I’ve been live photoblogging events in Babbage for a little while now and it’s been a great deal of fun. I’d like to think that everyone else has enjoyed my work, too. (Or at least had a good laugh with me as I fought through whatever issues connections and viewers were giving me ass I tried to line up a good shot or two.)
That has all come to an end for me due to fact that contrary to claims made earlier by the people at Phoenix, version 4.1.x does not support direct upload to Flickr. This functionality was supposed to be restored by this point. It is now currently projected to be restored by verson 5.0.1.
I honestly doubt that this will ever happen. And having to first upload the photos to my computer and then to Flickr greatly slows my process. (I think of myself as a “photojournalist” instead of an actual photographer.) With Phoenix 3.3.0 (the last version that supported direct upload) becoming increasingly obsolete (I keep having to log out of it and into another viewer if I want to do things like open attachments in messages sent to me), I’ve had to upgrade to 4.1.1.
To say that I’m not happy about this situation is to greatly understate the case. I was really looking forward to getting some “live” shots at RFL this year.
If anyone out there knows of a “modern” viewer that allows direct posting to Flickr, please let me know. Otherwise, I’m going to hang up the camera.
Is there an out-of-viewer screen capture utility that supports direct upload to flickr? Just a thought, as you could just turn off your UI for the screengrab.
Doc,
That was what earlier versions of Firestorm allowed. The functionality was built right in. It was great. Just make your shot and straight to Flickr it went.
I haven’t explored every available option, but I variably use Catznip, Dolphin, and Exodus.
Checking Dolphin’s list of features, it looks like it has a Flickr doohickey.
BB,
Thanks for the heads up. I’ll give Dolphin a try!
You guys rule,
C
Update: Dolphin has the ability to take the shots, but it doesn’t like my nVidia graphics card. Every action I take (including trying to get the movement and camera controls to appear) crashes the viewer. So that’s Dolphin off the table. (No, I can’t change the card. I’m using a very nice Alienware laptop that I currently can’t afford to replace.) Also, I see no way to do the resize on the fly function that Firestorm has.
So until the people at Phoenix get their act straight, I’m out of the photojournalism business.
Thanks for the kind suggestions, guys. And if anyone else has any ideas, be sure to drop me a line. I do appreciate the efforts, believe me.
What about SHUP.COM? It seems to support screencaps going to Flickr, but I haven’t tried it myself.
Doc,
Took a look at the site for the program you mentioned. It does post directly to Flickr. However, it’s screencap, which means I’d have to do a lot of editing in post. Also, the site itself raised all sorts of red flags on WOT which leads me to not want to make use of the product.
We’re still looking, though.
C
UPDATE: I finally got Dolphin to work.
Looks like we’re back to waiting for Firestorm 5.0. And, as I said, I’m doutbful that they’ll be able to return the functionality then. (They’ve already missed one deadline on this.)
Oh well, just means that I’ll get to spend more time at events chatting and dancing.
Yes, when you’ve selected which option to take the picture with there should be an option where you set the size of the picture on the next screen. That option at least exists for the download to your computer on Dolphin. You could also just resize your screen and not use fullscreen once you’re ready for a picture should that not work. You could then re-expand.
You probably have buttons on the left, right, and at the bottom. Go to the first tab and go underneath preferences to the Toolbar buttons option.
There you will be able to click the buttons on your viewer and drag the ones you don’t want off the screen or more them to where they are out of your way.
Mr. Arnold,
Thanks for the prompt response. I followed your suggestion and found that the only option where you can’t resize on the fly is the “Post to Flickr” mode. You have to set up your shot in something like “Save to Disk,” cancel it, then take your shot in “Post to Flickr.”
This makes taking the sorts of shots I do in my photoblogging nearly impossible, as the target will have moved out of frame by the time I get the shot set up.
But thanks for the information, man. It was very helpful.
C
Once the screen is set and you have the picture you want it should remain there as is and you’d be free to move your camera while still maintaining the image you did capture but haven’t saved or uploaded to something. True it may take more time but you shouldn’t lose the image you want once you’ve sized it properly. In other words you’re taking a screen capture of the moment you see in the window when you clicked photograph, not what has moved on since then.
Arnold,
The problem is that most of the pictures I’m taking are of people who are moving (usually dancing). Adding another step in any direction slows the process enough to where I’ll definitely lose the shot.
If it weren’t for the “live” aspect of my photography, I’d just say “The hell with it.” and save to disk and then upload.
But I’ve enjoyed the “eye on the scene” aspect of what I do here. I like the fact that people get to see my work as it happens.
I’ve not been this disappointed in a third-party viewer since they killed off the OnRez viewer.
C
It’s not a direct post to Flickr option, but you can get reasonable upload rates from Flickr Uploadr. Keep a folder open of where the new pictures “land”, your viewer and the uploadr, you just need to drag, drop and click upload. It’s not great, but like you, there’s not many other options (I take the same style of photos, live action) that don’t involve a lot of fiddling. This keeps it to a minimum.
KT,
The thing is that the solution you posted is still adding a step that I didn’t used to have to take. It means taking time to get the shot onto Flickr that I could be using to set up another shot.
I’ve noticed that Firestorm now allows you to directly post pictures to your web profile. I’ve done a couple of such shots to test the system. It’s slower than a maple syrup run in January and Firestorm’s once excellent photo system has been ‘Lindenized” to the point of near uselessness. (The shot editor is now much slower and you have to do a refresh just to see whether or not you’ve even got the scene cropped right.)
C
I give up.
I’ve come to the conclusion that for my purposes, nothing but Firestorm 3.3.0 gets the job done. So I’ve reverted my viewer and the camera has been reloaded. I’m staying with my current viewer until LL makes it unusable.
Be afraid, people. Be very afraid.
Today (2 September 2012 CE – RL) I dropped in world to take a couple of pictures for my photostream. I was extremely disappointed to note that the resize tool in my version of Firestorm (version 3.3.0) no longer does anything. Every shot I take is a full window shot.
Terrific.
Will someone remind me again why we haven’t dropped a dinosaur killer (or for that matter, dropped Dr. Dinosaur) on LL’s offices?
Looks like I’m migrating to 4.x whether I want to or not.
Feh!
Check out Firestorm 4.2.2 released this week. It has Snapshot uploads to Flickr.
I just finished installing it. I’m looking forward to taking it for a test drive and seeing how it corners. That means we have to hand the viewer over to our tame Flickr Photojournalist.
Some say that he’s voting Chtulhu/Osteram this year and that he sneers at the prospect of our next resident villain being a dinosaur.
All we know is, he’s called the Stig.
Nope. No joy. The size controls appear to do abs0lutely nothing. Moreover, I can’t find the button to save the shot at all.
Great going, guys.
No, really.
Yes, I am sending you a crate of thos tiny, clear scorpions I remember oh so well from Bright Star exercises in the late ’80s.
Oh no. Wait, I found it. They hid it under a separate “metadata” tab. Great going, guys. Really great. Not going to be nearly as fast on the draw as I once was.
And still all you can get is a full screen shot.
I’m not a “do it all in post” kind of photographer. Plus I don’t own any photoediting software.
So I’m hanging up the camera until there’s a reasonable fix.
*Looks at Dr. Dinosaurs crashed ship in the Fells, then over at LL*
Maxwell Smart impression: “Missed it by that much.”