Like many online sharing services that have emerged, at first I was not quite sure how best to use Flickr back in 2009 when I signed up for the free version. But little by little I have grown accustomed to what is can and cannot do well. Now more than 10 years later, here is my working method; the things I like to use the (paid) service for and habits that streamline the flow from composing and capturing to sharing with the wider world.
Some of the people on Flickr use one of the apps carried on phone-camera or traditional (non-phone) camera to upload directly their images and video clips without first doing the post-processing edits like cropping or adjusting light and color. But more often it seems that users do spend time to choose which material to share, edit it to best effect, and then use the meta-data Flickr tools to add value to the image file: geotag (location on their world map), hashtags or keywords, cross-referenced into one or more albums and/or community-groups belonging to one theme or another, and so on.
Judging from recurring user-names in some of the groups, there are a handful of “super-users” who most actively interact with the shared visual material from others; for example, “liking” a person’s work (FAVE marking star), adding a comment or question (only free or paid account holders have the like/commenting option), or possibly even drawing a comment box onto the displayed image to attach a remark directly onto the screen version of the file being shared. For the mostpart, though, interchange between those who upload content and those who view it consists of simple “attaboys” with brief comment or nothing more than the star (“like”) marked to add to one’s own cumulative list of “faves” (favorite images from other Flickr users). Community discussion groups and the image-themed groups do sometimes generate lively exchange around technical, ethical, or aesthetic dimensions of subjects being recorded.
The ways in which a photosharing person relies on Flickr varies according to habits of seeing and capturing content to share. Some share only their very best work; others share almost everything coming off the camera since the paid (“Pro”) accounts have unlimited storage. Some use the privacy controls to segregate content for general consumption from other material for particular audiences. Just as there are many categories or genres of picture-taking, so are there many kinds of Flickr user. Most of my own photosharing fits loosely under the heading of “social observation” or everyday visual ethnography — scenes of life spotted as visual prompts that cause reflection on past versus current life, for example. As a result, very often the photo or video clip by itself is less-than-captivating. But it provides a hook to hang some commentary on: filling in the upload “description” field, together with the generous use of keyword tags to attract viewers and help them to discover the subject recorded by camera and keyboard.
Reasons to share photos: I, myself, am the main audience for my own uploads. The photosharing service presents an online way to organize and elaborate on subjects documented by my camera. The alternative is to leave content on the computer, or possibly to put it onto printed pages for display that very few people would ever see. According to the statistics page for my 4,500 uploaded images and video clips, there have been cumulatively 788, 000 page views. Only 423 instances of pages being “faved” means that many more people view than mark the material. But since the CreativeCommons setting is for “non-commercial; author attribution,” it is possible that some viewers have downloaded the original file or one of the smaller sizes preset in the Flickr User-Interface, rather than to use the “fave” marker. In other words, putting images and commentary online makes it possible to meet viewers near and far, or for me to refer a link directly to colleagues, friends, and acquaintances. Without the online platform such dissemination would not exist. Even with wide online circulation, though, few people reach out with questions or comments. So just publishing visual material digitally does not by itself necessarily contribute to world order, net planetary joy, or even one person’s learning. And yet, such things are potentially possible thanks to the concept of sharing pictures and video.
Expeditiously moving from composition and capture to the finished online presentation: “workflow” is the term to describe the sequence of steps leading from starting point to endpoint in a project, in this case taking a batch of image files, both still and moving, and situating them online for others to find and interact with. Sticking with free image editors, at first it was Picasa and its batch editing tools that I relied on to make ready a group of pictures for upload. Following the demise of Picasa, I have turned to the Windows 10 “Photos” app for basic corrections to color and light, cropping and straightening, and so on. Here is the complete list of steps to follow for a set of images (or just for a single shot).
- Compose and capture the subjects with stills and/or video recording (shorter than 3 minutes per clip on the free account; up to 10 minutes per recording on the PRO account).
- Transfer to PC by cable, bluetooth, or loading the SD-card into the machine. For multiple images tied to a particular place, event, or topic, there is a file utility on the PC that allows batch renaming: select those to be assigned a common filename and then hit “enter” to generate uniform names suffixed as “filename” (1), (2), and so on. Depending on the camera’s own default filenaming pattern, the image or video clip may well describe the date and time of recording; e.g. IMG202108211434.jpg (for August 21, 2021 at 2:34 p.m.). So if it is important to preserve that information in the filename itself, then the batch renaming must be used with caution. Otherwise, the renamed group of files will only preserve the date/time of genesis in the meta-data (EXIF) layer of the file information.
- Edit the images and video clips. If an unedited, archival copy of the file is desired, then one solution is the leave the original file on the SD card: using “copy” instead of “move” to transfer the visual material onto the PC. That way the PC files can be edited, but if there is any mistake or there is a reason to return to the original, then a copy will remain untouched. Non-destructive photo editing software only makes editing instructions for the source file; it does not physically alter the original file. But other software makes the user decide between “save as…” a new filename that contains all changes made, and “save” to overwrite the edits onto the source file. Most of my video clips are “one-take” segments that require no further editing to serve the purpose of Social Observation writing prompt for my commentary or reflection. But occasionally it does make sense to string together two or more clips into a single, finished video presentation. Even then, though, I do not add title, credits, subtitles, and so on. Others may cringe at the thought of raw video being used this way, but by limited edits to trimming a bit of the top or the tail off; or by combining a small number of related clips, the workflow moves with least resistance from capture to sharing and then written commentary.
- Batch upload to Flickr. With images edited and files descriptively named, it is time to upload to the photosharing site by selecting all those images to include, either in a single sweep, or by using the “add” button on the upload screen to go to other locations on the PC to select more videos and photos as part of the batch to go online. A few keywords can be applied to all the images held ready to upload; for example, camera model used or lens name, location, or event name. Other keywords will fit a subset of all the files displayed in the upload screen, so holding the CTRL (control) key and individually marking the relevant files makes it possible to apply the particular terms in a selective way. Certain subjects come up intermittently, so rather than casting about for the best list of keywords, I keep a text file on the PC with “boilerplate” that can be copied and pasted for those repeating subjects; for instance, Covid-related signage and practices (e.g. coronavirus, social distancing, trump virus, pandemic, covid-19, face masks). The other field to fill in before batch uploading is the place-holder text: text to follow; Press L for lightbox (large) view; click the image or press Z for full image display. Hover the mouse pointer over the image for pop-up remarks. This last line refers to the on-image annotation tool: click and drag the cursor to form a box around a part of the image and then add a brief question or comment.
Ideally, before hitting “upload now,” I will have filled in relevant meta-data that fits multiple files, rather than having to supply the details individually on each picture’s own webpage. But if hindsight prompts me to go back to add more meta-data, Flickr do provide the “organize” tool for batch processes: add selected image files to one or more albums (new or existing ones), groups; add to worldmap; add keywords to selected image files, and so on.
The last step is to return to the newly published (uploaded) pictures and write a few thoughts triggered by the photo, replacing the place-holder line, “text to follow.” And since not all the images warrant spotlighted annotations (“hover the mouse…”), now is the time to remove that part of the batch description field. The default title is the file’s name, so now is the time to edit that line to make something more descriptive. One other batch function is found within the “organize” feature: “add item to worldmap.” In that screen it is possible to browse all the uploaded files, or just those lacking a geo-tag, or limiting the pool of images and video clips to ones that were uploaded on a single date. This last option points to a useful principle of uploading: by batch uploading images in waves on separate dates, it will be possible to make use of this sorting feature to isolate that particular batch at any time in the future. Suppose the batch uploaded includes 3 different locations: by browsing the batch and cherrypicking all those from site-1, these can be pinned to the Flickr Map in one motion all together, rather than engaging with images individually to repeat the pinning action.
In praise of Flickr, there are many batch tools for applying descriptions, locations, albums, keywords, and so on. One day it occurred to me, though, that repurposing the text and images in the shape of an ebook would give people another way to interact with the ideas and pictures. There was no obvious or easy way to capture all the uploaded meta-data and images with a view to putting this into wordprocessing software to prepare for ebook conversion and promotion. A batch process of the API produced at Flickr or maybe from one of the ebook publishing giants would make the conversion process from online photosharing to offline document practically frictionless. But for the time being, the conversion to ebook for reading on a portable device, for bookmarking pages, for clicking on hotlinks, for adding one’s own notes, and so on takes a lot of trouble to gather images and resize them optimally for ebook devices. And the description and title has to be collected by cut-and-paste. See the result of this reuse of the Flickr-based organization to produce Life and Times in Rural Japan, Volume-1 and Volume-2.
In conclusion, photosharing makes possible wider and different audiences of viewers than ever was possible pre-Internet. Starting in 2007 the Library of Congress started to partner with Flickr to put public-domain images online there, since the Library’s own User Interface was much crankier and much less visited that the extremely active user-base at Flickr. Later, the national museums, archives, research centers, libraries, and private collections from other countries followed this example by putting their own visual material on Flickr, too. The batch processes streamline the fill-in of meta-data that populates each photo’s webpage. Viewer’s can use the Flickr searchbox or the image search of any particular Internet Browser to discover one’s pictures and video clips. Other viewers can search the other way around, not by keyword, but by browsing the Flickr World Map and zooming in for a particular place to see all uploaded files pinned to the location.
Taking the platform as a whole: its usefulness to viewers and to contributors, makes possible more and better exchange of visual ideas than ever before: now let us praise the service and all those making use of it, hour after hour across the planet. Collectively, the breadth and variety of visual material is magnified for people today and those yet to come.
