Accomplish something today…
(it will make sense at the end of the post)
As a photographer I love sharing my work, but it is incredibly difficult to find a place that shares your images the way they should be seen. For a while I liked Facebook. It was quick, easy and I was already posting all of my social jargon on there anyway, it just made sense. However, as the years have gone by and I have become more and more of a “professional” at the trade I have been forced to venture into other avenues to share my work. Here is some insight and what I am doing now.
Why I don’t use Facebook for image posts anymore:
1. They retain the Rights to your posts (including photos). While this may not seem like a huge deal, if someone were to contact you and want exclusive Rights to a photo of yours you could be looking at huge $$$. However, if it were ever posted to Facebook it could be the difference of $700 or $7000, just because it was on Facebook. To remain on the safe side, I have decided against Facebook as my avenue for showing my best work.
2. The Likes and Comments are not really coming from devoted photographers, but friends and family. I love my friends and family, but they are not a great measure of affection on my artwork. They have been telling me my whole life they love my photos (even when they were sub-par). Now I am venturing out for other photographers thoughts, and most times I want some solid criticism not sympathy likes and comments.
3. It does a horrible job of showcasing the images. The image compression algorithm sharpens the photo and sometimes degrades the quality of the color and tone in the images.
Don’t get me wrong, I am still posting to Facebook, but this is limited to family photos or cell phone snaps while on the scene with my gear.
So where am I posting? Glad you asked! I am now showing my work more exclusively at 500px and here is my profile if you’d like to see it.
- The profile image on 500px. Such a beautiful display space.
So, why 500px?
1. I strongly feel that 500px hosts the world’s most incredible photos. Anytime I want even an ounce of inspiration I stroll through the “Popular” (we will get to this in a moment) section and take a look at what is trending.
2. 500px showcases your work beautifully when you view images there. It basically turns your screen into a black walled gallery wall with your art hanging right in the middle. You can maximize the image by pressing ‘M’ on the keyboard to remove all of the distractions on the page giving you some alone time with the piece. This is my preferred way to view anything on 500px.
3. There are some amazing photographers on 500 px to aspire to and communicate with.
4. There is a sense of accomplishment with the Pulse system. This “Pulse” as 500px calls it is a way to measure your photos success among the community. It is based on an algorithm that calculates likes, favorites and views and generates a percentage number. While this is a useful tool to measure an images “likability” it is not something to get hung up on or beat yourself up over if your image isn’t in the top 10 percent rank (many of mine hardly make it there).
What’s with the Pulse?
An example of a Photo’s Pulse on 500px
The pulse is unique to 500px and shows you a running measure of how ‘popular’ your photo is among the masses. When you upload an image to 500px it is by no stretch of the imagination a stagnant on the internet! There is a series of stages it could go through, if you so decide to make the image public.
1. Fresh: This is the first phase your photo will go through. As soon as you click upload you go into the Fresh pool of images. As people view, like, and favorite your image your pulse will increase. It is imperative that you make an attractive thumbnail for the photo to as this will be the viewers first impression. Once you reach a pulse of 70.0, your image becomes “Upcoming”.
2. Upcoming: The second pool your image will transition to is the Upcoming section. Your photo will remain here until it reaches a pulse of 80.0 then it will move to Popular. I really enjoy browsing this section of 500px. When I am trying to pass time on my phone I usually go here on the 500px app and look for photos to like and favorite. I like this pool, because these are the images transitioning into Popular and I like to give them a little push if I can!
3. Popular: From 80.0 -100 your image will remain at Popular. It will continue to gain momentum as others like and favorite. It will hold it’s Pulse for 24 hours from the time you uploaded it then it will drop a bit. It will hold that pulse for about a week giving it some more latitude on the site before it begins to plummet some more. Your highest pulse will always be recorded on the photo and displayed accordingly alongside its current pulse.
4. Editors Choice: This is another section that has been added to the pool of places your image can go to showcase what the editors at 500 px feel is worthy of a little extra spotlight action.
Don’t get discouraged by the Pulse!
It takes quite a bit to transition through to the top. I have rarely been higher than 92, but I don’t let that get me down as I don’t really see this as being a measure of what a good quality photo is.
For example. These two images were uploaded on the same day about 20 minutes apart. The image on the left is probably my favorite photo I have ever taken. I love the composition, the environment, the atmosphere in the photo and just about everything really. It only scored a pulse of 85.4.
Then there is the photo on the right. I don’t have a real attachment to it. I went on top of the hill where my house is and snapped a sunset I liked. The composition was alright so I added a tree to help it out. Yep, I added a tree in Photoshop using a random tree generator (I’ll tutorial this on Friday) and posted it to see what the masses would think and I even made a fun little contest out of it for the HDR Insiders to see if they could spot the fake tree(s)… they did, because they rock! It scored a pulse of 92.2.
I would clearly say the image on the left is better all around from the composition to the subject matter. So do I measure how good it is using the 500px pulse?
Absolutely not!
I enjoy the pulse, I think it is a fun feature because it encourages other photographers to interact with the photo. I would hate for someone to get discouraged by a low pulse as it really is just a fun little tool.
While I do like this feature I tend to not worry so much about the numbers to determine what a “good” photo is. A lot of my photos get stuck around 90-92% these days, but I don’t let that bring me down. If anything it pushes me to make better images in Photoshop, regardless of whether I post them to 500px or not. I use it as motivation.
What do I post to 500px?
I do a couple of things with my portfolio on 500px.
1. First and foremost, I use 500px to showcase what I feel my best work is. I don’t post everything from a memory card to 500px. Sometimes I don’t post any images from a shoot to 500 px. I reserve my 500px profile to images I am really proud of.
2. I also post images to 500px when I am curious to see how far they will go… Yep, I am a junkie for numbers and stats. I used to play World of Warcraft before I realized it was eating away at my soul! Why that game is so successful is because of the achievements and the constant sense of accomplishment. It makes you feel good inside when you accomplish something. That feeling is very similar to the pulse on 500px. Sometimes I will post images strictly to see if they will make it to popular and just how far they will go.
I still post my Fine Art images to Facebook…
I still post my images to Facebook. However, I do it through 500px now. In the upper right corner of your images are social sharing buttons. I will click that and update my status on Facebook with something about the photo being published. As a matter of fact, while I was writing this post, I made this image composite, posted it to 500px and watched it go from 0-93.4 and then it got stuck there for a very long time!
That is why I love 500px, today I accomplished something!
Where do you post your photos and why? I am curious to hear your thoughts and see your portfolio.
Feel free to post your response in the comments below.
For Blake, it's all about the art and process synergy. He dives deep into complex topics and makes them easy to understand through his outside-the-box thinking so that you can use these tricks in your workflow today!
Good article Blake. What is the ideal image size to upload to 500PX?
Thanks Scott. I upload the largest file. I do my edits and just save as in the resolution of the photo. 500px recommends 3000 pixels on the longest side, here is a quote from there FAQ page:
“It’s best to upload photos where its longer side is greater than 3000px. This will help ensure great quality on 500px and all of our Apps, as well as give you the ability to sell your photos in the Store, if you choose to enable that option. You should use sRGB colour profile when processing and exporting your photos.”
Thanks for posting the thorough explanation of how that works. I’ve used 500px for just keeping a rotating group of 40-50 images for printing and licensing and have had a couple purchased.
One point to note: the pulse is a ratio created to measure initial impression during the first 24 hours. At the end of 24 hours, 10 percentage points is automatically deducted. So don’t get upset or shocked if suddenly an image goes from 88% to 78% suddenly, 24 hours later.
Pretty much any image I post I’m confident it will reach 90% and two have made the front page. It’s been interesting that an image that gets featured in the top 10 on Flickr might not get past 92% on 500px and one that hits 99.7% on 500px might not get that great a response on Flickr. So don’t become overly concerned by the dynamics of the pulse. It’s a little like movie debuts. Depending on what other movies come out the same weekend, yours might be a blockbuster, or it might be competing with lots of others. And there’s a certain anarchy in the system. For me, 500px is just a kind of rain gauge as to whether or not there’s a consistency in image appeal from a thumbnail, since that thumbnail has to be interesting enough to cause someone to open it and look further.
I’ve also heard from some of the popular 500px photographers to not upload too many at a time. Two at the most, is what I’ve been hearing from some who are fairly successful. Don’t expect a lot of great critiques. Pretty much people are saying “great shot” and “check out mine, please”. :-/
My method this year, as I gradually hone my business model, is to use the smug mug account as my primary place from which to link images to Facebook and G+ and my website. It has really great links where I can link an image in my website blog, with a caption like “Click here to see purchase options” and that link will take them right to my smugmug buy page for that image.
I also use Fine Art America and I watched a google hangout recently discussing how to take advantage of that more effectively.
The bottom line, for places like 500px, SmugMug, FAA, or other places where you display you images, is to have very good, comprehensive keywords/tags for the search engines in those sights, and to move things around a bit now and then. I will often visit 500px and rearrange my portfolio.
One thing I have not tried with 500px, and I think you could do this effectively, is to do the stories/portfolio things and create some educational workflow things there. I know a few photographers that have done that. I expect Trey Ratcliff has, but haven’t checked. I know that Jimmy McIntyre has two or three articles published on 500px. I don’t know if it helps in sales or licensing at all. I think those are based mainly on the art director liking the image and it serving their needs the best, no matter who the photographer is, unless its someone doing an expose on a particular group of works by a particular individual with a large following.
Thanks for the helpful insight Jeffrey.
I love the analogy about movies. It is so fitting for 500px. It really is dependent upon the overall Flow of the Fresh section. Sometimes people dump memory cards of pictures there that can drown out your images too, that is frustrating.
I agree about the posting method. I will usually post 2 images anywhere from 3-4 hours apart. If they are both good you will find that people look at your profile and will like or favorite the first 2 or 3 in the list. This allows them to piggyback off of each other and gain views from the new onlookers. I also agree, it is not a place for GOOD solid CC.
There is a lot of good information that comes from 500px. I am not sure if you have to reach out to them or if they reach out to you. I guess I could look into that and see. Thanks for the ideas!
Good write up Blake. I too like to post to 500px. I initially used them for my portfolio, but then decided to do that on my WordPress page instead. I ended up cleaning out all my photos and only uploaded a few since. Will have to get a few more up there.
Hey Paul! Long time no speak! We run busy lives huh?
I moved away from 500px for a while out of shear laziness, but lately the thrill has been reinvigorated!
It is a good venue for a portfolio, especially if you want to see how far an image will go, however, it is a huge popularity contest sometimes. I see some iffy photos making it pretty high up there!
Hi Blake,
I took a look at your profile on 500px. Looks great!
I have my photos on FineArtAmerica because I am able to link it directly to my website. Whenever I upload a new photo, it is immediately available for purchase on both locations. I also have photos on ViewBug that curiously uses a very similar format as 500px. My questions -is there any benefit to joining another photo website when I am already signed up to a couple of others? Secondly, I find with Viewbug that most traffic comes from photographers not necessarily buyers. While comments and encouragement are great, sales are even better. Have you sold any photographs from 500px (or any other photo-upload site?)
Thanks for your help!
Jennifer
http://www.viewbug.com/member/watercolorjen
http://fineartamerica.com/profiles/jennifer-wheatley-wolf.html
Hello Jennifer,
Thanks for looking at my profile. I think I may have a fine art america profile too, not sure. I should probably check into that 🙂
The thing about photo websites is they are all different based on different needs. If it looks interesting for you it wouldn’t hurt to sign up, however, it does get difficult to maintain multiple platforms. If you are happy with where you are, I would stay there and not worry about adding ANOTHER site to your plate.
I don’t have my images up for sale. My intent isn’t on the sales aspect of things. I used to have a site on RedBubble where my work was for sale, but I recently took that down. For me it is more about sharing than selling. I would like to sell out like crazy, but that just doesn’t happen so instead of putting effort into the sales side, I just share them.
Photo sharing sites are like post processing software, some will click better than others with everyone. You have to find one you are comfortable with and go with it. I love the pictures on 500px and the visual experience is awesome!
Thanks for the feedback, your work looks great! You have a great eye for detail, shape, color, and patterns.
Hey Blake, I just followed you, would love it if you would follow back. Thx! https://500px.com/skydiver
Awesome! I am following you now. I looked through your portfolio, nice work! Can’t wait to see more.
We do a lot of event type venues and I’d been using Flickr for the images taken so that people could look for themselves and download their pictures if they chose. As far as images I thought were worth displaying on their own, I was disappointed in that the site seems to encourage more “scratch my back and I’ll scratch yours” rather than providing the kind of feedback I can feel was earned.
I’m currently trying out 500px as well as Viewbug to see which one is closer to what I’m looking for and the former is definitely ahead. Viewbug seems to be contest driven and while competing can be fun..it’s not my goal at this time. Uploading different types of images and seeing what gets the most attention or pulse provides a little insight into what direction to put my efforts into.
https://500px.com/DigitelleTraveler
http://www.viewbug.com/member/DigitelleTraveler
https://www.flickr.com/photos/digitelletraveler/
I can see that on the other sites. However, do not get too hung up on what works with your images based on the pulse! Read what Jeffrey wrote above. There are so many variables, sometimes an image uploaded to Fresh can be a needle in a haystack! I would continue to use Flickr to display the event photos because Flickr is a good venue for that. I would reserve 500px for those shots you think are your best! I really do like your work on Viewbug. Good stuff!
Thanks for sharing, Blake! We’re glad to hear you love 500px so much.
500 px is like instant inspiration. Its like 5 hour energy for the artistic mind. Thanks for hosting such an awesome place to share our images.
5OOpx is my favorite go to place awesome photographers, awesome layout, you can actually see evidence that your picture has been shown to the world, unlike other sites where you canb never find the picture you posted.
i love this site. absolutely love it.
Doesn’t posting your FineArt images to Facebook, even through 500px, still create issues of ownership if a buyer came along? Or is this strictly about the sharing?
From my understanding 500px does not retain any rights when you upload it, therefore the rights are still yours. Facebook on the other hand waives your Rights to them in the agreement you sign when you join. To be on the safe side, I avoid Facebook and stick to 500px.
I looked at your work on 500px. It is very nice. I posted a photo just to see what would happen. So far so good. I clicked the button to follow you on 500px. Like you, I think I will only post what I think are my best photos to this site. Thanks for the info.
Awesome! I followed you back 🙂 You do great work, it will do well on 500px.
Hi Blake,
I really appreciate your comments on 500px. Especially hearing that your Pulse numbers aren’t necessarily stratospheric sometimes! I am not a professional but I try to craft pleasing images and want others to enjoy them. 500px provides that opportunity. Thanks also for the reminder to follow you, I just did.
Pete
Yeah, I don’t have outrageous numbers. I have had one image make 99.7, I was stoked! However, it doesn’t happen all the time. I know there are way tooooo many variables to get caught up in the numbers! I just caught your follow and followed back!
Hi Blake
Great article. I am new to sites such as 500px but would like to join. Is it free to join and if you post images do you need to watermark them etc or is it not necessary. Also would the same apply to Flickr.
Keep up the great work Blake, especially free Fridays.
Cheers
Brian
Hello Brian!
It is 100% free with restrictions, you can only upload 10 images a week or something. If you transition later to Plus, or Awesome, you have to pay. It is free with limited uploads though. I don’t watermark my images for a few reasons.
1. It distracts the viewer from the image
2. They are easy to get rid of in Photoshop
So I look at it this way, if it is going to annoy the viewer and the watermark can be easily removed, why bother? To each their own really on the matter. I prefer not to.
Blake: I’ve been following your tips & info for months now. I have always posted my images on FB, but just joined 500px today because of your input. This is really exciting to see instant responses and see what people respond to and don’t. I’m trying to see your images on there but don’t see how I can get to them. I’ve been scrolling through images to find yours but that could take forever. Where can I just type in your name & see you pop up? Thanks. Your loyal follower (who lived in KC for years.) Bill Edwards
Glad to hear it! 500 px is a great place to get some quick feedback, don’t expect any awesome Constructive Criticism as it is not really a venue for that. It is nice to seen an image climb the ranks though.
Here is my profile: https://500px.com/BlakeRudis
Hi Blake,
Thanks for sharing the info on 500px.
I used to post my photos on several sites but was not getting any useful response. It is sobering to learn Facebook’s policy regarding uploaded images. (I quit Facebook a while back as well as all other so called “social networks”.)
The only site I upload these days is Picshare.com, an Israeli site for photographers. I like it because it displays high res images and each can be offered for sale by the poster. It also has several useful forums that I like to read and participate in. I find that the atmosphere is friendly and supportive and unlike some previous sites I posted on, there is no nastiness.
I’ll consider posting on 500px once I check them out. I’m not crazy about any rating system, I just want people to see my images. When visitors like my photos at art show, they buy them. I don’t need more affirmation than that!
Yeah, the rating is really just kind of fun. It makes me feel like I accomplished something and I am a numbers nut! Spreadsheets are my best friend and math is more fun than video games! Congrats on your sales 🙂
500px is great place for sharing my photos and also it is a great place for inspiration and learning how to improve the images. Nice article Blake!
Here is my profile
https://500px.com/applecore60
Hi Blake,
I will start by saying, I really enjoy your website.
My question: if I post and share a picture of one of my paintings on Facebook do they have
any rights to the original painting or any of the prints I may choose to make?
Thank you,
Bob
Thanks Bob!
No not the original, just the image uploaded. They don’t necessarily own the rights to the image, but if you want your right to be exclusive it is a good idea not to post to Facebook. I will often post screenshots of my Workspace in Ps of the image after it is complete, that way the original is still ‘in tact’ so to speak.
I am no expert on much of this. I will look into it more though.
i followed you on 5OOpx, you have an awesome gallery!! cool article you have here!