500px vs Flickr

webmastadj

After shooting for a few weeks, I have some photos I would like to share. The question is: what service should I use?

I am trying to decide between Flickr vs 500px. I like the look and feel along with the community of Flickr. If it wasn't because of a single feature set on 500px, it would be a no brainer and I would go with Flickr.

The 500px feature that is causing the turmoil is the ability to sell the photographs. It is nice to have that option in case I ever decide to use it.

So my question to everyone, is which of the two do you use and why?

Update: Another thing that concerns me with flickr is articles like Flickr’d Out: The Rise and Fall of a Photo Sharing Service

paulr

500 PX gives good quality reproduction but don't think you are going to sell loads of photos The main thing you get is comments about your images, then, what do you think of mine, in other words people make comments about your photos just get comments back. I have had images on 500px and never sold one after 3 years. Flickr is far more friendly, but there not there to sell images. You will make friends with photographers from all over the world, but it is not a commercial enterprise.

danishphoto

If you are an amateur, don´t think you can make much money by selling photos on a photo sharing site. I think that people lose their passion for photography instead, if they think about what to sell or not. I am a 500PX user and I love it. 500PX has one of the best average photoquality on the web.

NSXTypeR

I don't use 500px just because I didn't start off on it. Honestly, I started my Flickr back in college because a friend of mine used it.

It's easy enough to use, and other than the occasional Yahoo security leak, it's not that bad.

Frankly speaking, I'm not even sure how much longer it's going to stick around, it may not last that long once Yahoo gets sold to Verizon.

webmastadj

@paulr & @danishphoto It would be cool to make millions taking photos, but that is a rare thing I am sure. But it would be nice to offset some of the cost of the addiction!

@NSXTypeR That is what I am curious, if it will stick around.

I am probably going to do both. They are both free to sign up and see how it goes from there.

vtc2002

@webmastadj It really depends on what you are trying to achieve by sharing your photos. If your goal is to share photos with family, friends, etc. or be able to access and display your photos from where ever you may be (with internet connection) I would recommend Flickr.

500px was designed to display your best photos not every photo you take. I know people that have 50,000 photos on Flickr and it would be a challenge to get that many photos on 500px.

If you are sharing your photos to get feedback on the quality of your photos I think both of the sites have flaws. Both are plagued with if you like my photo I will like your photo and it may have nothing to do with the quality of your photo. If you want a lot of people see your photos it will require you to build to get a lot of people to follow you. Flickr has "Explore" that each day they apply a algorithm to select photos that are posted on the Explore page. This will expose your photos to a lot of people. To have your photo Explored you will need to follow the algorithm criteria.
500px you post your photo and it starts out and displayed on their Fresh page. Anyone can like and comment on your photo whereas in Flickr only the people that are following you can see your photos that you post. The more likes and comments you get points that moves you photo to Up and Coming to Popular. You have 24 hours to get points for your photo. Like Flickr the more people you have following you the better your chances are to get your photos into Popular. Most people want their photos on the first page of Popular.

If you are wanting to get feedback on the quality of your photos I do not think either site will provide a very helpful. I don't think that every person on either site are capable of critiquing a photo on it's merits of a good/great photo. They may like the your photo for a variety of reason or like it because you liked their photo and neither one reflects the quality of your photo. You may have followers that are new to photography that may not notice Chromatic Aberrations or other flaws that affect image quality.

Some Flickr members strive to get their photos to be Explored on Flickr and consider it as a indication of a high quality photo. I many cases this is true but many people that understand the algorithm criteria and have a large number of followers have a better chance of being Explored and then there are photos that make it to Explored that are questionable (or at least they are to me). This is an example (screenshot of a recent photo on Explore - the deer).



500px you have a slightly better chance of making it to the Popular page without having a lot of followers but to get on the first page you must have an exceptional image or have a large group of followers that will like your photo. There are cases where photos can get to the first page of Popular that are of questionable quality also.

Flickr will allow you to update the same photo on different days and it is considered a new photo and eligible to be evaluated for Explore and people will use this to increase their chance of getting Explored. 500px updating you photo will wipe out all of your likes and comments and will put back on the Fresh page.

I personally use Flickr as a storage site and for sharing photos on Nikon Rumors photo of the day thread, family and friends, etc. I have not used 500px for some time. It will be interesting to see what changes Verizon will make to Flickr.

The site 1PX is a much better site for getting feedback on the quality of your work. You can go to their website and read how they evaluate and determine what photos make it on their website. They also have a option to sell your photos but they take a high percentage of the sale price also. Like all of the sites this site has it's own set of issues.

Depending on what you hope to accomplish you may want to post photos to one or both sites and I hope the information I have provided helps in you making a decision.

webmastadj

@vtc2002 Thanks for the detailed response! I would like feed back as well as just the capability of sharing the photos with others. I have started using Flickr for now primarily using it as an online gallery that makes it easy for me to share with others. Also the easy upload and update like you mentioned built into Lightroom is a nice feature. I did sign up for the free account at 1px and I like how it looks. I may go pro on that site after I get some more experience under my belt as there are some awesome photos on there.

vtc2002

@webmastadj Flickr is a good choice. If you go Pro you may want to check out SmugMug. I know several people that used SmugMug when they were getting started as a Pro and really liked what they offer. Photography Life has a good review of SumgMug. I included the web address to the review and one of the admins will have to release it from the spam folder. You can go to Photography Life and search for SmugMug and the review should come up. The staff at Photography Life and very knowledgeable and reputable.

vtc2002

@webmastadj Flickr is a good choice. If you decide to go Pro you may want to check out SmugMug. I know several people that when they first started working as a Pro they used SumgMug and they liked it a lot. Photography Life has a good review of SmugMug if you are interested.

photographylife.com/reviews/smugmug

I have never used it and cannot provide you my perspective but the staff at Photography Life are very knowledgeable and reputable.

NewNikonUserxxxy

One more vote for Smugmug. I don't sell images, but, in the past 10 years I've tried just about every photo sharing site around. Then I tried Smugmug. It can't be beat. I'll not drone on about the details. Give it a try. If you are a Lightroom user the Smugmug plugin is fantastic, it allows easy seamless syncing of your exported folders/galleries with Smugmug folders/galleries. There are also Smugmug Aps for iOS and Android that are very nice. Give it a try. It also has great Support. Fast and responsive for those cases where you can't find an answer to your question in the FAQ/Help or Forums.

https://www.smugmug.com/

webmastadj

@vtc2002 Thanks for the recommendation. Maybe I will give them a try as well later.