Flickr guidance, please

JRMDC · 10-05-2010, 11:16 AM

I am reviving my flickr account after years of non-use (amazingly, they didn't delete the entire thing). What else to do when insomnia attacks?

So I am about to express a great deal of ignorance, please help.

I want to set up just a few groups, basically, good, average, and poor/utility (the latter being for shots I may want to give public access to for various reasons). I think all I need to do is to create some sets, right? Does one bring shots into a set or bring them into the stream and then link them to a set?

Is one stuck with everything appearing in the photostream first? What appears there, every shot one has?

Ideally, if the main page is my "face" on flickr, I do not want any of my poor/utility shots to appear there, only buried in a folder/set.

Also, what is the difference between a set and a gallery?

All tips welcome, and links to good flickr overviews or approaches most welcome.

J

Joe the Photog · 10-05-2010, 01:32 PM

A set is a group (or a folder) of your photos that you have placed there. It can be anything. I have a "My Favorites" set as well as "Adluh Flour Mill" set, "L&C Railway" set and many others. A gallery are shots by other people that you want to group together. I have one called "Shots I Wish I had Taken" and another one called "Columbia, SC Railroad Relocation Project." You cannot put your own shots in a gallery, though. Also, if you don't want your shots in someone's gallery, you can set your account to disallow that or you can judge on a case by case scenario.

A group is a place where anyone can put their shots. I think it's kinda neat to take a picture, then put it on Flickr and start trying to find groups that it may fit in. I've found groups devoted to stop signs, grocery stores, grain elevators and mirror reflections. Just about anything you can think of.

The interesting thing is the shots which attract attention on Flickr might not be the ones you think would. One of my shots always gets a few hits a day because people search "police hum vee." Another one always turns up in "Columbia skyline" searches, which seems to be pretty popular. But most of the shots get less than a hundred hits right now. I will say that I've made more sales and potential sales from Flickr than anywhere else. People seem to search for towns they represent or live in and Flickr seems to be the place they go for that.

One thing I wish Flickr would change is something you were talking about. The shots go into the Photostream as uploaded and then cannot be rearranged. (Shots can be arranged within a set though.) So if you have a shot you want to share but not highlight on the first page of your Photostream, there doesn't really seem to be a way to do that.

JRMDC · 10-05-2010, 04:36 PM

Thanks, Joe. I dislike the photostream setup, but free = limited.

I've done with it all I want to do as far as setup, now I just add images from time to time. Added to my signature, task complete.

troy12n · 10-05-2010, 04:50 PM

There are other free alternatives to Flickr like Photobucket, smugmug, pbase, deviantart, etc

Some of them may have a better setup or layout. I use flickr too, but find some of the sizing changes they make kind of silly, but you get what you pay for (free) which is pretty good if you think about it.

JRMDC · 10-05-2010, 06:24 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by troy12n

There are other free alternatives to Flickr like Photobucket, smugmug, pbase, deviantart, etc

Some of them may have a better setup or layout. I use flickr too, but find some of the sizing changes they make kind of silly, but you get what you pay for (free) which is pretty good if you think about it.

Yes, true. Frankly, I am doing flickr just because I had some shots up there already from years ago and I didn't feel like redoing anything or getting a new account somewhere, etc. Lazy.

If it were important to me I'd put more time into it, but I just wanted a place to park a few things, make them web-accessible. And then for minimal effort I can put a few other things there, like a few non-RP shots and a few non-train shots.

J

Mgoldman · 10-05-2010, 11:11 PM

Are there copyright issues to be concerned with on Flickr?
Someone told me you sign off your rights to images posted.
I assume that is not 100% true, but perhaps there is some
issue someone can bring to light?

/Mitch

Joe the Photog · 10-06-2010, 03:37 AM

WembYard · 10-06-2010, 08:54 AM

IIRC, one drawback of Flickr's free account is that you can only display 200 photos. I don't think there is anything to stop you uploading more than 200 pics, but only the most recent 200 will be displayed unless you start paying for it.

The other thing that I found constraining was that you are limited to the number of "tags" you can have for your collection on a free account (three?). From reading your plans you might find this rather limiting as well - unless you are planning to have a paid account (quite cheap by UK standards from memory).

JRMDC · 10-06-2010, 02:39 PM

OK, I've got sets and groups understood, now can someone tell me about tags, please? Do I understand correctly that there is some search function within Flickr so that if someone looks for, say, "Union Pacific", they see a bunch of RR shots plus movie/broadway stuff? Janet, I just saw something saying one can attach up to 75 tags, but it wasn't clear whether that was dependent on the type of account.

Anyway, I think all I am interested in right now is sets so there is no relevant constraint. Although I suppose tags are how people will find my stuff, so maybe I should figure out more about that. I agree about the 200, although for me that won't be a binding constraint either, I think. I just want to put the occasional shot out there that doesn't make or isn't intended for RP, and a few non-RR shots.

Chase55671 · 10-06-2010, 07:03 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by troy12n

There are other free alternatives to Flickr like Photobucket, smugmug, pbase, deviantart, etc

Some of them may have a better setup or layout. I use flickr too, but find some of the sizing changes they make kind of silly, but you get what you pay for (free) which is pretty good if you think about it.

Troy,

I'm pretty certain Smugmug charges and I know PBase charges a small fee for 700MB use.

Chase

Joe the Photog · 10-06-2010, 08:51 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by JRMDC

OK, I've got sets and groups understood, now can someone tell me about tags, please? Do I understand correctly that there is some search function within Flickr so that if someone looks for, say, "Union Pacific", they see a bunch of RR shots plus movie/broadway stuff?

The tags will work on search engines outside of Flickr too. Since I pay for an account ($24.95 a year) I see the searches that land on my site. Be pretty exact on a tag. My two most searched photographs are "Columbia skyline" and "Cockaboose." (It's a Gamecock thing.) Most searches seem to come from Yahoo and Google, but it also lets me see how many folks come from a Facebook link (not many) to how many come from a link on these forums. (More than I would have thought.)

I find it kinda fun to think of tags that may be relevant to a particular shot, but might not exactly obvious.

Joe the Photog · 10-06-2010, 08:53 PM

I let my account lapse a few months ago for a few weeks and while the shots over the 200 limit would not show up in my Photostream, I would still get "recent activity" on a lot of the shots. It seems that if they are in a group, you can still view them, though it's by happenstance to run across them.

cmgrowell · 11-09-2010, 09:58 PM

I've been using flickr for a few years now. Tags are definitely a good way for your images to get found. I think I get more views from people searching for specific things or locations than from putting photos into groups. So, I try to tag as much as possible, but stay relevant. I'll always put the state and city in the tags, even if I put the photo on the map as well. Speaking of which, putting photos on the map is also a good way for people to find them.

Of course, the other way to get views is to build up a community of contacts on flickr. Usually, although not always, if you visit and comment on other's photos they will return the favor.

As for the photostream concept, it isn't the greatest thing for showing off your best or favorite work. But, what I do is create a couple of sets for those photos and make sure that those sets are the first ones that people see on my flickr home page. You can re-arrange the set ordering from within the flickr organizer.

Your photostream is the place to see your most recent uploads chronologically. It allows repeat visitors who haven't looked at your stream in a while to quickly catch up with uploads that they might not have seen yet. In that sense, it works pretty well.

Feel free to flickr-mail me over there if you have more questions. I'm only just starting to monitor the forums here (in attempt to get some photos accepted for a change).
http://www.flickr.com/photos/cmrowell/