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What can you do with a free Webshots account?

That’s a good question. Turns out that you can do quite a bit with the free account, but the Premium account does provide more options — after all members who pay should get something extra to justify their subscription costs!

By signing up as a free member, you are limited by some options:

• You can only upload a thousand photos.
• You can only backup to your computer, one album per day.
• You can download 5 photos per day.
• You can download a limited amount of Pro Shots photos.

For anything that’s put up in italics in the list above, be assured that they will be explained in a later post.

So what do you do if you don’t want to live with the limitations? Simple — you either sign up as a Premium member, or upgrade your free account to the Premium level. Having said that, many newcomers to Webshots can continue their free accounts, and upgrade later whenever they start making more use of the site.

For the next few posts, we’ll only explore the free accounts although everything explained in these posts will certainly work for Premium members as well.

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Tagged as: Free account, Pictur, Premium account, Share, Webshots

Joining WebShots as a Free Member

Becoming a member on Webshots is easy — you just provide some simple details like your name, location, and email address — then after a quick verification process achieved through email, you become a member. Once you are a member, you can use any of the free options, or opt to become a Premium member by paying a subscription charge. Throughgout this series of tutorials, we will explore both the Free and Premium accounts of Webshots — but for now, let me show you how you can become a free member to start with:

1. Visit the Webshots site, and click on the link that tells you to sign up (on the top right corner of the site).
    
2. This brings up a login form. Fill all the fields, make sure you enter a valid email address, and then click the Join Now button within the Free section. You can also click the Join Now button within the Premium section — but that’s something we will explore in a later post.
    
3. If the details you filled in the form are valid, you’ll see a modified version of the Webshots site. Webshots allows you to upload your pictures now — and that is something that we will explain in more detail in a later post.
    
4. Do check your mail for a confirmation link — follow the instructions within the email. Also remember to save your user name and password in a safe place.
    

In the next blog post, we’ll explore what the free account allows you to do, and we’ll also briefly look at the Premium account.

Filed Under: W
Tagged as: Picture, Share, Webshots

What is Webshots?

Webshots is a photo sharing and storing site from CNET that allows you to do more with your visual content than what would have been possible by just storing them on your computer. In many ways, it is like other photo sharing sites like Flickr, MSN Photos, Kodak Gallery — yet it does have some features that set it apart from these other sites.

At the most basic level, Webshots is a simple area on the Internet where you can store and share pictures. Webshots also provides a desktop application that you can download from their site — this application lets you change your desktop wallpaper at regular intervals.

In future blog posts, we will show you how you can use all the Webshots features to your advantage.

Filed Under: W
Tagged as: Picture, Share, Webshots

What are Flickr Tags?

In the last post, I explained what Flickr sets are — and now I’ll explain to you what you can do with tags in Flickr.

Tags are like associated keywords for any picture — thus for a vaction picture from Japan of Mount Fuji, you could use these tags:

japan
vacation
mount fuji
snow

The next time, you are searching for that particular picture in the 21,894 pictures you have uploaded to Flickr — all you need to do then is use these tags as search terms — and you’ll find the picture you are searching for!

Not only can you search for tags that you have provided to your photos, you can also search for tags that other Flickr users have applied to their uploaded photos.

Adding Tags

Most of the time, all sorts of uploading options allow you to apply tags when you are uploading your photos to Flickr. But there might be times when you want to add tags to photos already in your Flickr account. To do that, follow these steps:

1. Make sure that you are signed into your Flickr account — if you don’t have a Flickr account, create one — you’ll find instructions here… 
2. Click the picture for which you want to add tags. This will open the Flickr page for that picture as you can see in Figure 1.
   Figure 1: The Flickr page for any photo
3. On the bottom right of the photo, you’ll find an option called Add a tag (see Figure 1 above). Click this option.
4. This will show a text box where you can enter your tags — just type in your tags.Separate tags with spaces. If you are using a double word with a space such as water lilies, enclose them with the space within inverted commas (double quotes) like “water lilies” as you can see in Figure 2. You can also separate your tags with commas if spaces confuse you (I always use the commas).

   
   Figure 2: Add your tags

   If you want to choose from tags you have already applied to existing, uploaded photos, click the Choose from your tags option that you can see in Figure 2 above.

5. When you are done, click the Add button.

In upcoming posts, I’ll teach you how you can add the same tags to all photos in a set. If you don’t know what Flickr sets are, look at this previous post…

See Also: Flickr Tutorial Series

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Tagged as: Flickr

What are Flickr Sets?

Before I discuss more about uploading and sharing photos on Flickr, there are two things that each Flickr user should know. These are sets and tags. I’m explaining sets in this post, and will teach you more about tags in another post.

Sets are a way to group your photos so that they are easy to organize and identify. Figure 1 shows a few sets in my Flickr account.

Figure 1: A few of my Flickr sets

Think of sets as folders in your computer–you might have a different folder for your business correspondence, another for your spreadsheets, and yet another for presentations. Even then, sets are a little different than folders–let me explain this in a different way:

Why sets are like folders?

• Because you name them like folders to identify what’s inside the set.
• Because they make it easy for you to find something at a later date–a set named Singapore Vaction August 2005 is so self explanatory that there’s no way you don’t know which photos you placed in that set!

Why sets are not like folders?

• Because unlike folders, sets don’t contain the photo itself–just a link to the actual file you uploaded to Flickr.
• Also, one photo can be placed in more than one set without being uploaded more than once–since Flickr sets are basically only shortcuts (aliases) to the actual uploaded photo.

Viewing Your Sets

To view your sets, follow these steps:

1. Make sure you are signed into Flickr.
2. In the top navigation bar on the Flickr site (see Figure 2), click the You menu, and choose the Your Sets option.
   Figure 2: Finding Your Sets in the Flickr menu
3. This will open a page that contains thumbnails of all your sets–Figure 1 above showed some sets on my page (Psst! Scooby Gooseberry has no sets yet, but we’ll teach him soon).
4. Here’s what you can do now:- The number of photos in a particular set are mentioned below the set thumbnail.

   – To edit the sequence of photos in the set, or to add more uploaded photos to an existing set, click the Edit button to open the Flickr Organizer interface.

   – Just double-click any set thumbnail to view the photos in that set.

In later posts, I’ll explain how you can organize and view photos on Flickr.

See Also: Flickr Tutorial Series

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Tagged as: Flickr

Who is Scooby Gooseberry?

Yes, that question has come up often since I used his Flickr account to create all the screenshots.

Scooby Gooseberry is an imaginary, fictitious character with a real Flickr account–I created that account for him so that we could use him as a case study to learn more about Flickr in a fun environment.

Flickr likes Scooby too. In fact, just today morning when Scooby wanted to upload some photos to his new account, Flickr asked him to come back later since it was massage time for Flickr (see Figure 1).

Figure 1: Flickr’s Massage Time

I’ll ask my staff at Indezine.com to create a caricature of Scooby one of these days–he’s such a lovable character!

See Also: Flickr Tutorial Series

Filed Under: F
Tagged as: Flickr

Creating a Flickr Web Address

Before you ask people to see your photos on Flickr, spend a minute to create your own Flickr web address. A Flickr web address is an alias that you can specify for yourself so that it becomes part of the URL to your Flickr page.

For example, Scooby Gooseberry’s Flickr web address is:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/scoobygooseberry

Not only will it be easy for you to send an alias based Flickr web address to others, it will also be simpler for you to remember your address!

To create your own web address on Flickr, follow these steps:

1. If you haven’t already signed into Flickr, do that now.
2. You’ll find an option on the Welcome to Flickr page to choose your Flickr web address (see Figure 1). Click that option.
   Figure 1: Choose your Flickr web address

   If you don’t find this option on your welcome page (the Flickr home page after you have signed in), that might be because you have already created a Flickr web address.

   As a last resort, try visiting this link while you are signed into Flickr:

   http://www.flickr.com/profile_url.gne

3. Once you get to the page where you can choose your web address (see Figure 2), make sure you choose something that you can live with since Flickr web addresses cannot be changed once they are associated with a Flickr account.
   Figure 2: Choose your Flickr address

   Your Flickr web address, as you can see in Figure 2 includes the alias you choose–the chosen alias gets suffixed to the “http://www.flickr.com/photos/” URL. Your alias cannot contain any spaces, and may contain alphabet letters, numbers, underscores, and hyphens–normally a combination of these works well too. Choose something easy–if that alias is already taken, Flickr asks you to choose something else.

4. Next, Flickr asks you to confirm if you are sure you want to choose this alias (see Figure 3). This is your last chance to choose another alias.
   Figure 3: Are you happy with your alias?

   If you are happy with the alias, click the OK, Lock It In button–or alternatively, click the I need to choose a different alias hyperlink to start the process of choosing an alias again.

5. Once you have created an alias, you can send your Flickr web address to anyone–and people can see your public photos even if they are not Flickr members. I discussed the distinction between public and private photos in an earlier post.

Here’s my Flick web address:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/geetesh/

See Also: Flickr Tutorial Series

Filed Under: F
Tagged as: Flickr

Uploading Photos to Flickr–01

Now that you know what Flickr is, and how you become a Flickrmember–it’s time to learn how you can upload your first photo!

To cook up this task, make sure you have all the right ingredients:

• Some photos on your computer–or just upload your desktop wallpaper!
• A Flick account–we already have Scooby Gooseberry’s account!
• A browser and internet connection–you are reading this, so you already have that!

And here’s how you put all those ingredients together:

1. Open your browser, make sure you are connected and log into your Flickr account.
2. Click the Upload your first photo link (see Figure 1). If you cannot find the upload link, just type in this URL in your browser (or click the link!) : http://www.flickr.com/photos/upload/ — if you are not signed in, Flickr will prompt you for your login and password info.
   Figure 1: Upload your first photo
3. This will take you to the Upload photos page that can be seen in Figure 2 below:
   Figure 2: Browse and choose the photos you want to upload
4. Click any of the Browse buttons to find the photo on your computer that you want to upload. You have six Browse buttons on this page, so you can choose six photos at a time to upload. Wait, don’t click the Upload button yet–there are some options you must first examine.
5. Right below the Browse buttons is a text box that allows you to type in some tags–think of these tags as keywords for your photos. For example, if the photos you are uploading are from your secret vacation to the North Pole, you could use these words as tags for the photos:north pole
   cold
   freezing
   secret
   vacation
   december 2009

   At this time, adding these tags might not be high on your list of priorities, but a few years from today–when your Flickr account has a gazillion photos you’ll appreciate that you tagged all your photo uploads since that will make those photos easier to search for you–and for others who are permitted to see your photos. So for now just add those tags–and separate those tags with commas.

6. Next, choose your privacy settings–I explained these in an earlier post, but here they are again (see Figure 2):Private: Unless you also check the Visible to Friends and/or Visible to Family boxes, all Private photos will only be visible to you. In fact, even you will have to sign into your Flickr account to see them. This is a great option if you want to just backup your photos.

   Visible to Friends: These photos will only be visible to you and those contacts whom you identify as Friends.

   Visible to Family: These photos will only be visible to you and those contacts whom you identify as Family.

   Visible to Friends and Family: Just check both the options.

   Public: This means anyone can see your photos–just anyone and they don’t even have to be Flickr members.

   I normally just mark all my photos without any human faces as public, but you’ll want to decide what works for you. Whichever option you choose, these privacy settings can be changed for each uploaded photo anytime.

7. Now click the Upload button–the resultant screen will ask you to wait until your photos are being uploaded (see Figure 3).
   Figure 3: Photos being uploaded

   Unless you have a very slow internet connection, you can open another browser window and do something else until the photos are uploaded.

8. When the photos are uploaded, Flickr asks you to add descriptions for each uploaded photo (see Figure 4). Add descriptions as required and then click the Save button at the bottom of the page.
   Figure 4: Add descriptions for photos uploaded to Flickr

    

9. That’s it–you’ve uploaded your photos!

In upcoming posts, I’ll show you how you can drag a bunch or even an entire folder of photos to your Flickr account using the uploading tools available from Flickr.

And no I haven’t forgotten this–here’s a link to Scooby Gooseberry’s photos on Flickr…

See Also: Flickr Tutorial Series

Filed Under: F
Tagged as: Flickr

Signing up for Flickr

Although you can browse public photos at Flickr without becoming a member, there are many things you still cannot do a Flickr without becoming a member:

• You cannot upload and share your own photos
• You cannot view for-invitation-only photos uploaded by your friends and families to their Flickr accounts
• You cannot link any photos to your blog
• You cannot comment on any photo

Obviously, the first thing you want to do is become a member.

In this post, I’ll explain the process to you about how you can become a free member. In a later post, I’ll discuss the advantages of upgrading to a Pro account. Remember that even if you never upgrade to a Pro account, you can do almost everything up to a certain limit using a Free account.

Here’s how you can sign up to Flickr:

1. The first thing you need to sign into Flickr as a member is a Yahoo! account–most people have Yahoo! mail accounts and if you don’t have one, do get signed up using this link–then come back and read the rest of this tutorial.Before Yahoo! acquired Flickr, the sign-up did not require a Yahoo! account–so that may explain why your friend signed up for Flickr without a Yahoo! account.
2. Just head to Flickr and and opt to sign up using the convenient button/link on their homepage (see Figure 1 below).
   Figure 1: The Sign up link on Flickr’s homepage
3. This will take you to the Sign In page where you just log in with your Yahoo! login and password (see Figure 2 below).
   Figure 2: Login to your Yahoo! account on Flickr.com
4. Once you sign in, there’s one more step still left. You’ll get an option to change your screen name on Flickr (see screenshot)–and your screen name can be different from your Yahoo login.Although by default your screen name is your Yahoo login ID, it’s a good idea to change it here since the changed name can have spaces. It’s always better for an audience to know that they are seeing Scooby Gooseberry’s photos on Flickr than from someone called scoobygb2006!

   
   Figure 3: Change your screen name

5. That’s all you need to know to sign up to Flickr. In subsequent posts, you and me will use Scooby Gooseberry’s account on Flickr to search and comment on Flickr and upload our first photo.

See Also: Flickr Tutorial Series

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Tagged as: Flickr

Starting with Flickr: The First Steps

Flickr (pronounced Flicker) is a site that lets you store and share photos. Plus, it also lets you backup and organize your photographs. I first started using Flickr in 2005, and have been using it all these years. So I do understand what you would want to know if you are starting with Flickr.

Having said so, don’t worry if you are new. After so many years, there’s so much that I still need to discover about Flickr! If you have a favorite tip, please do mention it in the Comments section so that together, we can help others get more from their Flickr accounts.

Flickr does so much; let us look briefly at what you can expect if you are new or are just starting with Flickr (see Figure 1).

Read the rest of this entry »

Filed Under: F
Tagged as: Flickr, Starting with Flickr