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Brief guide to using Flickr


Roy vd M.

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I noticed some threads where people asked for a comprehensible guide to using Flickr, mainly due to the recent Photobucket drama. I'll give it a try. 

 

Introduction

Having used Flickr for 6 years now (pro account) I never had any big problems with it. Very incidentally an upload server has been down (never had any previously uploaded photos been unavailable for viewing) but it is usually swiftly repaired by Flickr's staff. One problem they have been having is their use of an onsite photo editor. That thing has been unavailable for months due to bugs. A new one is currently being developed. 

 

The pro account costs $50,- per year. No ads, unlimited storage, advanced statistics, et cetera. I think the free account offers 1 gb. of data but I'm not sure; also not sure about traffic limitations but I only know that my photos (on a pro account) have always been online as far as I'm aware. No guarantees that Flickr will always be great, up and running, but this post is just for those who are looking into the website, its facilities and its workings. 

 

How to upload photos to Flickr

Once you've signed up, you can upload your photos to Flickr. If the photos are on your harddisk, you can choose 'upload' at the top right of the screen (the cloud with the arrow):

 

1.jpg

 

Click 'choose photos and videos to upload', select a few of them and click 'upload photos'. 

 

To view your uploaded photos, move your mouse button over the 'you' submenu and click 'photostream'. 

 

2.jpg 

 

 

Of course there's a multitude of options you can use, such as sorting photos into maps (for example, one map per project) or seeing statistics. 

 

An alternative way to upload photos is by using the (free) Flickr app. I use that 95% of the time. On my iPhone I just select the photos I'd like to have uploaded (to enter the photo gallery from the app, hold the 'camera' image for one second; if you just tap it you can make a picture but I never use that feature), choose 'next' and 'post'... all selected pictures are now brought online. 

 

3.jpg 

 

 

How to use Flickr-hosted photos on Britmodeler

To share the photos on Britmodeler, you only have to copy the image link. Keep in mind though that Flickr facilitates the use of different image sizes. So you'll have to fetch the correct link. 

 

Choose 'share photo' on the bottom right of the screen (the 'arrow' icon). 

 

4.jpg 

 

You then get a screen that looks like this:

 

5.jpg 

 

Here, choose the size (in the example I chose 'Medium 375x500 pixels' but usually I'd choose 'Large 1200x1600', don't worry if it is slightly too large because the forum will automatically reduce it). 

 

Then, use the key combination "ctrl-c" to copy the link to the computer's memory. If you have a mac, use "cmd-c". 

 

On the forum, go to your thread, post a reaction and use the key combination "ctrl-v" to paste the link into the text field. If you have a mac, use "cmd-v". 

 

Finally, remove all code before the second 'https' and after 'jpg'. 

 

In all, taking one photo and having it on the forum typically takes me less than half a minute. 

 

I hope this is of any use to some. 

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Thank you Roy,

 

I've been using it for a decade and bar a short period of experimentation with paid services I always found them reliable. I didn't know this myself until today but apparently it's quite a lot simpler nowadays to post images on BM -just paste the URL here, and you're sorted - See this comment over on the linking Flickr pics thread.

 

Jay

 

 

Edited by Mountain goat
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11 hours ago, Roy vd M. said:

Here, choose the size (in the example I chose 'Medium 375x500 pixels' but usually I'd choose 'Large 1200x1600', don't worry if it is slightly too large because the forum will automatically reduce it). 

 

 

The forum will not automatically reduce the size of the image. What the forum does is instruct you webrowser to resize the image for display, but only after it has download the 1200x1600 image. This will eat up your bandwidth allowance and that of anyone viewing the image. You should always resize the images to that what you wish it to be display in forum at. 

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That's why I use that screen resolution. Some monitors will feature larger resolution, some lower.

 

If you have a 1991 640*480 VGA monitor and choose to post your images in that resolution, all other (modern) monitor owners will complain that the pics are too small. Best to use a happy medium. 

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Nice work Roy - I'd like to move this to the FAQ section if I may?  I can also draw your photos into BM webspace to save you having to host them.  That ok with you? :)

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Sure please move this to where you think it's most relevant and useful @Mike

 

Photos on Flickr are okay, no problem, I think I have unlimited webspace on Flickr. However if it is in some way more convenient to you or for the forum, feel welcome to copy them. 

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A bit of additional information for Amazon Fire tablet users regarding Flickr and BM.

 

First click on the photo you require, you'll see a screen like the one below, select the sharing option as shown

Screenshot_2017-07-03-12-56-13_kindlephoto-46958863

 

You'll then get the following screen, click on the copy URL  button - you'll then get a Link copied message.

Screenshot_2017-07-03-12-56-30_kindlephoto-47094979

Open up BM and go to the thread you want to update, open the editor hold your finger down where you want the photo to go - you'll then get the option to paste.

 

That's it, after a moments thought the link will transform itself into a photo of your model, food, pet, stash etc.

Edited by Avereda
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3 minutes ago, Mike said:

Your model pet food stash? :blink:

Well it is an obsessives forum...

Edited by Avereda
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Ok, that's been drawn into BM webspace and moved to the FAQ section.  There's a link from the original location that will expire in 30 days, so it should get plenty of views :)

 

Thanks Ray :thumbsup:

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4 hours ago, Vince1159 said:

Is there a problem with Flickr as well,looking through Cats and my Diecast Aircraft threads most of my photo's are gone from late last year/early this year...

 

Could it be that you have moved or deleted some of them?  A lot of times people forget that the photos are always hosted from their PB/Flickr/Imgur accounts, and remove or move photos in a clear-out without thinking about the consequences.  Check the photos are still there in your account, then compare the URLs.

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Could you point me to one please Vince?  It might give me some clues as to why. :) You never know, they may have changed their linking practices subtly that only affect certain files/users.

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I use Flickr and I really rate it. I pay for the no-ads service and am happy to do so - I have about three thousand photos on there now :)

 

One thing that catches me out sometimes is that I post photos to Flickr with Adobe Lightroom, which is a photo processing/catalogue tool. If I make edits to a picture after I've uploaded it (Lightroom edits are non-destructive) then it will over-write the existing pic on Flickr, which is usually what you want it to do as it preserves comments etc. Unfortunately the URLs for the image files change in the process, breaking your forum pics unless you update them.

 

Other than that (which is really user error) I have no issues with it and I think it's a great service. It's quite good if you join groups and follow other people as well, but the social features are optional.

 

Idea: Maybe we should have an official Britmodeller Flickr group?

 

Will

 

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Which reminds me... I forgot to mention that Flickr also hosts videos.

 

I always use Youtube for that though, due to its slightly higher upload and processing speed. But Flickr does facilitate it.

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Thanks for this! I changed from PB ages back as I'd ran up against my (really quite low) free storage limit at PB. To confirm, Flickr offers 1TB free storage, which unless you really do take thousands of photos of your builds, is more than enough for a long time hence.

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A. Thicko asks.

I tried your method, and I tried Flickr's method.

I can get a copy of the picture to appear in a post on here, but I can't seem to get access to the URL name.

When the picture appears it says "You have posted content with formatting. Remove Formatting."

What am I doing wrong?

Cheers.

BB

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I'm not sure what you mean exactly @billybookcase and to whom you are replying, but I can see that you have formatting below your avatar:

 

35623116992_0814984360.jpg 

 

There are tags that should not be there. I'm talking about the repeated "br" text which, in HTML, is code for a text break.

 

There are two kinds of tags: those between < > and those between [ ]. On most forums (among which Britmodeler) only the latter ones are used in general. 

 

Nowadays when you want to insert an image, you should not use any such tags. You simply post the image hyperlink and the image will present itself automatically. 

 

If you need more help with this, feel free to PM me. 

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