Tips for Getting the Most out of Flickr
Fig 1.1 – An example of an"interesting" photo on Flickr.
If you read my last post then you know that I got 50 (now it’s over 60) people to submit to Pendulum Journal in three days just by making a Flickr group. However, I had an advantage in getting things to go that quickly. Since I’ve been a Flickr user for a little under a year, I had some previous knowledge of how Flickr works. Here are my tips on how to get the best photos the fastest:
1) Know Your Search Engines – There are a bunch of ways to look up photos on Flickr. Get familiar with all the search engines so you can adapt your searches based on what you already know about the photos you want. You can search for photos by when they were uploaded, or browse the “most recent uploads.” You can search for photos by what type of camera was used to take the picture. Flickr even lets you search for photos based on the place they were taken- you can click on different regions on a map of the world. You can search by the subject of the photo based on its title, the groups it belongs to, and what the photographer titled it. Finally, you can search photos based on “interestingness,” a term made up by Flickr which I’ll explain in the next bullet:
2) Pay Attention to “Interestingness” – Flickr defines “interestingness” as a constantly changing quality of a photo based on who comments on it, how many viewers it has, how many people mark it as a favorite, or even whether its tags are popular. If a lot of people are viewing and favoriting a photo, its interestingness goes up. If it hasn’t been looked at in a couple days, its interestingness goes down. “Interestingness” is Flickr’s way of weeding through ho-hum photos to get to the really striking ones. When you search for photos by “interestingness,” everything you’re going to get is good. Once you’re looking at a page of great photos, all you have to do is look for the ones that apply to your literary journal’s theme.
3) Look for Photos with Multiple Tags and Group Memberships – These are the easiest to find because the photographers who posted these photos want them to be found. Imagine two photos, both of fish. The first photographer uploads her photo and doesn’t tag it or send it to any groups. The second photographer uploads hers and then tags it with “fish, tropical, Atlantic, ocean, parrotfish, green” and sends it to two groups she belongs to, “Fish of the Atlantic” and “Vacation Pictures.” Putting all that together, that’s eight different searches a person could make to find her picture. With the first photographer only one search would work- one for the photographer’s photo-stream. I’m not saying that tagged and grouped photos are of a higher quality than untagged and ungrouped photos (although if a photo is invited to an exclusive group, it’s probably good), but I am saying that if you’re pressed for time, this will be the way to find photos fast.
4) Recently Uploaded Photos – I’ve had a lot of luck searching Flickr’s “Most Recent Uploads” engine and receiving submissions there. Though it’s much harder to find a great recent upload then to find a great “interesting” photo or a great tagged and grouped photo, they’re worth the time and effort. That’s because you’re the first to find it. This not only flatters the artist, encouraging her to join your submission group, but allows for a quicker turnaround, because she is probably still on Flickr, uploading her photos. I’ve had similar luck with photos with minimal views: these people are basically undiscovered and far more likely to accept your invitation than people with photos that are constantly viewed, favorited, and invited to groups. The catch is, of course, it’s harder to find photos like this that are quality.
5) Add a Personal Message – When you’re a group administrator, Flickr allows you to send an instant invite to your group when commenting on a photo. But if a photo gets invited to a variety of different groups, all the invites are going to look the same to them. So I like to add something to it. A few days ago I was looking at the photostream of a photographer named escher1. I was completely enamored with his work, but apparently, so were several other groups. I loved his use of color and manipulation of natural materials, so under my invite, I told him so. A half hour later, all three photos were added to my group.
That’s all I’ve got for now, and happy photo hunting!
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