Q. Adria,

I’m a photographer and I would like to securely share photos online without giving access to the entire internet community. I also am not ready to start an entire website showcasing my work. I mainly do weddings by referral. What can you suggest?

Emmett in Minneapolis

A. Emmett,

Your question is a common one. People try emailing photos or burning them onto a CD; both of which have shortcomings. Emailing photos is a problem as most email providers have different attachment size limits and folks run into trouble when sending high quality photos by email. CD’s can get lost or damaged.

How to share photos online securely, easily and quickly?

A great solution is Drop.io

A newcomer to the online file sharing scene, Drop.io offers something unique; no sign up required to share or get files. Another bonus is you can be sharing your files in just minutes. How nice it would be to get off the phone, plug away at the keyboard for a few minutes and be done.

4 steps to using Drop.io

Step 1. Name your drop. It must be more than 7 characters. You can get a shorter name and increase the site to 1GB for $10 per year with their premium service.

Step 2. Add your media. Upload away. You can upload files, images, audio, video as long as the total is less than 100mb.

Step 3. Select your password and permissions. Here you can set a password and decide if others can only view your files or if you want them to add and modify the files. This sort of “shared folder” could replace the often clumsy FTP system used between graphic designers and clients.

Step 4. Create your drop! make sure you take note of the drop name and password. If you choose not to maintain the drop with an administrative account, you will be “up a creek, without a paddle”

From the Drop.io site

Using Drop.io is simple:

1) Go to: http://drop.io

2) Create a new drop by giving it a name and assigning it user permissions

3) Drop your files and get started

There are no accounts and no registration information required. Your drop is protected from search engines and your privacy is protected by your custom URL - share it with only with whom you want to know about it.

All free drops start at 100MB and you can create as many as you want. Purchase upgrade codes to expand your drop size up to 5GB and to assign your drop a custom URL under 7 characters.