For photographers, the last decade has been a very exciting time. Between the rise of the DSLR, Photoshop, affordable HD camcorders, and other technologies, the tools of the trade have seen dramatic changes. But one of the most important innovations has been Flickr.com, which hasn’t changed how pictures are taken, but how they’re stored and shared. Flickr is an online photo management service and social network, which has become the service of choice for professional and amateur photographers to share their work and discuss their trade. Its open API has allowed the community to develop hundreds of third party apps and add-ons to enhance its otherwise minimal interface. Because we know that many of our readers are into the art and tech of photography, we’ve compiled the 20 essential tips and tricks that we think every Flickr user should know. And even if you aren’t a photographer or don’t have a Flickr account, we have cool tricks for searching and browsing through Flickr’s incredible database of photos.    Read on to find out how to get the most of Flickr! Automatically Upload the Contents of a Folder to Flickr We’ve already shown you how to do quick, batch uploads to Flickr, but wouldn’t be nice if you could just select a folder, and have to the contents of that folder automatically uploaded to Flickr, a la Dropbox? Well, as it turns out, you can, using a program called Flickr Foldr Monitr. As the name implies, the program monitrs—err, monitors a folder, and uploads any pictures dropped into that folder to Flickr. Here’s how you set it up. 1)    Download Flickr Foldr Monitr 2)    Install the program. It’s a small program, so this is quick. 3)    Select the folder you want to monitor. We chose C:/Photos, and checked the Include Subfolders box. 4)    Click on Options. 5)    We selected to upload photos to sets based on directory name. This makes organization easy, but remember that users with free accounts are limited to three sets, so choose your directories wisely. We also chose to have the Monitr start syncing and minimize itself when run, so it behaves like Dropbox. 6)    Click on Authenticate, and you’ll be taken to the standard Flickr app authentication page. When you’re finished, click on the Finish Authentication button. 7)    Click Go. Now the Foldr Monitr is active, and any pictures you put in the folder will be uploaded. Add Flickr to Windows search with Flickr Search Connectr Among the new features in Windows 7 is Search Federation, which allows third-party services, such as Flickr, to integrate seamlessly with the explorer’s search bar.  This means that you can select “Flickr” the same way as you would select a normal library in Windows 7, then type a query into the search bar in the upper right-hand corner of the screen. Photos will show up in the explorer, as though they were on your local computer even though they’re actually on Flickr’s servers. The enable Flickr search, do the following: 1)    Go to http://www.istartedsomething.com/flickrsearch/ 2)    Scroll down to where it says “Get the Flickr Search Connectr.” 3)    Select whether you want to search results from all of Flickr or from a certain user (such as yourself) and how you want to sort the results. 4)    Click Download the connector. 5)    Now simply double click the flickr.osdx file that was downloaded to your computer, and Flickr search will be added to the Windows 7 explorer. Upload Videos to Flickr Earlier this year, Flickr opened up video hosting for Pro and Free members. Free account holders can share 2 videos a month, uploading them using the web or Desktop Uploadr utility. The rules for videos are simple: they must be safe or moderate content, and you can only upload videos you’ve created yourself – no YouTube-style hosting of TV show clips. Videos show up in normal search results, but only play when you click through to the video’s permalink page. You can also filter searches to only display video results. Since Flickr considers videos a “long photo,” they’ve instituted a time limit of 90 seconds for each clip. If you upload a file that’s longer than 90 seconds, Flickr will NOT split up the video into separate clips – only the first minute and a half will play. High-definition video (720p) uploads are possible, but only Pro members can share those clips ( check out this HD gallery ). A Free account member can still upload an HD clip, but Flickr will downsize it to 500 pixels wide (500×281 for widescreen videos, 500×375 for 4:3 content). The service will store the full resolution version until a Free user upgrades their account. There’s also a file size cap of 150MB per video (500MB if you’re a Pro user uploading an HD clip). Finally, here are the file container formats that Flickr accepts for video uploads: AVI, WMV, MOV, MPEG 4, 3PG. As for codecs, Flickr doesn’t have an official list of supported types — H.264 works, but and DivX and Xvid do not. Know Creative Commons Your Rights Flickr uses the popular Creative Commons licenses to allow you to choose how the photos you post can be used. If you choose to apply one of these licenses to your photos, you’re granting the public the right to distribute those photos, with one or more conditions. Here are the four common conditions of Creative Commons licenses, and what they mean: Attribution : If a person wishes to distribute this photo, they must credit the photographer. Though originally an option, this condition is now included by default in all valid Creative Commons licenses—you cannot select a license without Attribution on Flickr.   NonCommercial : Any use, distribution, or derivation of this photo can only be used for non-commercial purposes. In other words, your picture cannot be used in advertisements, on for-profit websites, in magazines, or for any other money-making purpose. NoDerivs : Anyone who wishes to distribute your pictures must distribute them exactly as you posted them—they cannot make derivative works.

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