Photo sharing - Instagram vs Flickr

D13RGS

D13RGS

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Hoping someone can offer me advise (hope this thread is on the right section - apologies if I've made a Newbie mistake).

I am wanting to start uploading some of my images online and am uncertain as to what the better option is. I have noticed that a lot of members on here seem to use Flickr - is there a particular reason for this? Is it because hosting the images on this Forum is easier from that hosting site is easier?

Thanks in advance for any advice.
 
Flickr has been around a long time, and was one of the early photo hosting sites for serious work. Instagram started out as somewhere for people with phonecams to apply eye-bleeding filters to make lousy images 'art' before being gradually adopted by serious photographers seeking publicity.

What do you want to do with the uploaded images?
 
I use both. Flickr is a good tertiary back up for my fave shots and a good hosting platform for sharing pics on here/Facebook.

I like sharing pics instantly on Instagram also.
 
Thank you for comments. My intentions, at this point is to gave a place where friends and family members can view my posted pics and have the ability to then post to other forums - mainly this one. It would be good to have better possibilities, at a later date, to use the chosen one to market my work and not have to 'reload' or move my pics to allow access.
 
As stated by Jayst84 they are different and have a different audience. Flickr used to be the go to pace for photographers, forums and 'awards' now it is more a storage facility for most. Instagram is a good place to get your work seen as it is currently the hot place to post. Probably not where family and friends will best see you work. Why because they need an account and Instgram doesnt show large files, flickr is much better for this.
 
Thanks. Would I be correct in thinking that Flickr affords better resolution images, compared to Instagram?

Although, at the moment I don't have many 'decent' images I'd won't to share, I am hopeful that I'll improve, sooner rather than later, I would like to build a decent collection, with the versatility of being to use the hosting platform as a more than just a 'quick look' option.

Really appreciate everyone's opinions.
 
D13RGS said:
Thanks. Would I be correct in thinking that Flickr affords better resolution images, compared to Instagram?
Click to expand...

Instagram's max resolution is 1080x1080 so fine for viewing on a phone but not much else. Flickr is basically the full resolution that you upload (I believe they apply some kind of compression when displaying the images but you can't tell), and you can download in any size as well. If you want people to view your pics at full size and best quality Flickr is the way to go.

I have tried but haven't got to grips with Instagram which is weird - I'm constantly on social media (Facebook mainly) but never got into Instagram in a big way. I think it's awkward to have to use your phone to upload your pics and type in your descriptions etc, but that's just me.

I love Flickr and have been on it for about 4 years since I started photography. I keep reading that it's dying but I don't really see any evidence - yes the groups are largely abandoned but there's loads of photographers on there. It's more of a 'proper' photography service than Instagram which is more of a social media platform, obviously both sites cater for both audiences in different ways.

If you're mainly wanting to share with friends and family then Instagram might be best, purely because lots of them will already be on Instagram, not many of them will want to sign up to Flickr just to keep up with your photography. I'd also recommend a Facebook page as nearly everyone will be on there and you can build in things like a shop if you want to sell your pictures. Facebook unfortunately compress your pictures horribly though, but it is very convenient.

If you're interested in sharing with other serious photographers I'd look at 500px and I know some people also recommend ViewBug and there are others too.
 
I forgot to mention that 500px allow you to sell your photos directly view their website and you get 60% of the cash. However they set the prices which are expensive (currently looks to be €129 for a 300dpi image suitable for printing but only €29 for a web-sized one). So good if you do 'stock' type images but not really the prices you'd want to charge your mates, plus the customer has to do their own printing.
 
Thanks. I'll take a look, but to be honest I don't think my photography is anywhere near a commercial level yet. Good to know for future reference though [emoji106]
 
There are several sites that will offer mostly what you want, Flickr, 500px, Photobucket being examples. 500px is probably the 'best' in terms of being photographer-friendly, but unless things have changed you will want to take out a subscription to give you unrestricted uploading and cataloguing. Photobucket works as an image host for me, but they have adverts on the site that stops it being a good place to send others to view your galleries. Flickr is reasonably good, but quite clunky to work with and definitely degrades images when they are re-sized for viewing elsewhere (upload at the size you want displayed to prevent this).

An alternative involving more work is to use a hosting site for serving images, and then create a blog for presenting them. It's a lower-effort half-way house between using a mass image host and actually running your own website.
 
Also, thanks Joe for clarifying the resolution sizes etc. I agree about the fiddly element typing descriptions etc on your phone. I view Instagram and find it easy to use, but am seeing it wouldn't be the best option for good resolution images.

Do you know if it's possible to send people a link to Flickr pics/albums to allow them to view, even if they're not account holders?

Thanks again.
 
Thanks Ancient Mariner. I'll definitely consider the blog idea. . I'm very much a novice, but want to start out right with everything, hopefully to avoid conflicts or hiccups in the future.
 
Joe76 said:
I forgot to mention that 500px allow you to sell your photos directly view their website and you get 60% of the cash. However they set the prices which are expensive (currently looks to be €129 for a 300dpi image suitable for printing but only €29 for a web-sized one). So good if you do 'stock' type images but not really the prices you'd want to charge your mates, plus the customer has to do their own printing.
Click to expand...
I would avoid 500px...
https://tosdr.org/#500px
 
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