Flickr v Photoshelter
Written by duckrabbitThis should spark a mini riot.
Unless you are selling work directly through Photoshelter why would you use them to look after your photos rather than Flickr Pro?
I know some photographers need to detach themselves from the rest of the world, which explains why Visa Festival of Shanty Towns keeps the public out whilst the photogs are in town … but that aside there must be a good reason why all those photographers are shelling out tonnes for a Photoshelter account, they must be selling lots of work through the website, right?
Be interested to hear your opinions on this.
By the way Flickr just announced new rules:
Today we’ve updated the Community Guidelines. The main change is to allow for businesses, non-profits, and other organizations to have an account on…
(By the way I’m moving all duckrabbit’s work to a Flickr Pro account but David will keep his work on Photoshelter, best of both worlds)
Author — duckrabbit
duckrabbit is a production company formed by radio producer/journalist Benjamin Chesterton and photographer David White. We specialize in digital storytelling.
Discussion (17 Comments)
Photoshelter accounts are expensive, and I find them not at all intuitive (I’ve got a free one, but I don’t think that option is available any more).
Flickr is Easy. Super Easy, and is at least another avenue for getting your pictures / profile out there. If you’re a big time photographer, it might not be of interest, but for most people I would say it’s a useful platform, even if only as a VERY cheap backup source of all your photos (even if you don’t make them public).
But, as the guidelines say, Flick is not about selling pics. Photoshelter allows you to do that very well and if you spend enough bucks on getting the right account you can do all your own branding etc.
Great points.
Of course there is no problem selling pics on FLICKR, you just can’t sell them through FLICKR, as you can a Photoshelter account.
I think a lot of people IMAGINE/DREAM selling lots of images through casual buyer on PHOTOSHELTER. If that happens then you’ve made you money back. Good investment. But if it doesn’t … What’s the risk?
Just thoughts.
I love Flickr though. I think its an amazing site.
Oh there is one problem with Flickr to host your photos (if linking from other blogs etc)… Flickr is often banned by Corporate Firewalls, so may not always be that great an option. Depends who your audience is I guess.
Just remember to backup!
http://money.cnn.com/2011/02/02/technology/flickr_deletes_account/index.htm?source=cnn_bin&hpt=Sbin
‘”Unfortunately, I have mixed up the accounts and accidentally deleted yours. I am terribly sorry for this grave error,” the Flickr staff member wrote in an e-mail response to Wilhelm’s inquiry about his vanished account. “I can restore your account, although we will not be able to retrieve your photos.”
OUCH!
Yes, that is a problemo…
The biggest problem is the loss of all the comments / links / contacts that goes with such a deletion.
Based on that experience I wouldn’t advocate using Flickr as your sole backup (not that I’ve always followed this advice).
Hi guys,
Saw your tweet and I hope you don’t mind if I jump in. Let’s get the disclaimers out of the way first. 1) I run marketing for PhotoShelter so I do get paid to think about questions like this often enough. 2) I haven’t had a Flickr Pro account in a long, long time.
I hope I don’t let you down by saying I personally don’t think it needs to be a question of Flickr vs. PhotoShelter. With the Internet, the more you can increase your online footprint, the better. People are rarely walking through the front door of your website – so if I can place content in key areas where it is likely to attract a potential client, I’m going to tap into as many viable opportunities as I can find. Flickr is a tremendous photo sharing platform and community. They’ve done a great job becoming that, and they deserve a ton of respect. In this article on photographers’ social media workflow, concert photog Todd Owyoung told us how he uses both tools in a system to generate interest and support his photo business. http://blog.photoshelter.com/2010/11/4-photographers-describe-their-social-media-workfl.html
Now, I wouldn’t be a very good marketer if I left you with just that. So I also think you need to assess what you’re looking to do. Maybe Flickr meets your needs and the lesser price fits your budget. However, we think of PhotoShelter as a complete online solution. With your subscription fees you get:
1. A website – you can use our templates, fully customize your own design, or integrate our tools with a WordPress blog theme by Graph Paper Press. we just added a “portfolio” feature too so you can separate out your best work in sharp looking, ipad friendly portfolios.
2. A real archive – there is no limit to the size file you upload, and we support 400 image file types, including raw, psd, and tiff.
3. Marketing tools – you get full social integration with facebook and twitter so you can share your work out on social networks, as can visitors to your site; plus embeddable slideshows, and SEO tools that are head and shoulders better than anything else on the market (says Digital Photo Pro magazine).
4. The e-commerce. You’ve already talked about this as a difference maker so I won’t belabor. But one piece to clear up is that our sales tools are not magic dust for your photo archive – it is less about random folks finding you through PhotoShelter and more about how good a job you do marketing your photo business. You can sell commercial and personal use downloads, prints and products. You can even have your favorite print vendor tie in to PhotoShelter to receive and fulfill your orders directly, or use an automated partner to keep the process moving without your involvement.
5. Client delivery tools. True password permissioning for your clients, and multiple delivery methods including high-res download access and direct FTP. It is the least sexy part, but if you ask our most loyal users they’ll tell you the client delivery and archive access tools are what makes them keep coming back…and makes their clients’ lives easier too.
6. Security. Built in watermarking allows you to go as far as you personally desire in protecting your images. We also let you disable drag/drop saving capabilities.
We did spend a little time talking about this question last year on the blog. http://blog.photoshelter.com/2010/10/10-signs-that-youre-ready-to-graduate-from-flickr.html
See, I didn’t mean to ramble, but I think there really are significant differences in the two services. We’re also a small team of people who care deeply about creating smart tools and educating photographers on sustainable ways to use the internet to succeed.
If you have any specific questions, contact me anytime at andrew[at]photoshelter.com. I’m glad I saw your tweet – I had not come across David’s work before. The Lookalikes gallery is a riot.
Best,
Andrew
Great and very convincing response. THANKS Andrew.
It also shows how much you think about the needs of your clients, and their clients, so kudos to you.
PhotoShelter vs Flickr. interesting tips from @PhotoShelter and readers. take it away coders… http://tinyurl.com/6d2s3jy @duckrabbitblog
Useful info, thanks all. Will share with our hacktastic audience.
Hi, we’re back. Some of us at the Posse Tower have looked at this and we agree that Photoshelter is a brilliant one-stop-shop for photographers. You don’t have to worry about coding. Branding is sleek, good SEO, shopping trolley is smooth. Everything is in one place. If you have the budget, go for it.
HOWEVER – since the web is a democratic space where we can build any houses we want – there is a happy way for photographers with lower budget to work with Flickr (We’re also a fan). The good news is since 2010, our beloved WordPress.com allows Flickr Slideshow Gallery to be embedded within a post and page. Happy days!
How to embed Flickr Slideshow Gallery in WordPress – http://en.forums.wordpress.com/topic/you-can-insert-a-flickr-slideshow?replies=30
The key is to choose a good, simple Theme that helps your photo presentation. Put only 4-8 photos in one album, less is more.
And PLEASE avoid Verdana font.
Downside of WordPress+Flickr combo – It really helps if you know bit of CSS, good eye for design, although not particularly necessary. In truth you want to spend time photographing and editing, not waste time going through WordPress forums. It’s also more professional if you use your real name for Flickr account rather than “Cheekymonkee78” etc.
An example of low-fi site we like is Al Brydon Photography. http://www.albrydonphotography.co.uk/index.html. He’s got a stunning Flickr gallery http://www.flickr.com/photos/albrydonphotography/with/5386638431/ and a very persuasive Etsy shop http://www.etsy.com/shop/AlBrydonPhotography?page=2#
(Al, call me for my commission).
As for SEO, that grows naturally. Having Twitter, Facebook, Vimeo and/or YouTube accounts improves your Google search.
Hope that balances the debate a bit. Would love to hear from online photo gallery developers out there.
Cracking response. THANKS Miss Posse.
Cheers chuck. I’m touched.
I’ve used Photoshelter to integrate my WordPress blog (which I started way before Photoshelter got going) and my online archive using a Graph Paper Press template. I haven’t sold many photos online through Photoshelter, but many of my clients have downloaded photo sets from my archive.
The . . . erm . . comments on Flickr are a real time drain.
Yes, thats a top way to use Photoshelter Tony. Looks great and very professional.
Love “The Sick Rose by Blake”, Tony. I think Photoshelter is a fantastic platform for bespoke work.
One of Flickr strength is its’ community factor. We covered a fashion week in Central Asia, so we had to upload stories and a few galleries online everyday. There were around 10-12 student reporters plus pro photogs, coming in and out. It was chaotic for the editors – so we created a private Flickr pool so everyone just hook into their terminals and upload relevant photos. Also Flickr transcends that culture barrier, like Facebook. Everybody knows what it is. That’s only a digital publisher point-of-view.
Just in – to illustrate my point above on community factor. Check Zoom In Photography School’s Flickr photostream
http://www.flickr.com/photos/26114819@N08/collections/
Are you sold? 🙂