How to find the original Flickr Photo URL and User from a Static Flickr Image URL/Permalink

flickr.jpgGot a link like //farm3.static.flickr.com/2085/2177060015_258bcfaff9_m.jpg and want to find out which user posted it, more images by that user, see the full-size version, etc? Seek no longer, the answer is very simple!

The image we found

From the URL you’ve got take extract the image name (2177060015_258bcfaff9_m.jpg) and split it on the underscore. The first part is the photoID, the second part is the hash/salt and (if there) the third part the size (Full format: photoId_hash_size.jpg).

Now append that photoId to http://flickr.com/photo.gne?id= and *MAGIC* there you have it, the Original Flickr Photo URL (and the user) 🙂 The example above would be transformed to http://flickr.com/photo.gne?id=2177060015

Cheers!

B!

UPDATE 2008.01.18 – In related matter these might be of interest too: Flickr Hack – All sizes for all pics & My most interesting (best viewed) Flickr pics (replace that ID with your own Flickr ID to watch yours 😉)

UPDATE 2010.11.07 – Bram.us visitor Robin Senior created a handy bookmarklet which does the job automagically. Drag this link to your bookmarks toolbar and click it whenever you have a static Flickr image URL open: Flickr Photo Page

UPDATE 2012.20.26 – Flickr itself has a detailed page explaining the Flickr full photo url format.

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Published by Bramus!

Bramus is a frontend web developer from Belgium, working as a Chrome Developer Relations Engineer at Google. From the moment he discovered view-source at the age of 14 (way back in 1997), he fell in love with the web and has been tinkering with it ever since (more …)

Unless noted otherwise, the contents of this post are licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License and code samples are licensed under the MIT License

37 replies on “How to find the original Flickr Photo URL and User from a Static Flickr Image URL/Permalink”

  1. Google and Bram.us are rock-solid. I just searched for “see user behind static flickr” and bam… bram.us to the rescue once again.

    Cheers, you genius you. 😉

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  3. THANKS! this is super helpful! I do a lot of reference image research at work and it’s great to be able to relocate the originals!

  4. Hi there,
    Very useful, BUT: I just tried this with a photo and got the page “Ooops, you’re not allowed to see this” after log-in. How can I still find out the user who uploaded this pic?

    Cheers,

    Jay

  5. Anyone know whats the most recent hack available for downloading original sized flickr photos? Seeing as the ones above are two years old and no longer work 🙁

  6. Hello

    Hope you all are fine.

    I need help with getting the following code for my image in flickr. i want to use it in my html code.

    here is the format.
    http://farm{farm-id}.static.flickr.com/{server-id}/{id}_{secret}.jpg

    example:
    http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2085/2177060015_258bcfaff9_m.jpg

    i want this code for the following image:
    http://www.flickr.com/photos/aiesecintanzania/6194503105/in/photostream/

    please teach me how to get the:
    farmid
    serverid
    is_serverid

    thanks

  7. Thanks, i really needed this one!!! I had an image but didn´t know where i got it..i had a txt file with the flickr static link!Greets from Italy

  8. I know this is kinda spam… but I just made an app some people might find useful. It let’s you download your entire photostream, in original size, as a batch process. Please check it out here:

    http://www.myflickrbackup.com

    As it’s new, I’m happy to give out a few free license keys if anyone wants to test it out for me, please drop me an email: captain.o.dog AT gmail DOT com

  9. bram . thank u so much for this info .. umm just wanderin . is there any tricks to view private flickr page ? .. thank u so much!

  10. You are all silly guys, you can just go over in source code of picture and take
    the image url. In case you whant to do it whit a script, you can use curl / xpath
    methods to do it.

    So… don’t spam google whit noob comments pls, ty

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