Going Back To Flickr

For a few years now, I've had a Flickr Pro account and was quite happy with it. But as I got more interested in photography and my subjects became more varied, I began to dislike one thing in Flickr - the photo stream layout.

Yes, Flickr allows you to create collections and sets, but you're quite restricted to this two-level hierarchy. Also, the photo stream is always organized from the most recent uploaded photo. To some extent, this is fine, since if ever you wanted to share your photos in a more organized, professional manner, you can just give them the link to your collections or sets. But if for example some random user happens to view your photo stream and you've just uploaded a not so good and interesting photo, then that's the first thing he will see and may lose interest.

Which made me try out PBase. PBase allows you to organize your photos into as many galleries and sub-galleries as you want. You can also customize the look and feel of the galleries using CSS. You don't have to do much to get an almost professional looking portfolio.

PBase did satisfy my need for better organization and presentation, but after a while, I realized that aside from this one need, it doesn't really fit in with how I use my photos. There are some essential features I need much more than organization that Flickr just does better.

• JPEG Compression

  Compression sucks in PBase. Just look at the comparison below and see how much detail is lost for a photo's medium size in PBase compared to Flickr. And since I also usually share my photos for some of my artsy, writer mode (read: emo haha) posts here in this blog, I'd certainly want to share a sharper image.

  

• Security

  This is probably not an issue for most people I know, but could be interesting as well. Flickr provides more security for your photos, if you absolutely don't want anyone downloading your photos with the EXIF data. In PBase, you can disable right-clicking so no one can download your photo through this way. But it's quite easy to go to the original photo file, using the format below. I've tried it myself and you can definitely download the original photo complete with the EXIF data this way.

  http://www.pbase.com/(user ID)/image/(photo ID)/original.jpg

  With Flickr, you can easily disable the download feature (the "All Sizes" link), and unless someone knows the ID, server ID, farm ID and secret of the photo he wants to download, there's no easy workaround to downloading the original photo file.

• Back-up

  Since it's safer to upload the original resolution photos with EXIF data to Flickr, you can also use your account as some sort of back-up storage. Even with the download feature disabled, once you sign in, you can easily download the original file.

• Accessibility

  Recently, most of my photos are taken with my iPhone and I'd naturally want to share these photos without having to download the files to my laptop. Flickr has a cool iPhone app that lets me do this. PBase doesn't.

• Exposure

  It's obvious that photos get much more exposure in Flickr than in PBase. You can add share your photos in forums, add them to Flickr groups, enter them in Flickr group games and contests. Flickr also seems to have a bigger user base than PBase, from the non-artistic to professional photographers.

It is for these reasons that I decided to go back to Flickr. I'd still keep my PBase account until I properly reorganize my Flickr account or until I get around to creating my own website (which is a loooooong way from now hahaha).