Using Expression Media with Flickr
While Expression Media does not have a feature for transferring images to your favorite online photo service, it’s easy to make Expression Media work with these services by using the Helper Application feature. Simply set the photo service upload software as a Expression Media Helper. Then open the images in your catalog with this helper, and transfer them to the online service.
This tutorial covers how to transfer images from your Expression Media catalog to Flickr, Yahoo’s popular online photo sharing service, using the upload tools: Flickr Uploadr, 1001 and PictureSync.
What’s unique about Flickr is that it can read some of the same metadata as Expression Media. In addition to digital camera EXIF metadata, Flickr supports a subset of the IPTC standard. These fields include the IPTC Headline, Keywords and Caption. When a photo is uploaded to Flickr, this metadata is extracted and displayed as each photo’s Title, Tags and Description, respectively.
Because of this metadata support, all of your photo’s annotations in a Expression Media catalog can easily be repurposed to your online photo sharing account on Flickr. Simply synchronize the annoations from your catalog to the image files before uploading to Flickr.
Other IPTC fields can be mapped to Flickr Tags, such as Categories, People, Location and Event, with an upload program such as PictureSync. PictureSync is a versatile tool that can upload to many online photo and video sharing services.
Using Flickr Uploadr
1. Annotate your images
In your Expression Media catalog, add metadata to your images. In addition to supporting EXIF metadata, Flickr can extract a subset of IPTC/XMP fields. For each image, Flickr’s support includes:
- IPTC Keywords are added as Flickr Tags.
- IPTC City, State/Providence and Country are added as Flickr Tags.
- If there is no Title specified in the upload software and there is an IPTC Headline, then Flickr uses it as the image Title. Otherwise, Flickr uses the image filename as the Title.
- If there is no Description provided in the upload software, then Flickr uses the IPTC Caption (called Description in Photoshop).
- The IPTC fields: Creator (Author), Event Date, Urgency (Color labels) and Copyright are displayed on Flickr’s More Detail page.
2. Embed metadata in your images
During upload, Flickr will extract and store the IPTC annotations for each image. So before uploading to Flickr, you need to embed the annotations from the catalog to original files. Select your images, then choose Action › Sync Annotations. Click the radio button for Export annotations to original files, and click OK. The amount of time it takes to embed annotations into image files is relatively fast.
3. Download and install Flickr Uploadr
Go online to: www.flickr.com/tools (please enter a loggin)
Download the free Windows or Mac Flickr Uploadr client. Double-click the install program. Follow the on-screen instructions for installation provided by Flickr. Once installed, launch Flickr Uploadr.
4. Sign in & Authorize
To use Flickr Uploadr, you have to authorize the program to upload to your Flickr account. Flickr Uploadr will launch Flickr’s Sign in page in a browser. Sign in to your Flickr account. Then give Flickr Uploadr permission to upload (above) by clicking OK, I’ll Allow It. Close the browser and return to Flickr Uploadr. Click Continue and you’ll be ready to upload to your Flickr account.
5. Check your bandwidth
Each time you launch Flickr Uploadr, the program logs you into Flickr and checks how much upload bandwidth you have available. This is displayed at the bottom of the Uploadr dialog.
If you have a free Flickr account, your upload bandwidth is limited to 20 MB per month. Pro accounts have a 2 GB monthly limit.
6. Assign Flickr Uploadr as a Helper
Select Edit › Preferences › Helper Applications. (On the Mac, it’s under the Expression Media menu). This dialog will let you choose an application that you want to use with your media. To add a helper, click Add in the Define Helper Applications dialog. Navigate to Flickr Uploadr in your Programs folder (On Mac: Applications folder) and select the program. Click OK.
7. Import images into Flickr Uploadr
Select a group of images in your Expression Media catalog (JPEG, PNG or GIF). Choose Flickr Uploadr in the toolbar’s Open With (above), or through a contextual menu. Right-click (Mac: Ctrl-click) to access a contextual menu. Flickr Uploadr will launch and import the selection of files into scrollable thumbnail list on the left side of the Uploadr interface.
8. Title, Description & Tags
When images are imported to Uploadr, the filename is automatically entered in the Title field. You can type your own Title here, or you can delete the filename and Flickr will extract the IPTC Headline and use it for the Title. It’s not necessary to enter Tags, or a Description. Flickr extracts the embedded IPTC metadata from the file during the upload.
9. Assign to a Photoset; Set Privacy
Photosets are similar to Expression Media’s Catalog Sets – they are a way to group related photos together on Flickr. You can upload your photos to an existing Photoset, or you create a new one in this dialog. To make your photos visible to any Flickr user, click the Public radio button; clicking Private and Friends or Family restricts viewing to those groups.
10. Upload to Flickr
Click the Upload button in the lower right hand corner. The time to upload depends on the number of images and their file size. When the upload is complete, Flickr Uploadr will display a message that provides you with the option to Open Flickr. Click this button to launch Flickr in a browser.
11. Check the upload
When Flickr launches in a web browser, the New Photo Additions page will be displayed providing you with the opportunity to review the Title, Description and Tags for each image. Click the OK button to confirm the upload and go to your Photostream page.
Optional steps: Resize images to save space
To save bandwidth and to make uploads faster, enable Flickr Uploader to resize images before uploading. Free Flickr accounts limit the image size to 1024 pixels along the image’s longest side. Pro Flickr accounts have no size limitations, but if you do not want the full size image to be shared, you should consider resizing before upload.
Hide EXIF and some IPTC metadata
To hide the More Details photo page for each of your images on Flickr, check the Hide my EXIF data box on the Your Account › Your Pivacy page. Selecting this option will hide a link to view EXIF and some IPTC/XMP metadata about each of your photos. The link is diplayed on all your individual photo pages, and displays the make & model of the camera you used to take the photo. There is no way to hide the tags and description displayed on each photo page.
Additional Flickr Upload Tools
Macintosh
1001
Using 1001
Another popular Macintosh Flickr uploading tool is 1001. It has a more advanced toolset than Flickr Uploadr and also includes several fun features, such as Flickr screensaver.
To use 1001 with Expression Media, follow the same instructions for Flickr Uploadr. One unique feature is the ability to assign your uploaded images (individually or as batch) to any Flickr groups to which you belong. Another useful feature is the ability to convert non-JPEG image formats, such as TIFF, to JPEG before upload.
Windows
upload2flickr
PhotoUpload
flickr importr
Copyright & Trademark Notice
Published February 2008 with special thanks to Shayne Bowman.
© 2008 Microsoft. All Rights Reserved.
Photographs courtesy Alamy.
Online at: www.alamy.com
Expression Media is the product, trademark and property of Microsoft. Trademarks of all companies mentioned in this document appear for identification purposes only and are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective holders. The material in this document is for information only, and is subject to change without notice. No part of this document may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanic, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior written consent of Microsoft Corporation, One Microsoft Way, Redmond, Washington, 98052 U.S.A.
To find out more about Expression Media, visit: www.microsoft.com/expression
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