Flickr Uploading: Please Help!

[FlightClub]

I need help! I recently made a flickr account and cannot upload. I shoot in RAW. so when I upload the pictures to my computer they are uploaded as Cr2 files. The flickr uploader does not show Cr2 files. I know if I edit the photos and save them as jpeg files they will show up in the uploader but there is such a loss of quality! Is there a way to upload Cr2 files? Or is there a better file type to save them as that does not change the quality.

Thanks!
Andrew

 

[Josh66]

You can't upload RAWs to Flickr. You can upload most image types (but anything other than .jpg and .png and maybe .bmp will be converted to .jpg), but not .cr2.

.cr2 wouldn't really do you much good for posting online anyway. Everyone would have to process it first, and you would have no way of knowing if they processed it the same way you did.

You shouldn't really be having a huge loss of quality just by processing to .jpg... Are your quality settings maybe set too low?

 

[Overread]

Another consideration is resizing. Flickr keeps your original upload size normal, but will auto generate resized versions at a range of scales for use on the net. The codes flickr uses are generally good, but are only common values and so can make some shots look worse. If you want to use a 1000pixel on the longest side image online (and most of the time that's all you need to show) then resize the image yourself on your computer - apply your own sharpening to correct for resizing and then upload that to flickr.

Note also that if you have a free account on flickr you can't access your fullsized versions (nor can others) - that option is only open to a paid account (even if you're account is free they still keep all your uploaded content, it simply won't display in your stream - though any links to it (say if you had a paid and then didn't renew) will remain active and valid).

 

[analog.universe]

RAW files aren't for viewing, they're like negatives that haven't been turned into prints yet. You need to do the processing on them and save them as jpg's or tif's or some such. Either that or shoot in jpg and the camera will do the processing for you.