When you've added in all the photos and pressed the button to create the photo gallery, your online photo will be created instantly.



How does Photo Gallery Software Work?



No two photo gallery software programs are alike, but most offer the some of the same features to customers. Usually, when you use the photo software to add images, the program then creates a photo album to house the images. Depending on the software program you are using, during this process, you might be able to choose between different themes for the album. For instance, you might get to customize the gallery's border, background, text etc.



When the photo album is created, other things are created as well. Thumbnails for the images are also created, which allows people to see a small version of the image and then decide, based on that, whether to click the thumbnail (to see the whole image) or not. This is very handy if you want to have a page for your photos which doesn't take forever to load. All the HTML coding is also taken care of by the photo gallery software. This is probably a huge relief for those webmasters who can't be bothered with coding their own photo gallery for their site.



Some photo software programs will allow you to add image captions in when you are adding the images to the program. This allows you to take care of everything within the album while adding the photos in, rather than having to wait until later.



Depending on the photo gallery software program you use, you might also have a great selection of file formats to use. A lot of the best photo software programs will accept many image formats ranging from jpeg and gif to psp. This allows you to upload virtually any type of image format you may have.



Web or Computer?



Not all photo gallery software is the same. Some are focused more on uploading images to the web, while others will only help you to create photo albums for people to browse while using your computer. Usually when you are looking at the information about the program, you'll be able to tell where the images go. If they are uploaded to a web site, it could be either the photo software maker's web site, or it could be your own.



Uploading to Your Web Site/Their Web Site



If you're new to the whole photo gallery thing, it can be difficult to choose the best photo software for your needs. You're not sure which is the best, and to make this decision, it's important to think things through. Do you have plans for hosting the photo album on your web site? Do you want the URL (web site address) to be your own? If so, you're going to want a photo gallery software program that does this for you. Keep in mind that such a program will have to have FTP support, so make sure it does this.



But what if you don't want to host your own images? While most photo software programs that offer web capabilities are built to work with existing web sites, some offer the ability to upload images to the photo gallery software program's web site. Your photo along with your photos will be given space on their web site and you'll be able to pass that link on to others.