HDR – how to make one and why,
originally uploaded by Mixmaster.

This is an interesting “picture” on Flickr. Basically put it explains how to make a high dynamic range (HDR) image and gives loads of links where people can find tutorials and further advice.

There seems a reasonably strong opinion that HDR “cant” be made from a single exposure and while I can see the argument I suspect it is stuck on a bit of a purist-obsessive definition of what an HDR image is.

If you have photoshop, get hold of DCE Tools and see what can be done with a single image…

Since my last post about my pictures on flickr things have changed.

The most interesting, most viewed and most favorited haven’t changed (sadly), although there was a small flurry of extra views on the images I posted in this thread – thank you to the people who bothered to look at the picture 🙂 . The biggest change is the sudden appearance of a new “Most Commented” picture.

Even though this picture hasn’t been on Flickr long, it has already outstripped all opposition with regards to the number of comments it has attracted. While I like this picture, and think it is nice, this is not totally down to the picture quality. In reality, this picture was subjected to a lot of “tactical” pool posting – aiming to get the timing right and selecting groups which are pretty good at generating comments. I am in no doubt that if was only visible in my photostream it would have about six comments…(*)

Is this a sign of the reality of web 2.0?

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(*) It is worth noting however, that flickr is much, much better than this blog for comments and visits. Taking yesterday as an example, my photostream had 354 visits, this blog had 302. My photostream had 96 comments, this blog had 1… It sometimes intrigues me that only 1 in 300 visits results in a comment or trackback – is it something we say?

There is, as Heather often reminds me, a risk that this blog can be a bit too serious and lack colour. To try and (pathetically) rectify this, I’ve decided to post about Flickr. Obviously the self interested part of me will rely on my own flickr images…

On Flickr, you have two ways of looking at image statistics. There are the basic ones where images are ordered based on “Interestingness” (whatever that means), number of favourites, number of comments and number of page views. Using these stats you can get an idea of which pictures are the most “popular” among other flickr users. On my stream the following hold pole position:

The most “interesting” picture is:

The most “favorited” picture (which is also the most commented) is:

While the most viewed picture is:

Pitched against this, for paying Flickr users, is a new stats tool which shows all manner of information. Using this tool I can see that only 2% of my Flickr traffic comes from this blog (around 3 clicks a day – makes you wonder if the photo stream is worth it 🙂 ), and I can see that I get almost three times as many hits from Google image search. As Flickr is a Yahoo company it makes sense that both are eclipsed by Yahoo search which accounts for around 16% of the site views. The numbers aren’t really any different but despite this being a supposed “pro” service, it actually tells you less than the basic options. There is no way, using Flickr Stats to sort your images by anything other than overall views. The only good thing it brings is the ability to see which were the most viewed pages yesterday – good for drilling down to see recent activity rather than the all time winners. Using this, it shows the two most viewed pages yesterday were:

Ok, this is all very interesting and I am sure if you are wondering is there any point to this post – other than to get more hits for my most popular images…

Flickr is one of the darlings of the Web 2.0 craze. It is the shining example of how user generated content can become popular and make a service almost essential for some people. According to Flickr there is in the region of 2000 new images uploaded every minute. 33 pictures a second. Amazing.

That is, IMHO of course, also the downfall. Blogs are the same – there are millions on Technorati, with millions of new posts being made every day. Champions of Web 2.0 cry about how great it is that anyone can post and be read, anyone can upload an image and have people swoon over it (etc.), but the reality is for 99.9% of people your posts and pictures will be lost in the vast chasm of garbage that is being spewed out every second.

As an example, take Flickrs Photo stream. This is the most recent 20 photos uploaded to flickr. Out of the 20, at least 19 will be garbage. If you spend more than 1 whole second evaluating these pictures, by the time you refresh you will have missed the next 30+ photos. If you spend 5 seconds evaluating the 20 pictures and then decide they are rubbish, when you refresh to see new ones you will have missed over 150 pictures. If you reverse this and imagine you are a fledgling photographer who wants to see what public opinion of your pictures is. You take the most fantastic, well composed, well framed, properly exposed picture of the most interesting subject in the world and upload it. What do you think will happen?

Sadly, the odds are no one will look at your picture. Web 2.0 isn’t the democratisation of the internet. It doesn’t give the “common man” the chance to be seen and heard worldwide. It just creates a shocking amount of “user generated content” (slang for crap) and catapults a few individuals to cult-like status, even if their pictures are crap and their blog posts unreadable.

There is an upside in that any system can be “gamed.” If you want exposure on your Flickr photos find groups which are good for comments and add your pictures. Work out what time zone most of the groups users are in and post when they are most active. When you get loads of comments, add loads of people as your contacts – chances are they will reciprocate and your pictures will appear in their home page, this will in turn increase the chances of you getting comments and views. From this, you can take reasonably pedestrian pictures and make them very popular (for example, I have no idea why so many people were taken by the Eye, but it still gets a few hits a day).

If all else fails, and you want to drive some traffic to your photo stream you could always blog about it…

(footnote: at the moment, I haven’t quite worked out how to game blogs in the same manner – any ideas welcome! 🙂 )