Sorry if this is a little bit off-topic, but it might help a frequent problem I see here. Moderators, feel free to move this if necessary.

When reading posts that would benefit from an image I often read something like the following:

"I've got pictures, but I don't know how to post them (or, they are too big and I can't make them smaller), can I email them to someone and have them do it?"

I've helped a few people out, and I'm always happy to do so as my little contribution, but I thought I'd post a few suggestions for people who'd like to learn a little more and be able to do it themselves.

Your digital camera

Your digital camera takes very high resolution pictures. Resolution is defined as the number of pixels (individual dots of color) it takes to make up the image. If your camera has a shiny sticker on the side that says something like, "2 mega pixels" or "5.1 MP" or something, it is telling you how many millions of pixels will be used to create each image. The higher the number the sharper the image.

Thats all well and good for printing, when you need as many pixels as possible. However, on the web, far fewer pixels are necessary for a good picture.

Your digital camera also takes pictures at various quality levels, usually labeled in the settings as, "High Quality, Medium Quality, Economy" or something like that. Each of those settings determines how 'compressed' an image is. The computer can lower the quality of the image by a bit, which lets the computer 'guess' some of the pixels, instead of having to store their exact color. This means the same image, with the same number of pixels, can be held in a smaller amount of space, with the sacrifice of a bit of quality.

When printing, you want very high quality (or low 'compression'). But on the web, a certain amount of compression is very handy to speed up downloading times.

Your computer

When you transfer an image off the camera onto the computer, you may notice the file size, perhaps a few hundred kilobytes up to several megabytes. These 'fresh' images are great for printing, but bad for the web, which is why if you attempt to attach these images to a post, you'll get an error!

You need to use some software to make the image smaller (less pixels) and higher compression (for a smaller file size).

There is a lot of software that can do this for you, from Adobe Photoshop and ImageReady on the professional end, to various pieces of freeware. You can find a lot that will help you, but my favorite all-around photo helping software for Windows is called Picasa: http://www.picasa.com

Picasa is a product of Google, and is completely free. It has no ads, spyware, adware, or other crapola, and is made by good people.

Picasa, when loaded, searches your computer for images. It can check your My Pictures folder, your desktop, and any other places you store images. Then it categorizes them by folder and date, and presents you with an easy interface for finding and manipulating your photos. It is very easy to use, don't worry!

I've been doing this computer thing since the beginning, and regularly use Photoshop and other pro software packages, but I still like Picasa for my everyday photo organizing, because it is very intuitive, and makes common tasks very fast and easy.

To use Picasa to tweak and prepare an image for posting, double click an images thumbnail in Picasa, and use the bar on the left to 'tweak' the image if necessary. You can bring up the fill light, 'crop' the image to remove extra areas that aren't important, or adjust the color. (note to pixel-heads, Picasa uses pretty intelligent adjustments, far better than just 'contrast brightness', and more similar to Photoshop's adaptive highlight/shadow adjustment system. Good enough that I only break out Photoshop for the toughest touchup cases.)

Then, click the 'export' button on the bottom right corner of the Picasa window. This will export a new copy of the image, but with the size and quality settings of your choosing.

Choose the folder you want it to place the exported image in. By default this will be My Pictures\Picasa Exports\ which is fine.

For "Image Size Options" choose "Resize" and adjust the slider. The number shown will be the number of pixels wide or tall (whichever is larger) the final image will be. You will want to use "640" or "480" for posting on this forum.

For "Image Quality Setting" choose a value like 50%. The higher the number, the larger the image.

Then click "OK" to save the exported image. Minimize Picasa and navigate to the folder with the exported image (My Pictures/Picasa Exports by default). Right click on the image and select "Properties". Look at the "Size" value for the image. You should see something like "59 kb". This size must be below "65 kb" to post on this forum. If the number is above 65 kb, delete the image, go back to Picasa, and go through the export procedure again, this time choosing a smaller image size "480" instead of "640" for instance, or a lower quality setting.

The forum

Once the image is under 65kb, it is time to post on this forum.

Below the text box for your reply you'll see a button called "Manage Attachments". Click this button to open a new small window. Using this window you can choose and upload up to 5 images, each of which must be less than 65kb.

Click the "Browse" button and navigate to the folder that holds your exported images (My Pictures/Picasa Exports by default). Select the image and click "Open".

Then click the "Upload" button on the "Manage Attachments" window.

You should see the text "Uploading File(s) - Please Wait...". This may take a moment depending on the speed of your internet connection.

If the attachment is successful you should see a link in the new Manage Attachments window to your image, with its size listed, as well as a new "Upload" box and button below that for adding another image (if you desire).

If the image is above 65 kb you will get an error, and the image will not be attached. The system will also not allow you to attach an image that is already attached to another thread.

Once you have chosen all of your images and Uploaded them, click the "Close This Window" button on the Manage Attachments window, and return to your post. You should see a list of your images in place of the original "Manage Attachments" button. Submit your post as usual, and the images will now be attached to that post!

Ta da!

Images that are already on the web

Do you have an image you would like to post that is already online? If you have uploaded an image to your personal webspace, or want to post an image off of another website, here is what you must do.

If the image is on a webpage, and you are using Internet Explorer, go to that webpage, right click on the image, and select "Properties". Then select the Address field, that looks like this "http://www.history.navy.mil/ac/d-day/88198v2.jpg" and hit Ctrl-C to copy the URL.

In the Mozilla or Firefox browsers, which are better in every way, simply find the image you wish to use, right click, and select, "Copy image location".

Then, in your post, decide where you want your image to appear (linked images like this appear full size, in the place that you put the link). In that location, type:

Simply type the first img tag (surrounded by the square brackets), hit CTRL-V to paste the URL of the image, and then type the second img tag (with square brackets, and preceding '/'.

Now your image will appear within your post. Remember that using this method, the image is not moved to the Shop Forum servers, so if the original webpage goes down, or the image is deleted by the webmaster there, the image will no longer appear here.

Notes

65kb is often complained about as 'too small', but on a forum of this size, the thousands of images being uploaded takes up a huge amount of space. As a webmaster myself, I can attest to the high cost of storage space! The ability to attach images at all is fairly rare among forums, and should be considered a valuable priviledge.

If you must show a higher resolution image, offer to email people higher res copies, or upload your image to your own web space (often offered to you by your ISP), and post a link to the full size image as described above.

I hope this post will be of use to people who are just getting used to their digital cameras (and people who are already used to them, but are looking for a better tool)! The web is a powerful vehicle for information, and it is true that "an image speaks 1000 words". Thanks for participating.

Peace,
Sam

P.S. Due disclosure, I don't work for any image processing software company, and don't have any interest in Picasa or any other software product beyond that of a satisfied user.

__________________
"That f***in' biodiesel is makin' me hungry."

1982 300TD Astral Silver w/ 250k (BIO BNZ)
2001 Aprilia SR50 Corsa Red w/ 5.5k (>100 MPG)

I for one, like the program, thanks for the link.

__________________


1980 500SE/AMG Euro
1981 500SEL Euro
1982 380SEL
1983 300TD
1983 500SEC/AMG Euro
1984 500SEC
1984 300TD Euro
1986 190E 2.3-16
1986 190E 2.3
1987 300D
1997 C36 AMG
2003 C320T 4matic

past: 1969 280SE 4.5 | 1978 240D | 1978 300D | 1981 300SD | 1981 300SD | 1982 300CD | 1983 300CD | 1983 300SD | 1983 380SEC | 1984 300D | 1984 300D | 1984 300TD | 1984 500SEL | 1984 300SD | 1985 300D | 1986 300E | 1986 560SEL | 1986 560SEL/Carat | 1987 560SEC | 1991 300D 2.5 | 2006 R350

Many digi-cams also have a setting for Email photos. These are usually a 640*480 px resolution which can be around the 65 KB size. Sometimes over, sometimes under.

These can easily be reduced if necessary using freeware / shareware image edit software.

Thanks Sam!

My current programs, Nero, $80, and Zoombrowser, came with camera, require a phd to make function!

This Picasa II, is exactly what I had expected from the above! It's much more user friendly and will likely delete the above now! Thanks again....BB

Cool I have to download that at home....damn security setting won't let me do it here.

__________________
Proud owner of ....
1971 280SE W108
1979 300SD W116
1983 300D W123
1975 Ironhead Sportster chopper
1987 GMC 3/4 ton 4X4 Diesel
1989 Honda Civic (Heavily modified)
---------------------
Section 609 MVAC Certified
---------------------
"He who fights with monsters might take care lest he thereby become a monster. And if you gaze for long into an abyss, the abyss gazes also into you." - Friedrich Nietzsche

Thanks for the information. Could you also explain why/how some images post as thumbnails and some post as full size?

Thanks,
Chris W.

If you follow the procedure that Sam has illustrated, you will only get a thumbnail version. The photo is uploaded to the M-Shop server and it lives there.

If you host the photo yourself, using your own space, you can link the photo to your post and everyone can see the full sized photo from your own web space. Presumably, you have a larger photo than the 64K limit here and you can use your own space for it.

You can link any photo that is currently on the the web to your posts at M-Shop. It's a rather cool thing to do once you figure out how to do it.

By running your own server you get tons and tons of webspace I built ours with a few hundred gigs.....There are many webhosting companies who will even take a system you buy or build, and put it into service in an area of their facility for a small "space fee", thus allowing you to build one with mass storage capability for not much $$, and don't have to maintain it at home. Plus should you ever cancel service with them, you get your server back. I find it easier (cheaper) to just run it from home......ours gets about 60,000+ hits a month.

__________________
-diesel is not just a fuel, its a way of life-
'15 GLK250 Bluetec 118k - mine - (OC-123,800)
'17 Metris(VITO!) - 37k - wifes (OC-41k)
'09 Sprinter 3500 Winnebago View - 62k (OC - 67k)
'13 ML350 Bluetec - 95k - dad's (OC-98k)
'01 SL500 - 103k(km) - dad's (OC-110,000km)
'16 E400 4matic Sedan - 148k - Brothers (OC-155k)

Yeah, I maintain servers at home (one inside the firewall, and one outside), too. I've thought about colocating, but its not worth the cost for me right now. I also maintain 3 domains on a shared host, which is fairly cost effective, and means I don't have to worry about DSL downtime and stuff like that. And besides, I don't want the majority of my traffic going over the DSL, cause I've got other plans for that bandwidth. My pipes are pretty fat, 1.5M down/384kb up, but it could be better.

But if someone is just getting used to their digicam, they probably aren't ready to colocate.

peace,
Sam

P.S. I'll add a section to the top post about posting an image that is located elsewhere.

__________________
"That f***in' biodiesel is makin' me hungry."

1982 300TD Astral Silver w/ 250k (BIO BNZ)
2001 Aprilia SR50 Corsa Red w/ 5.5k (>100 MPG)

You have a point


Our pipe on cable is currently 3.2mbit/256k.....soon to be upped (for free) to 4.2mbit/384k let the data flow begin!

__________________
-diesel is not just a fuel, its a way of life-
'15 GLK250 Bluetec 118k - mine - (OC-123,800)
'17 Metris(VITO!) - 37k - wifes (OC-41k)
'09 Sprinter 3500 Winnebago View - 62k (OC - 67k)
'13 ML350 Bluetec - 95k - dad's (OC-98k)
'01 SL500 - 103k(km) - dad's (OC-110,000km)
'16 E400 4matic Sedan - 148k - Brothers (OC-155k)

......................oh but to dream.................740K/92k on DSL

OK Sam, but how do I put large pics directly in the body of my post, so an additional click to view is not required? Like this guy Mr Byrnzoyl in this thread

Just "Renewed" the instrument panel, lights and gauges and odometer

I want to know how to do THAT.

thx

__________________
'02 BMW 325i
'85 300D 450k
'93 190E 2.6 170k(killed by tree)
'08 Ducati Hypermotard 1100S 6k
'06 Ducati S2R800 14k(sold)

You mean like THIS:






(it's a big secret )
(hint: read post #7)

Brian-Thanks for the very Informative post--is a great help in demystifying a few issues I had concerning downloading photos.

Well, I didn't provide the whole story. But Sam edited his original post and has covered it better than I ever could. Just head up there to the top and check it out carefully. It's all you could ever ask for.