This is a nice program if for nothing else to use as a vehicle to upload your photos into Flicker. If you don’t already know about Flickr’s free 1TB of storage for your photos and videos then go read my previous blog HERE.
There are several ways to get your photos to flickr. You can sync from your iPhotos library but I don’t like that method. If you delete photos from your iPhoto library when it “synchs” with flickr it will also delete the photos from Flickr. (not good for me)
You can use the Flickr app in the iPhone or iPad and have the “auto upload setting” enabled but you need to make sure of two things… 1-You are in wifi so you don’t use up data (this is a setting you control) and 2-You have the app ON when you are in wifi…otherwise it won’t work. Ultimately this only backs up the photos on your phone or iPad.
When it comes to uploading and backing up photos I like to have my photos in two places. A hard disk or server (on site) and on Flickr. That way if there is a major catastrophe at my house there is an off site backup…Flickr.
F-Stop is a program or app for the Mac. What I like about it is the ability to mass upload photos even if they are in folders and it sets the set name to that folder name. So if your folder is named “2003 christmas” then it will create a set with all of that folder’s pictures named “2003 Christmas”. Nothing super special but saves you a step that you would normally have to do.
How it works. Download the app and upon set up it asks to link to Flicker. It will take you to the flickr page and you click on “yes” allow control and then Flickr gives you a 9 digit access code which you then paste into the f-stop app set up window. Hit enter and you will see your sets and Flickr info load. Mine looks like this…
Once on this page you can select the UPLOAD button on the left…
That will bring you to an upload page like this…
Now you will open the location of the pictures that you want to back up and drag them into the area that says “Drag Images or Directories here”. You can even drag in whole folders.
Pick the folder or pic you want and it will populate the “drag pictures here” area and then go to the right hand side of the pane and choose if you want it to be private, friends or family only etc and hit start batch
So yes you can keep adding as much as you want and the batch will run until complete. It is also a one way trip meaning that it won’t delete the originals so you will be duplicating your photos which in my case is the desired result.
Once your photos are on Flickr you can use an app on your iPad or your iPhone called FlickStackr which in my opinion is the best way to look at the photos on Flickr. Its fast and super intuitive. Take a look and good luck. Don’t hesitate to email with questions!
Tutorial
This is FlickStackr on my iPad Mini in Icon view. Very Cool!