A simple guide to how you add photos that you have on your computer to Apple or Google photos.
What do we mean by Apple and Google photos?
They are Cloud storage platforms which enables you to store your photos digitally so they can be accessed anywhere on your device. If you have an Apple or Google/android phone the chances are you have their respective cloud storage platform and are using it already.
If you don't already have either, you can sign-up to Apple or Google by following the links.
Why would I want to store my photos on the cloud?
Having your photos stored on the cloud has quite a few benefits...
It's effectively endless storage. When you sign-up you're given storage free, Apple give you 5GB and Google 15GB. 15BG is enough to hold over 5,000 photos but if that doesn't quite cut it you can pay for more storage.
Your photos are always with you. If you have a mobile or computer able to connect to the internet you're able to access all of your photos, anytime, anywhere.
Easy to share with the people you love. In both Apple and Google photos you can create shared albums which allow you share a specific album with people easily. If you're sharing an album in Apple the people you're sharing the album with need to also have an apple account. If you're sharing an album with google the people you're sharing with don't need to have a Google account. We'll go on to explain about how you can do that a bit further down in the article.
With all your photos on your respective Cloud platform means you can access them on your phone and share them directly via SMS, WhatsApp or Bluetooth (using Airdrop with Apple and Android Nearby Share with Google). Further down this article we'll give you a step-by-step of how you can share a photo on your phone.
You don't need to be a rocket scientist. Both platforms are easy to use, navigate and have knowledge bases to help you if you ever get stuck with something.
How to add photos to your iCloud or Google photos account
1. Download your photos to save locally onto your on your computer
If you had your photos digitised with us you would have been sent a Dropbox download link. Follow the link, press the download button and your photos will begin to download.
This may take a little while depending on how many photos you have and the speed of your internet.
2. Open your iCloud or Google and create an Album
If you're using Apple...
Whilst your photos are downloading, sign-in to your iCloud account on your computer and navigate to 'Photos'. Once you're in, down the lefthand side click on 'Albums'. From here you can create a new 'Album' or if you have multiple Albums you want to store you have the option to create a 'Folder'. Within the folder you can create new Albums.
If you're using Google...
Open Google photos and navigate to the top right of the screen and click 'create an Album'.
make as many albums as you wish and name them accordingly, if you had your photos digitised with us you might find it useful following the Album names we've used in dropbox separate out your order.
3. Drop in the photos
Have the photos you've downloaded from Dropbox open in your documents and also have your iCloud or Google photos open with all your albums named and ready to receive photos.
'Select' or 'highlight' the Album or Photos and drag your selection into the corresponding Album you have created.
Keep on dragging until you have copied over all of your photos.
4. Enjoy and share
Once all your photos are in, they will be accessible to view on all your Apple or Google devices that are signed into your account.
Sharing is one of the best things you can do with your digitised photos and it's so easy to do. By creating a shared album you can invite your nearest and dearest to view it.
If you want to create a shared Album within iCould photos follow this link for a walk through from Apple.
If you're on Google, this link will help you though it.
Sharing from iPhone
The likelihood this isn't going to be new to you and you've done it before but if you haven't hopefully this helps.
There are lots of ways you can share an image from your phone using various apps and they all start with this little button here circled in red here. This is called the Share Button surprisingly enough.
Once you press this button, every possible way of you sharing your image will appear. Your frequent contacts will be just below the image you want to share and below that, your frequently used apps that are able to share photos.
Sharing from an Android
To share from android, open up your photos and select the one you want, and tap the button highlighted below.
Similar to Apple, once you have tapped the button you will be presented with options you can use to share your photos.
If you have any questions about adding or sharing your photos with Apple or Google please don't hesitate to reach out to us here.