What makes a popular Flickr photo?

DadaKopf · 26-11-2007 3:48pm #1

I've often wondered what makes a popular Flickr photo. 'A good photo', you'd think. So much of that is subjective. But what's really surprising is when, all of a sudden, one photo in particular just takes off. Some people get all the luck, then others just in a blue moon.

Perhaps other factors apply: how linked into groups you are, or whether you voraciously comment on other people's photos.

Within 4 days, the picture below (shown in a thread last week) went from 0 views to over 200, with the most amount of comments I've ever received (yes, paltry in comparison to many others' here). I'd be lying if I said I wasn't a bit weirded out by all this. 'Why this one?', I ask.

I'd love to hear more about your experiences of this.

helios · 26-11-2007 3:59pm

It all depends on peoples interests and how you market the photo. Having it in lots of groups will get views, but try not to be a group whore. I've seen some photos that are in so many groups, I get RSI from scrolling down the page. With my own personally, I find that my IR ones get some attention, largely because they're unique and also since a lot of people are looking for info on how to do them properly.

Fenster · 26-11-2007 4:18pm

Breasts.

I've seen a gratuitous amount of photos on Explore that are just "risque" models. Bad photos, lots of flesh.

Infrared, badly tone-mapped HDRs, lots of contacts and on occasion a genuinely interesting and original photo will get attention. Contacts and group-whoring are especially important (eh, I'm guilty of it). Take this random photo from Explore as an example of both.

EDIT: Out of my top 20 most popular photos on Flickr, 5 are infrared, 5 are HDR, one is a fake tilt-shift, and one is one of my WoW montages.

Hugh_C · 26-11-2007 4:20pm

DadaKopf wrote: »

I've often wondered what makes a popular Flickr photo. 'A good photo', you'd think.

Girls in bikinis or less!

Who knows? Friend of mine - crack jackson jr - had a picture picked up on the flickr blog and his featured shot went stratospheric, and coincidentally it was a picture of a dog. His stuff is interesting in that he uses a landscape camera in a unique way. He's very much a right-brainer.

Sometimes I've gone out with a particular theme in mind and have shot something specific that I reckon will make it into explore. That in itself is a sham and can cause me sleeplessness and exxxtra irritability.

Above is an example - dunno why it should be an different from any other cloud shots but ...

DadaKopf · 26-11-2007 4:33pm

Cool, I've been thinking about going landscape. What are the cameras to use?

Hugh_C · 26-11-2007 4:54pm

DadaKopf wrote: »

Cool, I've been thinking about going landscape. What are the cameras to use?

Whatever's in yer bag, Dada. Although if it weighs more than a few kilos you're not going to be inclined to lug it up the side of a mountain. You have to work for your landscapes ...

I bring an old 35mm Yashica for BW neg with a zoom and a wide angle prime. Also a Nikon dSLR with a 24-85 zoom (maybe a 18-200VR in the future if I can save for it) and 50mm f/1.8 for lowlight and an ND for long exposures.

All that just about fits into my backpack - I carry the tripod and use it for balance over rough terrain.

Huge

thebaz · 26-11-2007 5:27pm

hughchal wrote: »

Girls in bikinis or less!

- had a picture picked up on the flickr blog and his featured shot went stratospheric, and coincidentally it was a picture of a dog. ...

the answer to the question must be ... dogs

Danny had a picture that went mental , up to 400 k or something , and that was a dog too , if i remember

my most viewed is surprise surprise , Eastern European bikini clad sunworshippers on Bray beach , when we had a summer !

bigeoino · 26-11-2007 6:14pm

The "bad" picture in my photostream that gets the attention seem to be "high heels"...

It is a not very good photo of mine entitled "High Heels"
High heels and it is in NO groups!
but is tagged with "shoes", "high heels", "legs" and "stilettos"

and it is my 5th most popular photo with over 1500 views...

go figure....

Remember that you don't need to confine yourself to publicity within flickr.... obvious I know but you can add your photo and links to the photo on other sites to pull in the punters....

ThOnda · 26-11-2007 6:48pm

What an idea... Let's go for high-heels hunting weekend to the city centre! ;-)

magicbastarder · 26-11-2007 7:12pm

some photos thumbnail well; i suspect that the popularity of a photo is a lot to do with how well it looks when drastically reduced in size.

thebaz · 26-11-2007 7:16pm

bigeoino wrote: »

and it is my 5th most popular photo with over 1500 views...

....

my bikini shot , only got 1,200 views --

http://www.flickr.com/photos/thebaz/539015289/

whyulittle · 26-11-2007 7:18pm

Just as an aside to this, I set up a pix.ie account just the other day, and it has already passed out my Flickr account which I've had a few years (albeit not used much until recently), in its amount of views.

Ideo · 26-11-2007 8:40pm

thebaz wrote: »

my bikini shot , only got 1,200 views --

http://www.flickr.com/photos/thebaz/539015289/

I think its fair to say that there are a serious amount of pervs on Flickr :rolleyes:

thebaz · 27-11-2007 12:19am

Ideo wrote: »

I think its fair to say that there are a serious amount of pervs on Flickr :rolleyes:

they'll be let down with my bikini shot

Masada · 27-11-2007 1:04am

i wondered this also, in relation to the widget in my sig aswell, how does flickr decide on what is the most interesting photo to display?

countryjimbo · 27-11-2007 9:50am

thebaz wrote: »

my bikini shot , only got 1,200 views --

http://www.flickr.com/photos/thebaz/539015289/

I bet if you added tags for "Bikini" & "Beach Babes", your view count would change!

I've never had a picture in explore and I'm curious about it. Read a few articles saying that you should avoid groups as it shows you're touting for views. Instead amass a large number of contacts, comment on lots of their photos and hope they return the favour.

thebaz · 27-11-2007 10:28am

countryjimbo wrote: »

I bet if you added tags for "Bikini" & "Beach Babes", your view count would change!

.

I've tagged it with bikini and babe ,I'll let you know if the view count increases dramatically

jaqian · 27-11-2007 1:59pm

I've a boring photo of a petrol pump with 2,296 views

http://www.flickr.com/photos/jaqian/44619530/

I've decided to have a bit of fun by adding these tags:
bikini babes shoes high heels legs stilettos lingerie
to see what it will jump to

bigeoino · 27-11-2007 2:15pm

jaqian wrote: »

I've decided to have a bit of fun by adding these tags:bikini babes shoes high heels legs stilettos lingerie
to see what it will jump to

You and thebaz should have a race!
(and expect some arsey comments when they arrive looking for lingerie and get a petrol pump!

)

jaqian · 27-11-2007 4:58pm

bigeoino wrote: »

You and thebaz should have a race!
(and expect some arsey comments when they arrive looking for lingerie and get a petrol pump! )

Yeah would be good for a laugh.

thebaz · 27-11-2007 6:01pm

jaqian wrote: »

Yeah would be good for a laugh.

my bikini tag , caused a big jump to 1,350

so more pimping necessary

http://www.flickr.com/photos/thebaz/539015289/

Placebo · 28-11-2007 5:07pm

photoshop it to bits for all the views and comments in the world

bigeoino · 28-11-2007 5:59pm

thebaz wrote: »

my bikini tag , caused a big jump to 1,350

so more pimping necessary

http://www.flickr.com/photos/thebaz/539015289/

so nearly 200 views in 2 days...

you going to include a bikini model in all your shots?

thebaz · 28-11-2007 6:07pm

bigeoino wrote: »

so nearly 200 views in 2 days...

you going to include a bikini model in all your shots?

Nah, jumped only about a 100 -- and some of that was from here , i'd say

so i'll keep pimping , want to make the 2k

http://www.flickr.com/photos/thebaz/539015289/

What makes a popular Flickr photo?

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