Using Flickr in the newsroom
March 17, 2009 in ideas
The free photo-sharing software Flickr is a quick, effective way to archive your photos, maintain a remote backup and embed slideshows like this: #
Although there are other means of creating slideshows for your news site — like Slideshow Pro (used by College Publisher) and Soundslides Plus — there are advantages to using Flickr: #
- Others can embed your slideshow on their sites/blogs
- Slideshow can be viewed full-screen at high resolution
- The photos are tagged and searchable in one of the largest photo-sharing Web sites on the web
- You don’t need to have access to your newsroom’s server to get the photos– only an Internet connection
- You can always go back and download the full-resolution image if your original gets erased
- Flickr makes the slideshow for you — you just grab the embed code
- The Flickr account can be synced with Facebook or your paper’s blog
The unique tag is the key to embedding individual slideshows. For example, the slideshow above has a unique tag of “big west championship ’09” (which is the tag used to embed) so that the embedded photos don’t include all basketball photos ever uploaded to the account. #
The slideshow option isn’t the most obvious feature. After clicking on your unique tag, look for the gray “slideshow” button on the top right: #
If the tags concept is too much, consider buying a Pro Account. It’s only $24.95 a year (which averages to about two bucks a month). With it, you get unlimited uploads and storage, unlimited sets and collections (which how you’d organize the photos), statistics and HD video uploads. #
If your student media outlet is already on Flickr, please link us to your account in the comments so we can see how you’re using it. #
[...] Using Flickr in the newsroom [...]
Are there any pros or cons to using Flickr over PicasaWeb.google.com?
Flickr doesn't diminish photo quality (I've noticed Picasa does, slightly). Aesthetically, Flickr gives you a slick, professional looking slideshow embed, whereas Picasa doesn't have a slideshow option (only an option to embed the album as a static photo of your album cover that links away to the picasa album). They both have the ability to tag and organize, but as far as maximizing your viewer outreach, Flickr is more popular.
Thank you. Very helpful.
Our site shows six thumbnails of our latest Flickr photos on <a href="http://www.ecorsair.com” target=”_blank”>www.ecorsair.com. Here's the direct link to Flickr – http://www.flickr.com/photos/thecorsair.We went to Flickr because it was easy to embed on our site, and was already coded for the WordPress template we chose. But we had already been looking for a system where others could download photos. We've had many requests for our photos – from athletes, the athletic department, marketing department, college web designers, etc. Each wanted a different size and we were constantly resizing for the product. This way, they can download and use what they want, giving the photographer and The Corsair credit. Gives our photogs more visibility as well as more clips for their portfolios.We taught our mojo at another campus to upload photos and gave her a digital camera to use. It works great and she doesn't have to come to our campus to download photos to our server or burn a CD to send to us. Our graphic designers also use it to grab photos if they need something extra to fill a page. Our photo editor still edits photos she wants them to use and places it on the server, but the Flickr photos are there if we need them in a pinch. It's my hope that we start getting user-generated photos, like from clubs and events, to place on Flickr. My main beef with the way we are using Flickr though is that we are only able to show the latest photos, not the latest sets. Probably has to do with the coding of our site and not Flickr. We have a Pro account and I would suggest that if you are going to upload a lot of photos. Think of it as your filing system.Christina DrainAdviser, The CorsairPensacola Junior College
Christina: I took a look at your link, thanks for passing it along. Great use of Flickr! One question my photogs have recently brought up since I started implementing the system is that they don't want full-resolution photos to be downloadable by anyone. Their fear is that photos will be stolen and used without credit, posted on other web sites, etc. What's your response to this? Have you had any of the same worries?
I think you run the risk of someone stealing your photo anywhere it's on the web, no matter the size. But anyone who is reputable will ask first. We have had a couple of other news organizations ask to use some of the campaign photos of Sarah Palin and Michelle Obama so Flickr has been good PR for us. The copyright information, in theory, protects us and can be used if we choose to pursue infringement.
great tool
[...] your photographers in the habit of posting photos to a Flickr account so they’re readily accessible to post on your site as soon as the articles are [...]