Using Flickr to revive interest in photography

After a ,long long time adrift in the dream world of random clicks, I decided to sit down and process all the old slides (I have 60 rolls from before digital took over). I looked at many on-line options to store and display the pics, and settled on Flickr as a well-known and simple platform. My experience so far has been nothing but positive, leaving me puzzled why people so often dismiss Flickr.

 

The actual act of uploading pictures to Flickr is trivial, and the real charm (and pain) lies in preparing the pics for uploading (curating them, in a way). I have short notes written on the slides as well as in notebooks, identifying each slide by Roll no-frame no. I have an old Nikon Coolscan IV which was collecting dust. The first challenge was to get the scanner working on my Windows 7 laptop, thanks to the guidance available on the web. The scanner is actually very effective, but requires "Recover Original Colors" to be turned on to remove the yellow haze that comes up in the scan (except for images strong on yellow and red hues, like flowers and autumn foliage).This may be because of the age of the slide (although they look good against the light), or maybe dust on the scanner's sensors. Once again, I am puzzled at the general contempt for Nikon's software. However I supplement this with a little saturation and hue correction in Photoshop Elements 2 (which came with an old Epson printer), I then use a free program for filling in the data and keywords in the file (which are used by Flickr to apply tags and arrange the pics in order). The pic is then reduced to a 1000-pixel jpg file, and it is finally ready for uploading to Flickr.

 

Flickr itself arranges the pics in a grand manner, giving different views: date-wise photostream, album-wise display, and so on. Seeing these old slides collated and displayed so beautifully has actually given me a renewed interest in photography, an ideal pastime for these lockdown-affected times. The other upside is, of course, that I can finally see a record of my photographic efforts, and the course of my life's activities in a nicely annotated and beautifully arranged manner. What a debt of gratitude we owe to all those known and unknown people who have slogged over every component of the whole photographic process! If anybody would like to see what I am babbling about, do have a glance at DILIP KUMAR P J’s albums | Flickr. Flickr does all the work of arranging and displaying; our job is to process and annotate the pics properly.

our job is to process and annotate the pics properly

 

Do you work for Flickr? see The Pros and Cons of Flickr

 

Anyway, your post reads like an advertisement, but I guess you're just pleased with the service

 

You are aware that you can have a portfolio here on p.net?

Hi JDMvW: hahaha, no, I have nothing to do with Flickr, you're right, I'm just pleased with the service! A 1000 pics is plenty for the present... what I don't understand is why there are so many complaints about it. Where else do you get such a grand arrangement of your pics for display? The other thing is that it answers our big question of what to do with the burden we photographers carry through our lives (that's slightly tongue-in-cheek).

I don't intend using it as a vault for my original or large files (for what they're worth!), but just as a temporary place to organize and display (mainly for my own gratification). I resize them into small jpgs because that makes uploading fast and painless. If Flickr folds up some day, it won't be a disaster for me - the actual uploading is a miniscule effort, the real benefit is that Flickr encourages me to annotate and arrange, in order to be accessible to anyone searching for a particular species or location or film or lens.I think the strength is that it is good for the slightly more serious photography enthusiast, thus encouraging us to persist with our efforts despite ageing eyes and sky-rocketing (new) equipment prices.

what I don't understand is why there are so many complaints about it.

Glad you are enjoying flickr. I am on flickr since 2007 - most complaints can only be understood in historical context. Flickr is now run by smugmug and is actually running fairly smoothly. It was the time under Yahoo management (with several problematic layout changes) and particular when Marissa Meyer was at the helm when lots of features got broken; especially around the groups features. For photo sharing, I also think that flickr is just fine - and not to expensive even if one wants to host more than 1000 images.

I like Flickr and use it. It's more conducive to just showing photos. But I've never liked their discussion forums much.

One thing that is great about Photo Net is there's a bunch of really knowledgeable tinkerers and collectors of information (not me) and there's some real knowledge. Try the some of technical forums like "Extreme, Retro, Instant and More", "Classic Manual Cameras", "Medium Format", "Large Format" and "Lighting Equipment". I've been taking photos since about the turn of the century, and went to a good photography program that I didn't complete but got into the upper divisions when I had to choose between my job and photography. Though I was exposed to use of the view camera, med. format, 35mm film cameras and development oft and dark room printing etc. my knowledge is nothing compared to some of the people that hang there. If you really want to get exposed (lol) to more than digital photography check it out. Oh, I don't work for p.net :)

Thanks so much for the responses - I have been lurking here for decades, so I recognize and appreciate the attention and contribution of mavens (? experts) to us amateurs (cravens?). After many years out of photography, I suddenly got interested in organizing my stuff, and found the simpler platforms and software i listed much easier than breaking my head on PS Major. Flickr has really encouraged me to take up the hobby again. As for photo.net, I even have a few snaps in my gallery, and I have dozens of threads downloaded from the old pnet (time of Bob Atkins and Philip Greenspan and Shun Cheung:rolleyes:). Slightly extending, truth be told, I liked the search facility in the old pnet where they had sub-topics in the search results (if I remember correctly). Would our experienced experts think of getting that back?

. . . I have dozens of threads downloaded from the old pnet (time of Bob Atkins and Philip Greenspan and Shun Cheung:rolleyes:). Slightly extending, truth be told, I liked the search facility in the old pnet where they had sub-topics in the search results (if I remember correctly). Would our experienced experts think of getting that back?

 

Threads posted in "the old pnet" are still searchable and also retrievable, for example this concerning enhancing filters, from February 1997 [LINK]

 

The 'Search' function, as it is now, will most likely stay as it is: it is very difficult to find and communicate to anyone who has the Administration Traits, necessary to change it.

 

WW

I have had Flickr for years. When they switched over to the pay mode, I thought I was supposed to get that for free from my previous membership. But somehow, I didn't and now pay for the pro mode. If anyone knows why I got screwed, pls let me know how to correct that. :)

 

In any case, I like Flickr. It's a central place to put pictures that I can then link to or copy from on to the various photo forums I belong to like this one. I keep the link for my Flickr photo albums in the signature block or profile page of the forums I'm on like photo.net if someone is interested in looking.

 

Besides creating albums for specific topics, you can add keywords for pictures which it makes easier to reference and show when you want to refer to something from a photo forum. For example, if I'm posting something on 4x5's, I just post the link to those photos for reference. You can also set up so your photos go onto other groups on Flicker. So if you have let.s say NYC photos, you can join NYC sites on Flickr and automatically post your selected NYC photo there.

 

The Pro mode gets rid of ads and also provides statistics on all your photos, beside allowing more than 1000 photos. You can also post videos.

Very true, AlanKlein. My post was to encourage anyone whose interest was flagging to try this platform (or any others they may prefer) to get energised again. I know I've got hooked again, to the extent of getting a new camera... but that will be the subject of a separate post!