Flickr advice and opinions needed

Yep, what he said ^ Click on a group you like the sound of. Then click on join group. A few groups will require approval by a moderator, but not many. Then groups also have their own discussion areas etc. It’s all good fun and interesting, and will get your pictures seen!

As for tagging, I know it might sound a bit messy, but I just tag photos in a set with all the same tags. You can add tags in batches too, if you don’t mind that some might not be exactly spot on.

As an example, many of my Duxford photos share the same tags. Things like “Duxford, Airfield, Cambridge, Aircraft, Vintage, Warbirds, Spitfire, Hurricane, Historic…” etc etc. Not all of the photos necessarily contain those specific items, but people searching for those things will almost certainly be interested in relevant photos, so in my mind, it doesn’t hurt to batch tag a group of similar photos. I hope i’ve described that clearly. On the other hand, you may be quite tidy and fussy and want only exact tags on your photos. I just know it saves a lot of time the way I do it.

p.s. I really enjoyed your photos 🙂

p.p.s If you’re into historical London, I was absolutely mesmerised by a book I looked at recently called ‘Lost London’. I literally sat in Waterstones for an hour+ just breezing through it. Cannot recommend enough.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Lost-London-1870-Philip-Davies/dp/0955794986/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1322690225&sr=8-1

Another one I just purchased, is a photographic memory of Brighton/Hove. Again full of fascinating photos from the late 19th century to late 20th century, if you’re interested in historical British seaside resorts I recommend it. I’m really loving it so far.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Seaside-Album-Photographs-Memory/dp/0856675601/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1322690312&sr=8-1

Thanks PeeDee, looking now.

No no no!
Don’t wait for invites, there is a search choice “Search for Groups”. Type in your forte Local history or whatever and you will find dozens.
Some groups only allow 6 pictures per day, some are limitless. Some want you to post three and comment on three others.
There will even be a group for your camera model, almost certainly a group for your Town or County.
Now and again you get invites, but don’t wait on them.

Hi Danjama and PeeDee, Yes i have worked out the batch uploading thing on Flickr and indded PeeDee is correct that its the tagging and labeling of photos that is taking me so long.
Danjama, I also do not exclusively take aviation photos either, I really have a big thing for taking photos of historic buildings,cars, flowers etc too. I like to capture local history and sadly the loss of local history too, also I enjoy to travel so always come back with loads of photos from anywhere I go.

The main problem with my collection is that friends and family have a quick peek and sometimes myself or the wife will go back over some of them, mainly after I have edited.

How do I get involved in groups? wait invites?

Batch uploading is of course fine, but I think the Poster was spending his time putting the correct Tag on each picture, (Aircraft type, Reggie, what airport etc.)

I save time by uploading all of the photos, putting them in a set, and then ‘batch’ editing them via ‘Organise and Create’. That way I can just add a whole set of tags to an entire set.

I’ve found the trick to getting views/comments/feedback etc is by joining groups (there is a group for everything! seriously), then adding contacts or commenting/favouriting peoples photos. After a few short months on there, I get almost 1000 views in a day after uploading a batch of 20-40 photos. After a couple of days that tails off and my average views is about 100-150 a day. It’s not all a vanity parade though. Many people upload genuinely beautiful photos and give genuinely useful and polite feedback.

The more i’ve used flickr, the more I like it. Once you learn about batch operations, it’s not such a grind to use.

If you need help with anything just ask, and i’ll help if i can. I’ve only been a pro member for a month myself. For the price, it’s practically theft!

Btw, I added you as a contact on there. Much of my photography is non-aviation, but trust me, if i get anywhere near any aircraft outside of airshow season there will be photos!

Hope you don’t mind, i’ll look through your photostream tomorrow as I’m up at 6am but wanted to post to encourage. My stream has been quiet for a couple of weeks as I sold my gear to upgrade. New camera should arrive friday or Monday 😀

Photo’s “Doing nothing”

Yes, I had this problem. My wife and kids don’t spend the time looking at the PC photo-library. So, I got a few hundred plastic sleeves and a made a contact print (A4 size) placing 4 wide by 5 deep photos on. This was the most I could get on whilst still showing the filename under them. I put 2 sheets back-back in each sleeve. 3 full Lever Arch files later LoL….but, my Mrs loves it, she can peruse at her leisure and write down filenames of ones she’d like to see printed for framing etc.
As I said, I only upload low res. versions onto the web, unless of course the subject is of no real interest to anybody else in which case I stick the full size on.

Thanks for the advice so far guys, Its a learning curve I guess. I was always wary about sharing photos online before, But have realised that many of my photos are just sitting on hardrives literally doing nothing.

Rob68
Have noticed it does take up a lot of time loading and tagging photos so looking at doing only a few a day now and tagging when I can, randomly. I would like a wider audience to see them, but would like credit if used elsewhere too.

Orion
I have everything(but for early lost stuff) all backed up on 2 hard drives that are kept in 2 different locations, So sort of got achiving arranged. So its really only sharing I will use Flickr for.

I use Flickr for my railway photos but I keep all my pictures and video archived on two identical 500Gb drives. Flickr is OK for sharing but I wouldn’t want to use it for archiving.

Regards

I fell into the trap of uploading evrything and it takes over all your spare time, be carefull of that but it has to be said that if you tag everything you can find images really easy, you can always mark all your shots as private, tbh i dont and its surprising where you find your images. I found some of mine on a Ford Forum and on the other hand the Classic flight used some of mine of the DC6 but asked first. Thought that was nice of them.

very much depends on how you use it and what you want to get from it !!

you tend to get more from it by either joining like minded groups or starting them

i’m in a group for photographers that drop by and give comments

tagging photo’s to cover just about every descriptive word helps with views

i did once just use it to put demmo photo’s in web forums but facebook is adequate for that and it saves me needing a pro account

so i can leave flickr for mostly decent shots

flickr certainly is better quality than photobucket

as for selling photo’s , there are so many good shots available free for the asking from the web that there is little point or money involved

the only real way to make it now is to specificaly work for someone

i’m shooting a home tommorow for the organisation i work for , for a newspaper promotion but there are very little smarties involved for the taking

safety is a difrent matter i have always said ” if you want an image to be safe don’t put it on the web !! “

i recently caught a local flicker user to me passing off several of my images ( taken from panoramio ) after an argument and threatening to take further action he took all his ( very doubtful ) images down from flickr

there are features on flickr that stop right click actions and i’m pretty sure you can check who downloads but nothing someone smart couldn’t get around even copyright water marks are no challenge to some !!

DH, ive added you as a contact on there, had a quick look at your pics as im a bit busy at the moment, il get round to commenting soon lol

they are remarkably good, loving the artistry ones, especially the rooftop sniper one

I use the free version and find it a fantastic resource, I’ve never had any trouble with upload limits etc.
I don’t know why but I find the quality of the linked images of far higher quality than that of Photobucket (which I also use), that goes for my own uploaded images aswel as downloading/viewing other peoples images.
I use the profile (account?) so that I can upload my many pictures, mainly airfields & aircraft, and then easily access them from any computor and to attach them to forums etc.

I think if you want to get your aviation pictures used then Air Britain and Airliners.net is the way to go, I always get odd requests from that.

Thanks for the information PeeDee, I have debated for a long time about going Pro on there. I really want to see what others think of my shots as they are mainly sitting on PC doing nothing or on facebook where friends have given up looking at them. I understand what you mean no photo is safe online, most i have posted are reduced quality anyway.

It would be nice to think I could make my millions from them LOL, But I think I have more chance of becoming King. So I am not banking on it 😀

I’m a pro.
I don’t really use the profile, I once had hopes of people seeing and wanting to buy my pictures LoL.
I went pro for the “Limitless” uploads as I was going to use it as a tempory store whilst abroad (Upload from anywhere then download them at my convenience) but the downloading bit is not user friendly enough to mass dump say 200 pictures.
No pictures are safe on the net…period. Watermark them or use “Image resizer” (There is a patch version for win 7) to make low quality but quite viewable copies for net use.
With FlickR, once the picture is on, you can delete or move the original source on PC…unlike some picture library packages.
I use it to keep in touch with my old camera friends really, I almost certainly do not use the maximum upload level of the account anymore. May not upkeep the pro level next time.