The vacationing season is at our footsteps, this means that we go on trips and of course, we take many photos.
One of the devices that you should really carry with you on vacation is the photo camera. It does not matter if you are an expert or not. What’s important is to take pictures of your vacations so you can remember places that you might not see again very soon.
Once you have taken photos, download them to your computer and you edit them, these pictures should be uploaded online so other people, like your friends or family, can also see them. Keeping them only on your computer is not trendy anymore. You can now upload them online.
There are many sites that offers you space and multiple features so that your pictures can feel right at home. Among all these so called photo sharing services, we think that Flickr is by far the best one, and here’s why!
Worth every penny
Like most photo sharing services, Flickr offers you two types of accounts: a free one and a paid one. The free one has some limitations, like you can only upload 200 photos. You can upload more, but only the most recent 200 will be displayed.
However, the Pro account option offers you unlimited storage space and bandwidth. Such an account costs around $25 per year. It’s a more than decent price compared to the features that are offered. In the case of photo sharing services the rule is that if you want a good and limitless service you have to pay. Free accounts have too many limitations.
Easy upload process
To save your photos on Flickr you can use multiple options. You can use the upload feature on the site, you can use the official Flickr Uploadr official software or one of many applications developed by third parties.
Windows Live Photo Gallery for example, helps you upload photos on Flickr. If you are using this program to edit your photos, you will find that it’s very easy to upload them on Flickr.
The maximum photo size that you can use to upload photos on FLickr is 20 MB ( 10 MB for free accounts ), enough for most photo cameras. If one of your photos is bigger than 20 MB, Flickr will save the original for backup, but it will display a version that does not go over 20 MB. After that, you will be able to download the original photo on your computer.
Good organization
Flickr offers many options to users to organize their photos most efficiently. They can be organized by: sets, galleries, tags. Searching for a photo can be done by date, name, description, location, and so on.
Organization operations can be done through an internal application named Organizr. With the help of this application you can make batch modifications like:
- assigning tags
- adding a set
- establishing the license and copyright of photos
- rights editing – who has permission to view photos and who don’t.
- picking the location in which the photos have been made
- including in groups.
A very practical method to browse and search for photos is the archive. Here, your pictures are organized on the calendar, based on the date their were created.
Editing
On Flickr you can also edit your photos without installing any additional programs. To do this, you have to use the Picnik service, an online photos editing software.
Picnik offers basic features for photo editing. You can crop photos, give them new dimensions or you can change the color scheme of your photos.
Socializing
Flickr is a bit like a social network. Actually, it’s a network built around photos. You have an agenda in which you can add contacts. When your contacts publish new photos, you will be able to see them on the main page or in the Contacts section.
Also, groups are available. A group is the place where users can add photos that have a common point. For example, there are black and white photos groups, portrait groups and so on.
Any user can create a group. Usually, every user can choose to be a part of a group. There are however cases in which you are only allowed to join a group if you receive an invitation.
Community
Flickr is also a community of professional or amateurs photographers. It’s probably the biggest community of it’s kind on the Internet. To get an idea about the huge number of photos uploaded on Flickr, we have to say that every minute a few thousands new photos are uploaded.
This is why, Flickr is a very good source of new photos, where you can discover and admire not only photos of your friends, but also photos from around the world.
Interface
Recently, Flickr has started to test a new interface. Not that the old one was bad, but the new interface is really very modern. The images are displayed at bigger dimensions, important data are easier to be seen and features have been regrouped.
Also, viewing photos can now be done using a “lightbox” effect. The photo occupies the entire width of the page, and other elements have been removed. In the new viewing page all you can see is the photo and some important features above it.
Applications
Flickr has a so called “open API”. This means that everyone can create applications for Flickr. And indeed, there are many applications, with different purposes.
Some of them can be found in the App Garden section of Flickr. But, most of them can be found if you do a search on Google.
Shortcuts
Like any modern web application, Flickr can also be used using your keyboard. This feature was created with the new interface.
For example, on the page of a photo you can skip to another one by using the arrows on the keyboard and you can view it in the lightbox mode by pressing F. In other sections of the site, other shortcuts for other commands are available.
Statistics
Pro Account owners can see statistics that offer information regarding their own photos. You will know how many users have seen your photos, how many users commented them, how many users added them as favorites, and so on.
For these reasons, and much more, Flickr is one of the best photo sharing and photo hosting service in the world. It’s the service that we recommend to everyone who wants to upload and share their photos on the Internet.
