Help / FAQ / General Flickr Questions
What is Flickr?
Flickr is 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 in the Magical Feature Tour.
I see a different photo page, what's changed?
We released a new photo page for Flickr in July 2010 (Take a quick tour!). We've made quite a few changes to make it a bigger and better viewing experience. Let's go over some of the main changes.
It's Bigger!
- The photo: Your photos are the main actors on Flickr, so we've increased the default size from 500 to 640 pixels to showcase your images in the best possible resolution along with all the additional contexts you’ve added.
- Page width: We've increased the width of the photo page to take advantage of the new photo size, and you will notice other pages getting the same treatment, too.
- New! Light box: A Click on the photo or on the magnifying glass icon. We'll dim the lights and show you a larger view. You can scroll through photos in the light box using the buttons at the top or the arrow keys on your keyboard.
- Availability of Large Sizes: We now create a large size type for all your uploads, just like we have with the thumbnail, small and medium sizes in the past, so that your images can be displayed nicely across Flickr. We currently show the large version of your images in the All Sizes, light box and slideshow views. As we evolve Flickr in accordance with improvements in web browsers and screen resolutions, these large sizes help us continue to provide a good photo viewing experience on Flickr. Your original file along with its EXIF and other metadata information will always be controlled by your “Access to your original image files and other sizes” settings.
New Navigation
- Navigation buttons: A We've added brand spankin' new navigation buttons at the top of every page. (Psst. Try the arrow keys on your keyboard, too.)
- Film strip: B The film strip previews photos related to the currently viewed photo (e.g. photos in the same set, group, etc.) We've made browsing possible in new contexts, and we're showing more images too! Click on any thumbnail to go to that photo. You can also use the left/right arrows that appears on either side on the film strip to scroll through five thumbnails at a time.
Improved Page Layout
- New! Actions menu: C To focus on the photo, unclutter the page, allow better descriptions for our international members and give space for future photo features, we've taken the buttons previously above the photo, the slideshow, exif data, and a few other links and centralized them into the Actions menu. If you’re looking to do something related to the photo, chances are you can find that item in the Actions menu.
- Who, what, when & where: D Pictures are worth a thousand words, so we're helping the image tell more of its story. To the right of the photo you can see who uploaded it, when & where it was taken, and with what camera, if that info is available.
- Favoriting is now more visible: E Favorites are now alongside your comments to show off more of the activity that happens on each photo. Favorites are also a great way to find amazing images on Flickr. Making them more visible also makes it easier to click through and see the treasures that other people have found.
Controls and Settings
- Privacy options: More specific information about privacy, permissions, and content filters are right on the page in 'Owner settings'.
- Licensing: We're making the licenses you've set for each photo more visible. Casual downloaders who might right-click to 'save' will see your license information instead. We've also placed your license info at the top of the all-sizes page. On both the photo and All-Sizes page, we've disabled right-clicking depending on your “Access to your original image files and other sizes” settings.
Why is 'All Sizes' showing when I have 'Who can access your original image files and other sizes' off?
The account preference "Who can download your stuff" has now been changed to “Who can access your original image files and other sizes” to describe what happens to your photos on Flickr. This setting will continue to disable downloading of your original files (comprising of the original image size, EXIF and metadata). Please note: This setting cannot 100% guarantee that the sizes that we create from your originals (square, thumbnail, small, medium 500, medium 640 and large) will never be downloaded. In the new design, images up to the large size (these are 1024 pixels on a side) are shown to deliver the best photo viewing experience on Flickr, and there are even more features that discourage downloading.
The main goal of the new page design is to better showcase your images. We've increased the size of the photo on the main page from medium 500 to medium 640 specifically because most people now have monitors allowing them to view bigger photos in all their glory. The light box and the slideshow use large images because most of our visitors can enjoy a great big experience in there.
Along with showing larger sizes, we've made changes to the page to discourage casual downloading and make people more aware of image ownership:
- The copyright is higher on the photo page and easier to find
- Right-clicking from the photo page shows the copyright information and does not give a "Save" option
- The copyright is shown at the top of the All Sizes page
- When the “Who can access your original files and other sizes?” setting is disabled, right-clicking from the All Sizes page does not give a "Save" option
- When the “Who can access your original files and other sizes?” setting is disabled, visitors will see "The owner has disabled downloading of their photos" at the top of the All Sizes page
By "discourage" we do mean simply "discourage". Please understand that if a photo can be viewed in a web browser, it can be downloaded by people who actively disregard our roadblocks.
We’ve made this change to be consistent and transparent in how your images have been processed on Flickr. Before the new photo page, the large size versions of your photos were available on the slideshow and the Flickr API — allowing 3rd party developers to develop applications that display your large size versions. The All Sizes re-design now matches what we have always provided in a cleaner, more straightforward manner. If for any reason having an image this large available to visitors makes you uncomfortable, you may want to consider uploading at a smaller size.
Why are favorites and comments together?
Checking out other peoples favorites is a great way to explore Flickr and find amazing photos. (We even did a blog post about just that.) One of the reasons faves are included in comments is to help our members discover more photos through the favorites of others.
Another reason we're adding favorites into the mix is because it will show off more of the activity that happens on photos - especially photos that don't already have lots of traffic from Groups or Explore. Visitors are also encouraged to leave favorites as an easy way to express their feedback on your photos and be moved to more varied forms of community engagement like commenting, participating in groups or creating galleries.
What are the rules for using Flickr?
Please read our Community Guidelines to find out everything you need to know about being a model Flickr citizen.
Will Flickr always be free?
Yes, there will always be a free version of Flickr. It will be limited in some ways, and you get more with a paid subscription, but it's still fun!
You can always upgrade to a Flickr Pro account, for just $24.95 (U.S.) per year. You can also buy a Pro account for a friend if you feel generous.
To find out more, visit the Upgrade page.
I'd like to use a photo I found on Flickr. How do I do that?
Our members share an incredible amount of amazing work on Flickr. If there is an image you'd like to use, look for the "Request to license" link near the license on the photo page. We've partnered with Getty Images who will review the image, determine if it's a good fit for licensing through them, and work out all the details if so.
Not all members have this enabled. If you don't see it you can also contact the member directly. As a member of Flickr, you can move your mouse over someone's buddy icon and click the little arrow to open the "person menu." Then select "Send FlickrMail" and compose your message. When you contact a photographer, it's best to include as much info as possible about the photo, yourself, and how you want to use the photo.
What does "Recent activity" show?
Recent activity A shows what is happening around your account.
In addition to views for Activity on your photos and Replies to your comments, you can also view your Messages, see it all together, or make a custom view.
Save C makes that view your default so it will be the first thing you see in Recent activity and on the homepage.
Muting
In response to member feedback we have also added the ability to mute B items that you don't want to see new activity on.
What if I don't want to see activity on a photo?
If there is an image that you commented on a while ago but don't want to see new activity on, you can now mute it B. (you can do this on anything in recent activity)
To un-mute something, just go to your muted items view D and un-mute it.
What is the explore section on my home page?
The Explore section on the home page now revolves to show what is happening in different areas of the site. You might see recent uploads, a glimpse of groups, a piece of places, or something new you wouldn't have stumbled across otherwise. There is a lot happening on Flickr every day and we hope this lets you see a little more of it.
Note: If you don't want to see this Explore content, you can minimize the module at anytime by clicking on the arrow just to the left of the first photo.