Check out my 500px profile here – http://500px.com/bhirschyphoto. Also if you are interested in signing up, they offer a free account option. Yearly fees are $50 but if you use the promo code FRIENDS they knock of $10 for the first year. Lastly, if you do visit my 500px page, I’m in the process of uploading images I want on there, so don’t expect a ton. I’m using Chinese internet/internot which can literally take days to upload what I want online. Woe is me…
There are about a billion difference choices for where you can store your images online. Unfortunately for Flickr my pro account expired last month and 500px came along at just the right time. Not really wanting to pay again for a sub-par service who’s user base seems to more and more consist of a bunch of over-happy people leaving over-enthusiastic comments on every single image they see has left me ready to jump ship for about a year now. There is also the fact that Flickr’s design makes my eyes bleed every time I even think about it. For me, this made it easy to replace Flickr w/ 500px as one piece of my online presence.
click above image to see a larger screenshot of the profile page.
The layout for users’ profile pages are absolutely stunning(see mine here) – squares and whitespace people! It’s gorgeous. On top of all that the people making comments seem to be actual photographers – the comments and ratings are actually helpful vs. Flickr’s over-optimistic uselessness. But here’s the real thing that made me switch – It’s pretty dang cheap at $40 a year. That price buys me another outlet for good feedback as well as the ability to sell my images straight from my 500px webpage. I’m in the process of consolidating my images on the web and where I sell and display those images. In the midst of a complete portfolio redesign (coming soon to portfolio page) and wanting to reduce my yearly costs, 500px is making a solid impression on me though I haven’t determined if it’s a complete game changer or just a Flickr replacement for me – still to be determined!
The only real downside I see right now (and this is certainly just me) is that the portfolio option they give you doesn’t look all that great and makes it a bit difficult to work in brand recognition through all your sites. Let me rephrase that – the portolios are actually really good looking, they just aren’t what I’m personally looking for and the inability to make those changes makes the option not as useful for me personally. I kinda wish I could disable my portfolio and just let people land HERE instead of HERE. However, for someone who doesn’t have a portfolio at all this is a freaking steal for $40 / year. It’s everything Flickr isn’t: Great feedback, excellent profile pages, ability to sell your images for no extra charge, and a free portfolio page (if you want it).
Like I said earlier, I’m not entirely sure where this will play out for me in my online presence. For now though, it was worth the $40 to get an absolutely brilliant Flickr replacement. I’m not sure if my 500px account will win out over my incredibly useful Photoshelter account or not, but the fact that I’m thinking about it says something – dare I say.
Are you on 500px? What do you think of it? Let’s see your comments below!
I agree, the layout and presentation of 500px is at the top of all online sharing sites. I use it as a place to display more of my personal stuff.
here’s my profile http://500px.com/Jmphotographyonline
Jay – great stuff. Just followed you
Cheers,
Brian
I’m almost with you. BTW – you need to build your portfolio at http://bhirschyphoto.500px.com that option of a personal edited website is what really excites me. However I think I will keep Flickr for family photos and snapshots. Check me out at http://markkalan.500px.com/#/0 or http://500px.com/MarkKalan
Mark – thanks for your comment.
True, I do need to build up my portfolio, even if I’m not planning on using the option. Having a decade in dev and design before picking up a camera seriously, It’s hard for me not to build my own solutions – something I’m trying more and more to move away from.
Btw – just added you on 500px!
Cheers,
Brian
i really like 500PX as well. the quality of pics and interface/layout is so much better than Flickr. i do agree that the portfolio pages are not great…kind of boring. don’t see this being a portfolio site for my work but rather a higher-end Flickr replacement. as others have stated, i will keep Flickr for more casual, fun snap type photos.
i really like 500PX as well. the quality of pics and interface/layout is so much better than Flickr. i do agree that the portfolio pages are not great…kind of boring. don’t see this being a portfolio site for my work but rather a higher-end Flickr replacement. as others have stated, i will keep Flickr for more casual, fun snap type photos.
i really like 500PX as well. the quality of pics and interface/layout is so much better than Flickr. i do agree that the portfolio pages are not great…kind of boring. don’t see this being a portfolio site for my work but rather a higher-end Flickr replacement. as others have stated, i will keep Flickr for more casual, fun snap type photos.
i really like 500PX as well. the quality of pics and interface/layout is so much better than Flickr. i do agree that the portfolio pages are not great…kind of boring. don’t see this being a portfolio site for my work but rather a higher-end Flickr replacement. as others have stated, i will keep Flickr for more casual, fun snap type photos.
Todd – I agree, the layout of 500px is superior. I think I will, however, have to go ahead and fill out the portfolio no matter what. If someones first impression of my work is that I’m too lazy to do a real portfolio, well… thats a bad impression.
I’m in the middle of a lot of change and consolidation as far as my online portfolios and where I display my images and 500px has the potential to be a great community.
One thing I need to mention is that Flickr is not the devil, despite what it might sound like I think. Flickr and 500px are tools – tools we have to decide how to use. There are scores of photographers who literally make their living on Flickr and for those people the Flickr community is by all means a better solution for them. This is NOT a Flickr vs. 500px post, contrary to what it might look like. This is simply a quick overview of how this is going to work into my online “Workflow” if you will.
Secondly, I don’t work for 500px and I don’t get kickbacks for referrals – heck, the promo code is generic as it gets and I found it by googling it – I get no monetary benefit from this.
Third, everyone is going to have a different opinion on this, which is normal and actually preferable. Opinions are good. It stops us all from swallowing the red pill and becoming a group-thinking-slacker. If you hate 500px and think I’m a loser for thinking so, feel free to tell me why (you hate 500px… I’m not really looking for the “Why you think I’m a loser” part)
after getting tired of flickr’s lackluster support and the horror stories of flickr just randomly deleting accounts, I must say, I quite like it. It’s more expensive per year than flickr, but quality is what matters, and 500px’s UI and features are just stunning. Bye bye, flickr.