I’ve been messing around with Flickr for a short while now, mostly to get a sense of what people like. I’ve come to the conclusion that Flickr isn’t the best place for that.  This isn’t to say that people on Flickr have bad taste, but rather to say that they have different tastes. If you are trying to sell (or otherwise impress) to people for prints, then Flickr is probably the wrong area.

For example, compare these two photos:

Eklutna Lake at Sunset (HDR)

Drops of dew

First, you see them small, here on the screen.  Then look at them in their larger view (click through to Flickr & choose “all sizes”).  Compare them.

Which one do you prefer? At which size?  Based on responses on Flickr (not the “nice jorb” type of comments, but traffic, favorites, etc), the HDR of Eklutna is the superior pic. And yet, I neither prefer it nor believe it.  In the smaller size, the HDR is certainly easier to make out.  But in larger sizes?  I prefer the Drops of Dew pic.  If this were to be printed out?  I suspect anything larger than 8×10 would be better with the Drops of Dew pic, as well.

I guess my point, in the end, is this: if you’re looking to sell a print, many times the format of Flickr makes it the wrong place to market your work. You’re probably better off printing the work and hanging it at a local coffee shop – at least there you will be showing exactly what you’re selling.