Just about every photographer, pro or amateur, knows that hosting their photos online is a great way to show friends, family, potential clients, and colleges new work. To this end, Flickr has been a popular and extremely easy way to share photos online that has helped foster the talent of countless photographers.
However, for all of Flickr’s benefits, there comes a point when many growing photographers run into some of the challenges of using Flickr that may indicate that they’ve outgrown the popular photo sharing site. This is particularly true for photographers transitioning into the realm of selling prints, licensing, and handling a true online archive.
Here are seven signs you may have outgrown Flickr – how many apply to you as a photographer?
For me, the biggest reason to still use Flickr is the most obvious: the social network. Flickr is a fantastic resource to connect with other photographers, see lots of work, and generally explore. In this regard, even with competitors like 500px growing, Flickr is still an excellent resource.
I still use Flickr for the aforementioned reasons, but not as my main online archive.
If you are a photographer who uses Flickr as their primary web presence, it might be time to consider a move to a professional service like PhotoShelter if any of the following seven signs sound a little too familiar.
For all its benefits, there are a few key reasons why Flickr isn’t suitable for the requirements of the serious photographer beyond its use a social networking platform. Here are 7 reasons to consider when you might have outgrown Flickr.*
*While there are various additions to Flickr through third party applications using Flickr’s API, this article looks at the core service itself.
1) You Don’t Know What “55631_acce07b97_o.jpg” Means
If you use Flickr, you’re probably familiar with a file name formated like the above, as Flickr reassigns image filenames into a string of numbers and letters unrelated to the orignal filename.
If you actually take the time to title and caption your photos’ metadata like you should, Flickr automatically uses these for the image title and and description, erasing any real link to the original file name and the Flickr copy.
The only way for someone to really identify an image from Flickr is to send you a link, after which you have to visually ID the image. And since the original file name has long been wiped, you’ll have to scan your own local archive and hope that you’ve done a better job at organizing than Flickr does.
2) You Want Better Archiving Options
While Flickr allows paid “pro” members an effectively unlimited storage (up to 20MB per photo), what you can actually do with your photos once they’re in the big Flickr cloud is relatively limited. For one, Flickr only accepts JPG files in uploads. This means that you have to convert your beautiful RAW, TIFF, and PSDs before uploading.
Also, in addition to the wacky file names mentioned above, Flickr’s backend batch organization are essentially limited to changing how the images are seen on the site, how, and by whom.
There are no such thing as batch downloads by the account user from Flickr’s web interface, let alone the ability to conveniently offer batch downloads to say, your mom or a client. In this sense, you’re pretty much out of luck if you want to use Flickr as an archive in any meaningful way.
3) You Need To Send Clients Images
Even if you have magically uploaded the full-resolution file of an image to Flickr, options for sending files is extremely limited. At best, you can send a link to the high-res image, but there no options to FTP from Flickr or allow batch downloads to other users.
4) You Need To Watermark Your Images
Flickr doesn’t offer the option to dynamically watermark images. This is fine for your cat photos, but not so great for commercially viable and generally unique images. The natural solution here is to watermark the images before uploading to Flickr, but right out of the gate, there are two big issues:
1) Static watermarks necessitate low-res images
The most effective watermarks are placed to scale on web-resolution images. Moreover, uploading high-res images defeats the whole purpose of watermarking.
2) You have to manually watermark your images
Depending on your workflow, watermarking can be a chore. At worst, you’ll have to manually watermark all your images, which can be a hugely time-consuming step, after which you’re stuck with a bunch of small, web-sized images with your ugly watermark sitting on your computer.
At best, the most pain-free way I’ve found is to upload with the Flickr plugin for Adobe Lightroom, which only renders a temporary file, uploads it to Flickr, and then deletes it, so your own local archive is keep nice and clean.
5) You Want To Sell Prints & Images
While Flickr offers an option to order prints from their site through Snapfish, print and finish options are limited at best.
Since all prints are available at Snapfish’s standard pricing, there’s no option for photographers to price prints or earn profit from sales. While this option is fine for users looking to share images with friends and family, it’s sorely lacking for all but the family snapshooter.
Moreover, it’s impossible to license or provide controlled download of images through Flickr. The most advanced way to send a file with Flickr is to directly link to the full-resolution image – if you’ve even uploaded it.
6) You Blog & Share Images
While you can upload huge, beautiful high resolution photos to Flickr, there are limited options for what you can do with those images in terms of embedding them.
Unlike professional image services like PhotoShelter, which can create dynamically scaled custom sizes for embedding at any size, Flickr offers only a few set tiers for image sizes based on width – 240px, 500px, 640px, etc. It’s not possible to set specific widths.
If your images to live only on Flickr, this is fine. However, if you want to embed images in your blog and have them properly sized for maximum effect, you’re out of luck unless the width of the content area exactly matches one of Flickr’s preset sizes.
7) You Want A Customized Website
A quick look at any Flickr page and you’re struck with one thing: Unless your name happens to be Flickr (and if so, I’m sorry), there’s barely a hint of your brand as a photographer anywhere on your Flickr page, save for a 48×48 pixel profile photo.
Needless to say, Flickr is the last place you should be sending any potential client to if you want to be taken seriously. On the upside, at least it doesn’t have a silly name like SmugMug.
There you have it. 7 reasons you may have outgrown Flickr. For those growing photographers looking for a more robust set of features from their photo host, there are a few options, including SmugMug, Zenfolio and the new kid to the block, 500px.
What I consider the single solution to all of Flickr’s above failings is PhotoShelter, a professional image service that delivers everything from robust archive management to print sales to customizable websites that put your brand first. Moreover, it’s the service I personally use to manage my online image archive via www.ishootshows.com, from instant image licensing to digital transfers to clients.
The only thing that PhotoShelter lacks in comparison to Flickr its social sharing and community aspects. However, to this end, PhotoShelter includes an export feature to send images to a linked Flickr or Facebook account, making sharing a snap.
As mentioned before, I still use Flickr and I absolutely love the social element of the site as a way to connect with peers and colleagues. While Flickr falls short when it comes to serious image archiving and management, at it’s core, it’s still a fun, easy way to share images. However, when you find yourself searching for an online archive with more robust features and flexibility, there’s a lot of competition.
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This entry was posted on Thursday, June 30th, 2011 at 12:00 am and is filed under News and Info and tagged with 500px, flickr, image hosting, photo hosting, photo sharing, photoshelter, review. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
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Thanks for the tip on Photoshelter. I will take a look at it. For the last 6 month, I have been using Flickr, instead of my own gallery site. I have been looking for other options. I have also been missing some of the options, you have talked about in the article :)
Hey Allan,
Thanks for the comment. You might also check out the new 500px – they do also offer some solutions to these issues with Flickr, but I still view them as a more half-way option to a full service like Photoshelter.
7 Signs You’ve Outgrown Flickr http://bit.ly/lRPA54
“This is fine for your cat photos…”
Haha!
Cat and puppy photos, I might add. Let’s be equal opportunity here.
Completely agree on all points, Todd. Once you move beyond a certain point in your photography career, Flickr quickly outlives its usefulness except for the social networking aspect (which you very astutely pointed out). Anyway, nice writeup!
-Russ
The social aspect of Flickr is one that’s really interesting. It’s really fantastic for linking with other photographers, whether it’s through groups or just exploring new work. In this sense, I still love and use Flickr.
However, the social element is primarily just photographer to photographer – it’s very rarely image buyer or client to photographer, and even when it is, Flickr just isn’t setup to handle that aspect.
Agreed. It’s a great way to interact directly with other photographers, but I’d never use it as a communication/exchange medium with an actual client.
this post sounds way too much like an infocommercial with flickr as the regular blanket and photoshelter playing the role of the snuggie.
7 Signs You’ve Outgrown Flickr: Just about every photographer, pro or amateur, knows that hosting their photos… http://goo.gl/fb/woUiV
7 signs you've outgrown flickr / http://t.co/eqEfpaB (via @toddowyoung)
I’ve checked out Photoshelter before, its a very good service. If.. you have the money.
Flickr pro is what.. $25 a year… Photoshelter ranges 10 to 50 dollars per month taking 8-10% fee per sale/print?
Now you get a lot more options and great website templates from Photoshelter, I wouldn’t bash there service or ideas because I think they’re doing a great thing for photographers however I can see why so many people use Flickr, its a cheap social community for different levels of photographers.
Hey Oliver,
This is a very good point. You do have to pay for the professional features offered by other companies. That said, it’s a clear dividing point, and for the benefits that companies like Photoshelter offer, it’s easily worth it once if one has outgrown Flickr.
Again, I still love and use Flickr. Case in point is the Concert Photography group which has over 28,000 members, which I think is a huge resource for photographers.
The point is that beyond its social elements, Flickr simply isn’t a “pro” option, no matter what the paid membership might try to persuade. And to that end, there are much more robust options – options that are priced accordingly to the depth of their services.
Great article Todd! I can tell you first hand that I’ve had clients asking for images to purchase for their use and Flickr is not the way to go. I usually burn them a disc with what they need, charge them for it, and mail it. For prints, CMD websites offers a great cart, but their payment is only through paypal, so it’s a bit limited. I use Flickr mainly to host my photos for blog use and social sharing, so I know first hand, especially with my WP theme, that I have to always take 2 steps back and find the 500px resolution image on Flickr to embed, otherwise, it messes up my layout on my blog. Definitely going to check out PhotoShelter or 500px to see how they can fill in the gaps I’m finding in my current laborous workflow. That auto-watermarking feature alone will same me tons of time!
Hey Gene,
Thanks for the comment and sharing your experiences. I’m not sure what image delivery systems 500px has, but I recommend Photoshelter for its easy of delivery options to clients.
The watermarking feature alone, as you said, saves a huge amount of time. And if you change your branding in the future, since the watermark is applied dynamically, it can change on old images as well.
7 signs you've outgrown flickr http://t.co/Bv6tsEt by @toddowyoung #photogs
7 signs you've outgrown flickr http://t.co/Bv6tsEt by @toddowyoung #photogs
7 signs you've outgrown flickr http://t.co/Bv6tsEt by @toddowyoung #photogs
7 signs you've outgrown flickr http://t.co/Bv6tsEt by @toddowyoung #photogs
7 signs you've outgrown flickr http://t.co/Bv6tsEt by @toddowyoung #photogs
Not to mention that Flickr is a great resource for photo thieves. Most of my images that have been stolen, have been from Flickr. Many times through their own little apps.
This is true. For better or for worse, it’s relatively easy to tap into the Flickr API to pull images with certain tags.
What about Smugmug? How do they compare to Photoshelter?
Hey Jesse,
I haven’t used Smugmug, so I can’t say. In terms of printing and fulfillment, Smugmug uses EZprints as their vendor, which is also an option with PhotoShelter. However, PS also has dozens of other vendors to choose from as well at different quality points.
In addition, it looks like Smugmug has more limited licensing options based on size and then either personal or commercial uses.
With Photoshelter, licenses can be created specifically to a use. For example, if an art buyer needs worldwide editorial usage for 1/4 page placement up to a circulation of 100,000, Photoshelter uses fotoQuote to create a specific rights managed fee for licensing at market rate. I use this feature all the time for creating estimates as well, which is a nice bonus.
I’ve looked long and hard at Photoshelter. Excellent array of products and services. One thing that is of concern – something seems odd about their color profiles and resizing algorithms. Perhaps I need to explore it more but seems online presentation quality is significantly altered in a diminishing way. Thoughts?
-A
SmugMug also offers the option of using BayPhoto out of Santa Cruz which does fantastic work. I can testify that their customer service is fantastic. I had a client that had an issue with the printing of a photo and their reps (“heroes”) were with both me and the client every step until it was resolved. Best customer service I have had on on land or online in a long time. The site itself is very user friendly, and if you have questions beyond the FAQ’s, they are usually answered withing 24 hrs. As you can tell, I’m a happy customer.
I cannot speak to the licensing options, except that they exist. I have not needed the customization Todd requires, so I cannot speak to that. But otherwise, SmugMug is an option worth exploring for anyone needing a way to sell photos to clients. They have a 14-day (honestly) free trial option that is very low-pressure.
Hey Rich,
Thanks for adding your experiences here, good to hear from a Smugmug user.
Very good point, I’d forgotten BayPhoto. I’ve heard they do great work, and I was a actually just looking at them to potentially print a panorama. Good point on the 14-day free trial, too.
7 Signs You've Outgrown Flickr: http://bit.ly/l6YQ1a #photogs
7 Signs You've Outgrown Flickr: http://bit.ly/l6YQ1a #photogs
7 Signs You've Outgrown Flickr: http://bit.ly/l6YQ1a #photogs
7 Signs You've Outgrown Flickr: http://bit.ly/l6YQ1a #photogs
7 Signs You've Outgrown Flickr | ishootshows.com http://goo.gl/SR65z, see more http://goo.gl/ftfJL
7 Signs You've Outgrown Flickr: http://t.co/BoULXTV
7 Signs You've Outgrown Flickr: http://bit.ly/l6YQ1a #photogs
7 Signs You've Outgrown Flickr: http://bit.ly/l6YQ1a #photogs
7 Signs You've Outgrown Flickr: http://bit.ly/l6YQ1a #photogs
7 Signs You’ve Outgrown Flickr http://zite.to/lOGXVn via @zite #photo
7 Signs You've Outgrown Flickr: http://bit.ly/l6YQ1a #photogs
Check this out! http://fb.me/16l6ZSmAO
7 Signs You've Outgrown Flickr | ishootshows.com http://t.co/x2sTLsO #photography
I just spotted this at Todd’s site: 7 Signs You’ve Outgrown Flickr http://t.co/h3VB6zO
I just spotted this at Todd’s site: 7 Signs You’ve Outgrown Flickr http://t.co/h3VB6zO
7 Signs You've Outgrown Flickr: http://t.co/3U0t8tT
7 Signs You've Outgrown Flickr: http://bit.ly/l6YQ1a #photogs
http://t.co/vqfSvbm via @toddowyoung
7 Signs You've Outgrown Flickr: http://bit.ly/l6YQ1a #photogs
Great article Todd. Could you recommend a place where I can upload photos and have my clients download an entire set? At the moment I use Flickr to showcase my work, but also upload full sets to my MobileMe gallery. I like MobileMe because it’s off the beaten path, so I have no issue uploading sets there that I wouldn’t post for public viewing, and with the click of one button, clients can download the entire set in full res. Plus I can password protect galleries. Any recommendations? Don’t have to be flashy, just thumbnails on a black background is fine
Particularly cheeky humor in this one, Todd. Great points.
Dave Hill uses flickr
I use Flickr.
Smugmug is a great site/tool but their site goes down often and they zero redundancy built in. You are at their mercy. It’s very frustrating when a bride cannot even purchase the images she wants because of the constant updating and downtime of Smugmug Pro.
Thank you very much for your advice. Had long been trying to create a website and after reading this article I finally decided, but also keeping my Flickr.
I leave the link to my humble site, I hope will be to your liking:
http://www.koldoorue.com/
Here my link to Flickr:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/koldoorue/
and to Flickeflu:
http://en.flickeflu.com/photos/koldoorue
Greetings and thanks from Spain
KOLDO ORUE (Hellyeah)
Great article with which I have to say I totally agree.
Indeed you made me first thinking about photoshelter a few years ago.
Now I’ve finally decided to use it. And I wondered, which print vendor have you choosen ?
And do you send JPEG files or TIFF files (or anything else) ?
If all this is too much out of subject here, would appreciate if you don’t mind answering through my email at least :)
Thanks and best regards !
The print vendor I use can depend on the output. But for general work, AdoramaPix does a fantastic job, I’ve seen the same image printed by them and Mpix and the results for both were excellent. I upload JPG files.
Hope this helps!
I thought you can only choose one print vendor with Photoshelter (at least that’s what they answered me)
I’ll go for Adorama then, their shipping cost are great, important since I live in France.
I may get the Standard account for now, 60GB should be enough for my 3000 shots…
How do you manage by the way to stock the ugh amount of photos you have here on Photoshelter ? The pro account is enough ? (I know your website for a few years now, and I can see you produce loads of photos every month..)
Thanks again for your help ! Very useful :)