By now you’ve probably heard that Flickr has come out with a new App for iPhone. This was music to my ears when it was released last month since Flickr was my very first photographic community. Long neglected, the original app didn’t offer much beyond viewing your stream and those of your contacts, but you’ll be pleasantly surprised to discover all the capabilities of the new iPhone app.
You can shoot with the in-app camera or use images from your camera roll, edit your image using a series of filters or fine tune your results even further using the built-in editor. If you’re not of a fan of using filters, no worries! Just turn them off in your settings, which you can access by clicking on the two circles in the bottom right corner of the app. To access the editor, just click on the little pencil which is in a square box in the top right corner of your photo.
Once you’re in the Photo Editor, you can edit your photo using several different tools including enchance, contrast, sharpness and saturation among others. Its super easy. Just select the option you want and move the sliders in the direction you choose. There’s even a retouch section where you can edit out blemishes and whiten teeth.
When you’re ready to share your photos, you can add as many details to them as you would if you were uploading directly to flickr through your computer from adding tags or people to adding it directly into sets and groups. When you upload your photo, you can also promote it across social media. As you can see here, I’ve added my shot to my twitter feed and my tumblr blog at the same time. If I want, I can set a venue or location and then choose different privacy settings to determine who can see where I’ve been.
Once you’ve posted your pictures, your image information will look like the shots below. You can see the basic statistics for your shot like the date and time it was taken, what app was used to take the shot, how many views your image has received and what sets and groups it is in along with camera details as well. If you scroll done further, you can see how the image has been tagged, if any people have been tagged in the image as well as more information that includes exif data for the shot. If you’ve enabled your location information, a map will be displayed like the image on the left.
Of course, the Flickr App is not just for uploading your own photos and checking them out, it’s for viewing your contact’s photos too! You have two choices in which to view their work, as thumbnails or larger images by contact feed. Scroll through their work by sliding your finger over their work to the left and view their images horizontally. You can double tap an image to fav it or leave a comment if you like.
You can also add your images to groups, like the Mortal Muses ~ Mobile Monday group, using the app too. Don’t feel like scrolling through all your groups? That’s okay, you can search for your favorites in the top bar. To add an image to a group, click on the square with the plus sign (at right), and to share a photo from a group, click on the box with the arrow in the middle.
I hope you’ve liked what you see so far and give the Flickr for iPhone app a try. If you’d like to learn more about the app, check out this post from the flickr blog giving you the top ten tips for using the app.
Android and iPad users will be pleased to know that a Flickr app for them is currently in the works. According to Markus Spiering (head of the Flickr product at Yahoo) in a recent c|net article:
“We are planning shortly after the iPhone launch to bring the experience also on Android — a consistent experience that feels natural and native to the platform,” he said. “Going forward there should not be a difference between where you use Flickr,” he said, mentioning smartphones, tablets, and desktop computers.
Whether you’re a flickr veteren or new to the community, Flickr for iPhone won’t disappoint. You might even find yourself spending more time over there than you have in a long while. I know I have! Until next time! For now, I’ll see you on Flickr!
Brilliant, Holly! Just brilliant. I must give this app a try.
this sounds very nice. i just hope they will come up with something like that for android too.
It is already in the works. Here’s a quote from Markus Spieri: “We are planning shortly after the iPhone launch to bring the experience also on Android — a consistent experience that feels natural and native to the platform,” from this article: http://news.cnet.com/8301-17938_105-57558673-1/flickrs-new-iphone-app-puts-mobile-front-and-center/
this is great, I’ve started to use it, will delve deeper now thanks to your article
Great for Iphone users but no good for those of us on Android-maybe one day our turn will come !
It’s on the way! see above comment 🙂
i’ve found myself more active on flickr again now that the app is here — loving it.
so helpful Holly! I never would have thought to do a post like this, but I see all the things that can be learned from this and i am so glad you did it! My fave feature of the new app is the horizontal scrolling!
i love the horizontal scrolling! thanks cara!
Great post, Holly! I also found that I like the Narwhal filter but I don’t always want to post my phone images on Flickr. I found that this app (correct me if I just didn’t figure this out) doesn’t let you save to your camera roll without posting to Flickr. My way around it was to post from the app to Flickr as private and then it would be saved in my camera roll and I could delete it from Flickr without anyone seeing it. I can then proceed to post it to Instagram if I so choose.
That’s a great work around Becky, if I learn anything different, I’ll let you know.
Great summary of the updated app, Holly! Thanks for giving us the low-down!
This is excellent! Thanks, Holly. I recently started using the new app. But after reading your take, it’s clear that I need to get into this thing much more. Down the Flickr App rabbit hole I go, happily.
fantastic Nicole! I’ll look forward to seeing what you post 🙂
The app is fantastic! Thanks for this great rundown!
Thank you, Holly! I’ve been following your Flickr photos for a couple of years now. They’re so inspiring! I just got an iPhone for Christmas — my first smartphone ever, so I must give this app a try! Thanks for your article and beautiful photography. Oh, by the way, I once read that you’ll be teaching a class at Big Picture Classes. When will that be?
Thank you so much for all your kind words! I truly appreciate it 🙂 I’ll be teaching a self-paced class on RAW photography which will go live later this winter. Congrats on the new smartphone!
One more question, Holly: What’s the difference between this Flickr iPhone app and the Instagram/Webstagram app?
Sure! Both are photo sharing apps, but Instagram is for sharing on a Mobile phone exclusively, not related to an online website, although they do offer online profiles. The flickr app is linked directly to your flickr account, so it gives you an opportunity to share your mobile shots much easier as well as interact with your flickr community.
Thanks so much Holly~that’s great info-I wondered about the app and being technically challenged as I am I really appreciate all your directions and insight
lol, i’m usually technically challenged too! Curiosity gets me through most things 😉
Thanks for the information. Need to check it out!
Yes, I love the new flickr app! Everything is available at our fingertips. I love the editing features, too. Great article.
Thanks Shirley! I’m glad to hear you like it too!
The flickr iPhone app is pretty good! It’s nice to be able to post the photo and get it into your sets and groups without having to go back to flickr on your laptop. I think it’s going to give Instagram a run for it’s money!
xo,
Linda
I agree Linda! I’ve seen a huge resurgence of comments on my flickr stream as well as new images being uploaded directly instead of just being posted from IG.
Holly, girl, you rocked this post! I haven’t given the new flickr app much of my time yet, but hopefully your article here will get me started when I am ready 🙂
Thanks Christy! I’d love to see you over there, you have been killing it this year so far! Not to mention all your awesome features!
just downloaded it tonight on my iPad… after reading your article… thanks 🙂
Awesome Valerie! I’m glad you liked it!
Great post, thank you so much for this. I’ve just started using the flickr app and really like it but had no idea you could do so much.
Great post Holly and I am really enjoying the new Flickr app!!! Thanks for all the information!!!
I’ve been enjoying the app for my phone to view my contact’s photos, but I haven’t tried the camera app to take a photo- must try that this week.
This app is so much fun! May not need to use instagram anymore!
You have taught me so much! Thanks Holly!