Digital Literacy 101: Photo Sharing with Flickr
Our 7th grade Digital Literacy Course has spent the last two lesson cycles exploring image editing with Photoshop Elements. Because of the program’s versatility and the students’ desire to work with it in some detail, we did not have an opportunity to investigate photo sharing with Flickr. As such, this post is something of an educational “Easter Egg” for those wishing to learn more. If you are new to photo sharing, this Common Craft clip provides a very nice overview:
Although there are a number of great photo sharing tools available, including Picasa Web Albums, Photobucket, SmugMug, and BubbleShare, it’s hard to beat Flickr in terms of features, ease of use, and price. It only takes a few minutes to create an account and start posting:
What is Flickr?
Flickr’s FAQ page describes Flickr as “the best way to store, sort, search and share your photos online. Flickr helps you organize that huge mass of photos you have and offers a way for you and your friends and family to tell stories about them. The best way to learn about Flickr is to upload some photos, explore the site, join some groups and make some friends. You can find more info about Flickr on our About page.”
Create an Account
To start using Flickr, you’ll need to create an account using your Yahoo ID. Avid photographers may want to consider purchasing a Pro account for $25/year, but the free version of the service will work for casual users and includes the following limitations:
- 100 MB monthly upload limit (10MB per photo)
- 3 sets
- Photostream views limited to the 200 most recent images
- Post any of your photos in up to 10 group pools
- Only smaller (resized) images accessible
Organize and Describe
Once you have uploaded some images, you can organize them into sets, add titles, descriptions and tags, and decide who can view and use your work. By default, Flickr images are copyrighted, but as we discussed in our lesson on Copyright, Fair Use, and Creative Commons, you can change the licensing terms and let others use/remix your photos as you see fit.
Edit and Share
Our students utilize Photoshop Elements, but Flickr images can also be editing using Picnik, a free online photo editor. While it lacks Photoshop’s extensive features, it does allow for basic edits and includes a nice collection of effects, fonts, shapes, and frames. It’s worth noting that Picnik integrates with other photo sharing sites, including Picasa and Photobucket, and can be used as a stand-alone editor for working with images stored on your computer.
Your images are part of your Photostream and can be viewed by anyone who visits Flickr, but there are other options for sharing Flickr photos. Here’s a partial list from Flickr’s Help menu:
- Blog any of your own public photos (set up your blog here.)
- Set up your own Flickr web address (like http://www.flickr.com/photos/george/) and share it with all your friends
- Email, link, blog, or get the HTML code to embed pictures using the “Share this …” button that’s located top right of your browser window
- Send individual photos to people, either as attachments to an email or as a link to a Flickr page
- Add tags to your photos so anyone searching the Flickr collection can find them
Give it a Try
It’s unfortunate that we didn’t have time this trimester to get the students going with Flickr, but that shouldn’t stop you from giving it a try. Photo sharing is easier than you might think; all you need is a little time and some images. Once you get started, don’t hesitate to share your photos; we’d love to see them!
October 1st, 2010 at 7:00 am
the thing that i like most about flicker is the resize feature:;:
October 12th, 2011 at 4:10 pm
Flickr looks like an interesting set up – I might give it a try.