Social media pro: Flickr
THE PLACE TO GO FOR FINDING AND SHARING PICTURE-PERFECT SNAPS.
FOLLOWING THE RISE of the smartphone, there’s now rarely ever a camera not within arm’s reach. Whether it’s selfies, couple photos or cute snaps of your dog, images have become an important tool for documenting anything and everything that occurs during our day-to-day lives, being furthered especially thanks to the rise of social networks such as Instagram. And yet, what hasn’t changed is that pro photography continues to be something that demands both skill and appreciation. Enter Flickr, a social network designed primarily for photographers — a place where snappers can come together to share their greatest photos with a community of like-minded users. While the platform has experienced increasing competition from other image-hosting sites, it’s Flickr’s extensive collection of features that continue to make it the go-to place for all things photography. Join us as we walk you through the steps to setting up an account before delving deeper into the various tools available on this photographic social network.
THE BASICS
SIGNING UP: To register for a new account, click the big signup button in the middle of the home page. Start by entering your first and last name, email address, date of birth and password before clicking continue. The site will then ask you to verify your email address — just enter the account key that was sent to your inbox — note that this may take a few minutes. Lastly, choose a screen name.
PROFILE: First impressions are everything on Flickr, so it’s important that your profile is filled out and up to date. When users navigate to your page, they’ll first see your Photostream — this is where all the images you make public are housed. The About section meanwhile provides an overview and background to both you and your photography. Begin by writing a brief bio about yourself before choosing a selection of photos to display in your Showcase. Below this, you can also add details such as a website URL, occupation and Instagram account.
UPLOADS: One of the first things to note is that Flickr isn’t just for sharing images. On the contrary, your account comes with one terabyte of online photo storage, with the site encouraging you to upload and store your entire photo library in the cloud for safe keeping. To add new photos or videos, click the Camera Roll tab in your profile and simply drag and drop images directly onto the page. It’s important to note that any photos uploaded here will, by default, remain private. If you wish to make them visible to others, you’ll need to add them to your Photostream by selecting an image and adjusting its privacy settings. Alternatively, add photos directly to your Photostream by clicking the upload icon in the right-hand corner of any page — remember to add a description and tags so it’s easy for others to find.
EXPLORE: One of the first places to begin your Flickr journey is on the Explore tab. Using a series of algorithms, the page displays a curated collection of interesting and engaging photos coming from members of the Flickr community. You can like an image by clicking the star icon — this will also add it to a list of favourites visible on your profile. Click on a photo to be taken to a page consisting of a description, tags and comments — it’s here you’ll also find more detailed information on what camera and settings were used to take the snap.
STEP IT UP A LEVEL
PRIVACY: In settings, you’re given complete control over who can see, comment, share and tag people in your posts. You can also limit what’s visible on your profile, as well as hide images from search engines such as Google. Probably most handy is the ability to strip any location data embedded in your photos.
ALBUMS: Unsurprisingly, Flickr includes the ability to sort and organise your Photostream
into albums. Accessed from the profile page, albums make it easy for others to distinguish between photos of cute animals vs scenic shots taken on an overseas holiday, for example. Collections go one step further, allowing you to group entire albums into folders.
SEARCH: Accessed from the top of any page, the search bar makes it easy to find a particular photo, person or group. Results can be sorted either by relevance or date of upload. You can even refine your search to only include images with a particular colour, depth of field or pattern.
GALLERIES: While albums and collections are great for organising your own photos, you can also create galleries consisting of images uploaded by members from the Flickr community. Think of it as similar to a real museum — a way to share a curated collection of the photos you find and enjoy, all in a single place. As you locate images you like, simply scroll down past each photo’s description to see the option to add it to a gallery.
GROUPS: Flickr makes it easy to connect with others who, like you, are passionate about a particular style of photography. Accessed from the profile page, you’ll find groups on topics such as macro photography, minimalist landscapes, even stock images of Apple products. Once joined, you can search, comment and share photos with the group, and use the built-in discussion board.
FLICKRMAIL: Get in touch with fellow photographers using the messaging feature embedded on the site. To send a message, visit a user’s profile and click the mail icon. You can access your inbox by clicking the notifications (bell) button displayed in the header of any page.
GOING PRO
MAGIC VIEW: One of the cooler features on Flickr is its ability to analyse and sort your photos into categories using image recognition. Depending on what’s in your Camera Roll, categories may include food, animals or landscapes. You’ll find Magic View in the Camera Roll tab of your profile.
ORGANIZE: If you’re looking to make changes to multiple photos, then the Organize tool will be your friend. The feature makes it easy to move, rearrange and edit the details of numerous images or albums at lightning speed. To access the tool, hover over the You button and click Organize. It’s here that you can then select photos and do things like add tags, assign locations, adjust visibility and add them to particular albums.
SIMILARITY SEARCH: If there’s a particular image you like, Flickr makes it easy to find photos that are similar. To use the feature, choose an image whilst browsing and then click the three dots to see the similarity search option appear.
PERSONALISED URL: Show off your page by creating a personalised URL that can then be shared with people not currently on Flickr. In Account Settings, you’ll see the option to create a memorable Flickr web address.
Note that this feature comes as a one-time offer — you’ll be unable to change the link after hitting submit, so make sure that you’re happy with it.
LICENSING: Flickr makes it easy to control and restrict how others use the images on your Photostream. To change a photo’s permission, select an image, click the down arrow below its taken date and choose a new licence. Alternatively, you can bulk adjust the licence for multiple photos by visiting either your Camera Roll or using the Organize tool. You’ll find a summary of the different licences here: tinyurl.com/tla81-flickr.
EDITING: If you’re looking to get your photos published in a hurry, Flickr offers a series of simple editing tools that allow you to make adjustments on the fly. Do this by clicking the notepad icon on any one of your uploads. The photo editor includes the ability to alter things like saturation, brightness and contrast along with tools for cropping, blurring and adding text. You can also apply a number of different filters to get that Instagram-esque kind of look.