Category: Photography

Yellow: Weekly Photography Challenge

Image by MonkeyMagic1975

After our post yesterday on using colour boldly we thought it might be time for a ‘colour’ related challenge this week. The colour we’re nominating for you to feature in your shot is – YELLOW.

Your challenge is to take some great photos that feature yellow. Lemons, rubber ducks, cheese, sunsets flowers…. I’m sure you get the picture!

Once you’ve taken your Yellow photos upload your best ones to your favourite photo sharing site either share a link to them even better – embed them in the comments using the our new tool to do so.

If you tag your photos on Flickr, Instagram, Twitter or other sites with Tagging tag them as #DPSYELLOW to help others find them. Linking back to this page might also help others know what you’re doing so that they can share in the fun.

Also – don’t forget to check out some of the great shots posted in last weeks 50mm challenge – there were some great shots submitted.

Post originally from: Digital Photography Tips.

Check out our more Photography Tips at Photography Tips for Beginners, Portrait Photography Tips and Wedding Photography Tips.

Yellow: Weekly Photography Challenge

Digital Photography School

July 6, 2013
50 More Amazing Websites Of Professional Photographers

What sets amazing photography apart? What do the most famous photographers do to make their works stand out? A carefully crafted photo website can be a great way to prove how multifaceted a photographer is. You might be the best photographer ever, but if your site is not showing these skills you might have a hard time acquiring clients. The Continue Reading

The post 50 More Amazing Websites Of Professional Photographers appeared first on Photodoto.

Photodoto

July 5, 2013
Play Ball! Covering Your Bases Shooting Baseball

Shooting the pitcher from behind can give this kind of a dramatic shot. Using the continuous drive setting to shoot many frames throughout the motion will help you ensure that you get the best part of the motion.

Baseball can be among the most maddening of sports to photograph. Entire games can be played with very little action at all, while other games will be chock full of great fielding plays and other images waiting to be captured. As with all sports, knowing the game is as important as knowing how to make a photo. Knowing what plays will happen on different areas on the baseball diamond helps you be ready when those situations arise. Before we get to those situations, some basic settings. As always when shooting sports, I tend to shoot nearly wide open, usually at f/2.8 or f/4. I then set my ISO high enough to give me a shutter speed of at least 1/500 and more likely, 1/1000. Which lens I use depends almost entirely on what level of baseball I’m shooting. When shooting little leaguers, a 70-200 or 70-300 will probably be pretty adequate, while for high school and above you may need something with a focal length of 400mm or more. My drive speed is always set to continuous high when shooting sports, so I can fire continuously during peak action. This helps ensure that I will get the peak action.

Shooting from behind the plate provides a great angle on shooting the pitcher’s delivery. Just watch out for wild throws!

Baseball games lend themselves to a lot of different types of images. The opportunities start long before the game on the field starts. Batting practice presents some great portrait opportunities, as well as candid moments among players, so it’s always worthwhile to get to the game early. You’ll see players stretching, horsing around amongst themselves, taking batting practice, and fielding practice. If possible, and if you can get on the field, it’s always a good idea to become familiar with the players, and to let them become familiar with you. You’re more likely to get good images when their guard is down. This is a great time to get moments between coaches and players, players on opposing teams, and teammates in a more relaxed atmosphere.

Once the game starts, the portrait ops don’t stop, but they take on a much different air. Players expressions will be all business for the most part. Since you generally can’t be on the field during the game, you’ll need a longer lens to capture these images.

As for the action, the game starts with pitching, so you’ll want to be sure you get some shots of the pitchers. Depending on where you are, There are several ways to do this. Start with a full length shot that gets the pitcher’s entire body in the shot. Then move on to tighter shots. If the pitcher’s back is to you, you can get a nice shot of his arm raring back ready to fire a fastball, with his name and number emblazoned on the back of his jersey. If allowed, a shooting position behind the pitcher is ideal for a shot of the pitching motion coming right at you. Usually this can be done during warm-ups if you clear it ahead of time. In the pro’s some teams allow this between innings while others do not. Find the team’s photographer and check with them. One other fun shot to try is to pan the pitcher’s motion using a slow shutter speed. This shot will depend both on your ability to keep the panning speed steady, as well as the pitcher’s motion. Some pitchers move their heads around a lot. Others, the motion is all in the arms and legs. Those that keep their heads steadier tend to be better subjects for this type of shot.

The other end of the pitch is of course, the batter. Generally, right-handed batters are best shot from the first base side, while left-handed batters are best photographed from the third base side. However, from the opposite base, hitters’ follow-through can be captured beautifully. If a hitter puts the ball in play, it can be difficult to try and find the fielder if you were initially focused on the batter. If

Batters are best captured from the opposite side of the plate they hit from, so right handed batters are best photographed from the first base side, and left handers from third.

you want photos of fielders, it’s much better to know the batter’s tendencies and try to predict where he will hit the ball.

If a batter reaches base, this sets up situations with plays at the bases- particularly second base. A runner at first could attempt to steal second, which makes a great play at second base. This will always look better from the first base side, but can also be captured from third base. Knowing which runners have a tendency to try and steal will help with anticipating the shot. In addition, a runner on first base with less than two out sets up the possibility of a double play. If trying to anticipate a play at second, it’s a good idea to prefocus on second base. If the play happens in that general area it will be much easier to achieve focus since the fielder will be right in the place you’ve prefocused on.

Capturing outfielders will be hit or miss if you’ll pardon the pun. There is generally enough time to swing the lens to the outfield and find focus when the ball is hit there, but often the action could be beyond the reach of the lens. It never hurts to try.

Baseball can be a lot of fun to shoot, but it takes some patience, and a little bit of study and understanding of the game to get really good shots.

Panning on the pitcher’s motion can make for a unique image.

When possible, looking for unique angles, such as this one from above can make for some different shots.

Batters waiting on deck can provide some great portrait opportunities.

Post originally from: Digital Photography Tips.

Check out our more Photography Tips at Photography Tips for Beginners, Portrait Photography Tips and Wedding Photography Tips.

Play Ball! Covering Your Bases Shooting Baseball

Digital Photography School

July 5, 2013
Using Colour Boldly

In my previous article I explored some of the ways that you can use two contrasting colours, orange and blue, that appear in nature to create atmospheric images full of emotion.

Today I’m going to look at ways you can use other bright colours effectively.

Let’s start with a simple example. Flowers are a common, brightly coloured subject. If it is summer where you live right now you there may be public gardens close to you where you can practise taking photos like the one below. One of my favourite techniques is to photograph red flowers against a green background:

Bold colour is part of the composition of this photo. To see why, let’s take a look at the colour wheel again:

The colour wheel tells us that certain colours have a dynamic relationship. Colours that are on opposite sides of the wheel, such as red and green, are said to be contrasting colours. That’s just a way of saying that the human eye can easily distinguish between these colours. So, in the above photo, it’s easy to tell the red flower from the green background, and that makes the photo more interesting to look at.

Man-made colours

Now, the most likely place to find bold colours is with man-made objects. Humans have a tendency to make brightly coloured objects, and we can take advantage of that. Here are a few examples to show you what I mean:

The blue colour in this Chinese lantern is very intense. It helps that the tassels and trim are yellow, a colour that contrasts with blue (see the colour wheel). It also helps that the background is a neutral shade. It doesn’t compete with or distract attention from the lantern.

Here’s another example of the blue/yellow dynamic in action. The flowers are natural, of course, but the background is man-made. Intense colours like this shade of blue occur rarely in nature.

Blue and red is another powerful colour dynamic.

This is a photo I took in Burano, an island near Venice known for its colourful buildings. I made the most of the colours by using a polarising filter on my lens.

Polarising filters work by eliminating glare from reflective non-metallic surfaces. This results in deep blue skies and more saturated colours. It’s an effect that can’t be replicated in post-processing, making a polarising filter an essential piece of gear for taking photos like this.

Using colour boldly

The way I see it, there are are two ways to utilise strong colours. The first is the one that we’ve seen so far – using bold colours to create strong images where the use of colour is an important part of the composition.

The second is use colour boldly. The idea is to create near abstract images that are very much about the colours and little else. They probably wouldn’t work in black and white, or if the colours were subtle rather than strong. Here are some examples:

This is a close-up I took of a vase in a pottery store. I closed in and created a composition that is really about the streaks of colour and little else.

A photo taken in Hong Kong. There are no clues to the location in the photo – it is simply a photo of an orange light against the night sky. Very abstract, and almost entirely about colour.

I took this photo close to my home. It was dark and the glow from the neon light caught my eye.

Simplicity

On a final note I’d like to mention that throughout this article the photos have benefitted from keeping the composition simple. There is little to distract from the main subject and the use of colour.

Mastering Photography

My latest ebook, Mastering Photography: A Beginner’s Guide to Using Digital Cameras introduces you to digital photography and helps you make the most out of your digital cameras. It covers concepts such as lighting and composition as well as the camera settings you need to master to take photos like the ones in this article.

Post originally from: Digital Photography Tips.

Check out our more Photography Tips at Photography Tips for Beginners, Portrait Photography Tips and Wedding Photography Tips.

Using Colour Boldly

Digital Photography School

July 4, 2013
Merge to 32 bit – HDR technique comparisons
HDR is an often discussed and debated subject in photography circles. There’s much talk about “bad” HDR, or a whether or not one should even do it in the first place. I think a lot of that stems from what I’d consider to be overdone, over-processed versions.

IS MERGE TO 32-BIT A SOLUTION FOR BAD HDR?

Depending on the software used to make your tone-mapped HDR images you may be given an option to view and/or save a 32-bit version. Prior to Lightroom 4 we there wasn’t really much we could do with such a file so most photographers never bothered saving it. Now that LR4 and PS can handle a 32bit file it has opened up a whole new set of options for HDR, one that is a lot simpler, more photo realistic, and many would venture to say – better.

The problem with most overdone HDR images is that they are often:
- too overly saturated, way past surreal into unpleasant looking by many accounts
- too flat, the blacks are grey and the highlights are grey and muddy looking
- too far into the realm of “surreal” or “artistic” where the shadows are now brighter than some of the highlights, and the highlights are darker than some of the shadows. It seems unnatural and many people reject it because their brain’s can’t even register it.
Please do NOT make HDR that looks like this!

WHO IS MERGE TO 32-BIT HDR FOR?
- perhaps you’ve tried HDR and been unhappy with the results
- maybe you vowed never to touch it for fear of producing something that falls into one of the above areas. If that is the case I urge you do take a second look and see if this is more to your tastes.
- the process baffles you and you just want a good final result without having to learn yet another software
Photomatix Pro has been one of the front runners for HDR tone-mapping software since its creation. Now they offer a new plugin for using that 32-bit image. I’m not going to get into the step by step how to use shoot your bracketed images or use this plugin (they already have that on their site here), rather a comparison of a three different methods of making HDR images and the resulting images.

THE MERGE TO 32-BIT PROCESS

Okay in a nutshell, this is how the plugin works.
1. select your bracketed images in LR or PS
2. launch the 32-bit plug in (and select a couple options) and it does its thing in the background
3. take the resulting 32-bit image and finish it in LR or PS
Select bracketed images

Launch the Merge to 32-bit HDR plugin

And away it goes! How easy right?

That’s it! No sliders to play with, no presets, no way to muck it up – the software just merges them together into one massive file with a whole lot of exposure data. Then you work the magic on it in Lightroom or Photoshop (or your favorite image editor) to lighten where you want, and darken where you want – with no loss of image quality or detail.

AN EXAMPLE DONE TWO WAYS

Below you see the four bracketed images I’m using for this example. Notice that the darkest image shows lots of detail in the white wall on the right of the doorway, and the lightest image has tons of detail on the ceiling inside the building. I use the histogram and shoot in manual to make sure I capture enough range and generally bracket 2 tops apart (these are about 1 and 2/3rds apart as it was enough to get the range I needed) – notice I only ever adjust the shutter speed, keep my ISO low and use a tripod whenever possible.

Bracketed images shot in Manual mode on tripod

Below you see the 32-bit image as it first appears in Lightroom. It looks pretty contrasty (almost exactly like the second image above) but unlike using just a single image there is plenty of detail in ALL areas of this image, you just have to manipulate it out a bit!

Merge 32-bit image before Lightroom processing.

Here is the final version after doing some Lightroom magic. I’ve used several of the sliders pulled to the max (see screen shot of my Basic panel below), as well as some Graduated filters on the edges (see screen shot below), a post-crop vignette, and several adjustment brushes to lighten and darken areas I wanted to control. Notice the white wall on the left is quite dark now, almost grey – however the highlights inside the house are still bright white. If you just darken all the highlights you end up with a flat, muddy looking mess. I’ve also darkened the wall outside intentionally to draw your eye inwards towards the brighter areas and the chair. If the wall was still pure white it would scream and draw your attention. Notice how the image still has dark areas, light areas, and a good contrast range. All I’ve done is control the tonal values to retain detail where I wanted.

Final image after Lightroom adjustments

Basic panel adjustments in LR

Gradient filters used to darken the edges of the doorway

Now have a look at another version of the same bracketed image set, but this time created using the full Photomatix Pro software and LR adjustments afterwards. It’s a much grungier look, which some people dislike. Personally I like this look and it’s not going too far for my tastes. There’s still pure black, and pure white in the image and it has good contrast – the tones have just been adjusted in a different way.

HDR done by tonemapping in Photomatix Pro

One more version, also tone mapped in Photomatix then split toned in LR

CAN YOU GUESS HOW THESE WERE DONE?

Let’s look at two more images as examples. I’ve used three different processes to get the final results in each set:
- using just Lightroom adjustments
- using the regular Photomatix Pro tone-mapping process
- using the merge to 32bit method
Can you guess which is which in each trio? No fair peeking at the file names! Look over the three versions of each scene and tell me in the comments below which was done with what process. How can be first to get it all right? GO!

SUMMARY

To revisit my original question – is merge to 32-bit the answer for better HDR? I think that’s probably still up for debate. It does however allow you to create a much more photo realistic result with relatively few easy steps, and less hassle. So if you fall into one of the categories at the top of the article I’d suggest you give it a try especially if you want to do tone control but not alter the look of the image beyond that of reality.

As always, give me your thoughts and opinions. There’s always many different options and opinions and no one solution is right for everyone.

Post originally from: Digital Photography Tips.

Check out our more Photography Tips at Photography Tips for Beginners, Portrait Photography Tips and Wedding Photography Tips.

Merge to 32 bit – HDR technique comparisons

Digital Photography School
July 4, 2013
10 Travel Photography Tips to Help Avoid Regrets When You Get Home

By Hélio Dias.

I have lost count of how many times I’ve came home and regretted not having done something to get better pictures when I was traveling.

Luckily, each time that happened I learned from my mistakes. Now I want to share them with you so you don’t need to learn the worst way.

The tips apply for professional jobs and for your vacation pictures.

1. Make a List

Search on the internet – Google, Flickr, 500px, etc. – for images of the places you are going to visit and have a first look on them. Pay attention to the light, the colors, the possibilities to explore in the field and find out the best locations to take your photos.

On Flickr, for instance, it’s even possible to check the time in which the picture was taken, so you can know how the light is in that particular site at that time. A little geeky, but really helpful for me.

The possibilities of the research on the web are pretty amazing and endless. For food photography, for example, you don’t need to find a restaurant with pictures on the menu, or spend some time inspecting what people around you are eating before ordering your meal. You can find information and pictures of local food in advance and choose the best looking dishes, so when you go to a restaurant you know exactly what to order to take photos of.

Don’t run the risk of finding out later about a great place you missed when you where there.

Moon Valley, a beautiful place I missed in my first visit to La Paz, Bolivia.

2. Take your Time

Definitely not something you haven’t heard yet, but sure the most important photography advice I’ve ever got: work the scene.

Spend some time trying to make the best possible photo from something you see potential on. Always remember: it’s not about getting 200 nice snapshots. It’s about 5 to 10 great photos. Invest your time and effort on these few ones.

Don’t rush. Never get satisfied with your first shot. There is a 99,9% chance you will get a better one if you study the scene more carefully.

Try different perspectives and angles. Walk around, get closer, get further. Try other lenses. Pay attention to details – they might be the center of interest you are looking for. Find the best background.

Drain your possibilities to the last drop. Then move on to the next shot.

There’s nothing more disappointing than looking at your photos when you are home and wish you had shot that particular picture from a different perspective.

Dublin, Ireland. This one was about my 15th try. Totally worth the time and the shots.

3. Wait for It

Kind of the same advice as the previous one. Just this time I want to point out the time you spend in a certain location after finding your best angle. You worked the scene, you found your composition. Now it’s time to add a little sugar to it.

There are 2 situations in which you may wait some time to get the best shot.

1) The scene is great, but you think it would be perfect with some random person walking by. Or a dog. Or a bird flying. Or a crowd passing by. Or a woman dressed in red. Wait for it until you get it.

Chefchaouen, Morocco. I wanted to portray someone wearing the same outfit as the people in the painting, so I waited until the perfect subject passed by.

2) Many times you will have to wait for the best light. If that’s the case and it is too soon, take a picture, memorize your position and come back later.

Sachsenhausen Concentration Camp – Oranienburg, Germany. I noticed the potential for a good picture when I arrived there earlier. So I calmly visited the site and, by the time I finished, the light was already perfect.

In both cases, you will need even more patience than when you were looking for the best framing. Now you just wait there, as long as it takes.

It’s really hard to keep the concentration while you are waiting there. But it’s really easy to regret not having waited when you are home sorting your photos later.

4. Don’t be Lazy

Wake up early and take advantage of the early morning light.

It will sound like the worst possible idea when your alarm clock beep at 5 AM, but you will be pleased with the awesome pictures you will take – a lot better than the ones you’d take around noon.

By shooting in the morning and in the afternoon on both golden hours, you raise 100% your photography time with good light. Plus: Other tourists may take pictures at the same sites, but as most of them won’t wake up early and because the sun in the morning lights up everything from the opposite side, your pictures will look different from theirs. Also, you can take advantage of the fact that it’s usually quieter in the morning than it is in the afternoon.

“Bored Stone” – Jericoacoara, Brazil. Many friends question me why this place looked so different when they visited and why their pictures look so dull. The “big” secret is to go there in the morning.

You will never regret having woken up so early when you get home and see the beautiful pictures you brought.

5. Have Options
It’s always good to explore some possibilities and to have more options when you are sorting and cropping your pictures.

For example, even after composing carefully and finding the best image, shoot a horizontal and a vertical photo of the same scene.

If you are using a random person to help composing a shot, do it with a man, a woman, a kid, a couple, etc.

Don’t shoot too tight. It’s better to have a wider picture and crop afterwards if needed – to adequate the picture to the available format in a magazine, for example. Give your editor (and yourself) room to edit.

Choose the best option later, when you can look carefully at each image, or let your editor choose if it’s a paid job.

Essaouira, Morocco. I waited many minutes in front of this colored plastic boxes wall and took the same picture with other men, women, couples and kids. In the end, the guy in a white dress with a bicycle seemed like the best choice.

6. Ask Strangers to take their Portrait

How many times I have regretted not having asked someone to take his picture!

It’s a big think to step up and go ask a stranger to take his photo. I’ve lost count of the many thousands of great portraits I’ve lost in the past because I was too shy to ask permission.

But what has to be done has to be done. At one point you stop being silly and go ask the first stranger.

The second one will be almost as difficult as the first one. And the third just a little less. But by the 100th time you do it, it will be as easy as 1, 2, 3. The first no’s are very disappointing, but at some point you get used to it. Trust me.

Peruvian man. “Can I take your picture?”. “It’s my pleasure!”.

7. Check it out Before Moving On

When you finally make that great picture, check carefully on your LCD screen if it’s not shaky or out of focus.

Also check the histogram and observe if the picture isn’t under or over exposed (don’t trust the image on the LCD to check this, especially in a bright day).

8. Always Keep your Gear Clean

Sometimes you’ll only find out how dirty your camera’s sensor or lenses’ glass were when you tweak the contrast of your photos while editing and see the dark spots pop out.

Ahu Tongariki, Easter Island. It’s been a while, but I’m still cleaning out all the dirty spots on many pictures from that trip.

Use a bulb blower, a brush or proper cleaning fluid to clean your camera’s sensor, and a clean cloth to clean your lenses’ glass and filters.

You could clean those spots later on Photoshop, but it’s really annoying and will take some time. Better to avoid the extra work.

9. Take Notes

When you get to the PC to sort and organize your travel photos you will want to know the names of the places and landmarks you photographed, especially when you find yourself uploading a picture and need a caption for it.

Take notes or, if it’s possible, take a picture of a sign or plaque related to the subject.

Sometimes you can find the information you need later on the internet, but even then it’s more time consuming than just writing it down in a small notebook.

10. Take Care

Be safe. Watch your stuff.

You can buy new equipment, but the pictures on your stolen memory card are lost forever.
Reduce the risks. Be prudent.

The best picture I’ve ever taken, from my trip to Colombia. Lost by carelessness. Put the memory card in my pocket, and when I looked for it, it was gone.

What about you? What have you already regretted?

Hélio Dias is a Brazilian photographer and travel writer. Visit his website and follow him on Facebook and on Twitter at @diashelio.

Post originally from: Digital Photography Tips.

Check out our more Photography Tips at Photography Tips for Beginners, Portrait Photography Tips and Wedding Photography Tips.

10 Travel Photography Tips to Help Avoid Regrets When You Get Home

Digital Photography School

July 3, 2013
Readers Shoot Back: Sergey Zaytsev

I sometimes kill an afternoon scanning the excellent work that Strobist readers upload to the site's Flickr group. Every now and then one will really stop you in your tracks, as did Georgian photographer Sergey Zaytsev's homage to his country's Queen Tamar, seen above. Very cool that it was done with more creativity than dollars (or lari, I should say?) and with a strong historical inspiration, to boot.

Would it surprise you to find this was done with a Nikon D300s and a few bare Cactus KF36 Vivitar 285 knockoffs? 'Cause that's what he used.

Read more »
Strobist

July 3, 2013
Discover These Stunning Creative Lighting Techniques That Will Electrify Your Photos

Light is photography.. Without it, photographs would make for some of the dullest looking objects; as pointless an activity, as that of watching a documentary on the beauty of rainbows on a black and white television set! Many first time photographers struggle with the fundamentals of lighting, I certainly did, as there are so many options and choices available to Continue Reading

The post Discover These Stunning Creative Lighting Techniques That Will Electrify Your Photos appeared first on Photodoto.

Photodoto

July 3, 2013
How To Improve an Image with 2 Steps in Photoshop Using Screen Mode

A Guest Post by Sergey Sus/

Wanted to share a very simple way for improving a photo without having to change the exposure. I use this method quite often and sometimes even after adjusting exposure.

The image is of a small hillside town in North California called Sausalito taken while on vacation.

Here the SOOC (straight out of the camera) image before any adjustments are applied or any cropping. It is just a bit under exposed and very flat looking.

Certainly there are many ways to brighten a photo in Photoshop like using Curves, Levels or Shadow layers. For this tutorial, we will be using a duplicate layer and then change the overlay to Screen mode to brighten up and give it a bit of a punch. I’ve seen many professional photo retouchers use this technique on both landscape and portrait photography as a starting point for retouching. This method works really well on jpgs as well!

1. Open image in Photoshop. Then duplicate layer by pressing Ctrl+J (Win) / Command+J (Mac)

2. Change blend mode to Screen and and then set Opacity to 50%.

Starting out with Opacity set to 50% and adjusting the slider for more or less brightness. For this image the opacity is about right at 50% for my eyes. See how this new layer in Screen mode added a subtle contrast and brightness.

Give this technique a try even if the image is not under exposed as it will brighten up overall highlights and will slightly increase perceived contrast. Make sure to experiment with different opacity values for different looks. Here is the final image cropped and with a bit more processing – how I remember Sausalito looking that day.

Let me know in the comments how this has worked for you or if you have questions.

Sergey Sus is a Los Angeles based photographer telling telling real stories, individual, professional and family. Problem solver, artist and teacher. His work can be found on http://www.sergeys.us/.

Post originally from: Digital Photography Tips.

Check out our more Photography Tips at Photography Tips for Beginners, Portrait Photography Tips and Wedding Photography Tips.

How To Improve an Image with 2 Steps in Photoshop Using Screen Mode

Digital Photography School

July 3, 2013
Yahoo and Flickr Renege on Their Paid Advertising Free Accounts

One of the things that I’ve liked about being able to pay Yahoo and Flickr $ 24.95 per year, is that it comes with an advertising free experience. The deal between Yahoo and Pro accounts is simple, and can be summed up in Flickr’s own words: “No ads in your browsing experience.”

While new Flickr Pro accounts are no longer available, all existing Pro accounts were given an opportunity to grandfather in their Pro accounts and continue them ad free. If users want an ad free experience now, they have to pay double the price as the old Pro account, but it’s still an option.

In the past, when paid accounts on Flickr have complained about advertisements, Flickr pointed them to a toolbar that a user likely installed: “If you are pro, we don’t show you ads on Flickr, but you may have unintentionally installed a browser toolbar, extension or add-on that is serving them.”

I’ve always respected Flickr for offering this ad-free option, it’s a refreshing departure from Facebook, where we are bombarded with ads at every turn.

Unfortunately, today Flickr has reneged on their advertising free account by forcing a new Yahoo tool bar on all Flickr users, both those with free ad supported accounts and those of us with paid ad-free versions. It’s an ugly intrusion to an otherwise beautiful new Flickr. It also advertises at me on *every* *single* *page* on Flickr — a bunch of Yahoo services that I *do* *not* *want.*

Complete with a Yahoo logo, the forced real estate takeover also offers me Home, Mail, News, Sports, Finance, Weather, Games, Groups, Answers, Flickr, omg!, Shine, Movies, Music, TV, Health, Shopping, Auto, Travels, Home.

There is no way to disable this forced tool bar. Worse it follows you as you scroll down the page. It never goes away. As of right now it is impossible to be on any page on Flickr without having these hyperlinked ads in your face.

I think these advertisements are just awful. I think they are distasteful and I think it’s unfortunate that Yahoo is so greedy that they cannot be satisfied with our simply paying them for an ad-free experience. If Yahoo cannot make enough money off of Flickr, then increase the price, or give us an option to pay more and remove this intrusive forced advertising bar.

Flickr is supposed to be an elegant, paid, ad-free, photo experience — or at least one version of it is. Forcing advertisements like this on ad-free accounts is wrong. Flickr should give all paid accounts an option to x out this ugly marketing based tool bar and make it go away.

There are few things as annoying as having a toolbar forced on you with a bunch of advertising links to things that you do not want. You can follow user reaction to this new forced tool bar in the Flickr Help Forum here.

You can and should do better than this Flickr.

Thomas Hawk Digital Connection

July 3, 2013