Tutorial - Resizing and Uploading Photos (w/pix)

[addict]

Since this is a question we see frequently, I decided to put together a mini tutorial on the basics of resizing and uploading photos to Reef Aquarium Guide.
This tutorial covers uploading to the Photo Gallery, using [img] tags to insert the gallery photo into a post, and also using the Attach function to attach pictures to posts in a thread.

Without further ado...


Resizing your Photo
Step 1.
The first step is to right-click on the photo icon, and select Open With > Paint.




Step 2.
When the photo opens in Paint, in the Paint menubar, select Image > Attributes...



Step 3.
Now you can see the attributes of the image, including the size of the image on disk... this is the important part, as this will determine how much you need to resize the image. In this case, the 'stock' image is 2,243,380 bytes, or somewhere around 2 megabytes. Each user has a space limit of 6 megabytes, and a single-photo upload limit of 500 kilobytes, so you'll want to make your photos fairly small to conserve both bandwidth and space in your gallery account.



Now click the Cancel button.

Step 4.
Next, in the Paint menubar, select Image > Stretch/Skew



In the resulting box that pops up, enter a percentage value to shrink the photo in both the Horizontal and Vertical fields. In this case I used 50%, but this will vary depending on how much you need to reduce the size of the photo... normally 50% will work for gallery photos, or 25%-33% for uploading to a forum thread. This is entirely dependent on the megapixel rating of your camera... cameras with higher megapixel ratings will need to reduce photo sizes more than those with lower megapixel ratings.



Now click the OK button.

Step 5.
Now, in the Paint menubar, select File > Save As... and save the photo to your desktop. Save As... saves a copy of your photo so that you don't overwrite the original. Once the photo is uploaded you can delete the copy you made and the original will still be located on your computer. I recommend using the JPEG format when saving photos... it offers the best compromise between file quality and file size, plus it is cross-compatible with browsers on all platforms.



Step 6.
Now, in the Paint menubar, select Image > Attributes....
Check the new file size to make sure that it is under the size limit for photos (500K for the gallery, or 100K for thread posts). In this case, the new photo is now 224,426 bytes, or somewhere around 220K, well under the 500K limit.



If the photo is still too large, do the 'Stretch/Skew' step again, then Save the photo. You don't need to do a Save As... this time because you already have the copy open. Close the image.


Uploading to the Gallery
Step 7.
Now that the photo is resized, it's time to get it up to the site. We'll cover uploading to the gallery first. Click the Gallery button in the navigation header, or in the RAG Navigator box on the left of the forum display.



Step 8.
On the next screen, the Gallery home page, up at the right-hand side of the screen, over the photo thumbnails is a link titled Upload Photos. Click this link.



Step 9.
The next screen is the photo upload interface. The first thing you want to do is select a Category to put the photo in. In this case I chose Member Galleries. Choose a category which best fits the photo you're uploading, or Member Galleries if you just want to upload it to your personal gallery.



Once you choose a Category, click the Browse... button located just beneath it, and select the copy of the photo you made by navigating to it and double-clicking the file.



Now enter a Title and Description in the two blank fields set aside for this purpose.



Select whether or not you wish to be e-mailed when a comment is posted to your photo.



And then click the Upload/Submit button at the bottom of the page.



Once your photo is done uploading, you will be notified that the upload was successful, then you will be taken to the photo you uploaded.

Step 10.
The photo on the first screen you are taken to is the Medium version of the photo. If you click the photo, it will take you to the Large version. Now you have a choice to make... do you want to put the medium or large version of the photo in a post? I find that it's probably better to use the Medium version of the photo, so that dial-up users aren't choking on huge files... but the choice is ultimately up to you. Some photos will not have a Large version if they are smaller than 600 pixels wide

The next section is no longer 'necessary'. The photopost code has been modified so that the IMG code shows up underneath the photo. You can just copy/paste this text anywhere into your post (just make sure you copy the whole tag).

Once you select a photo, right click on it, and scroll down to Properties



In the Properties window that pops up, highlight and copy the Address of the photo. (Just highlight the text by click-dragging with the mouse, then right-click on it and select 'copy')



Step 11.
Now to insert the photo into a post (such as I've been doing with the tutorial photos), you'll use the [img] tags... but don't let that scare you, it's actually surprisingly easy.

If you're a novice, you can use the IMG button that is over the Message: field when posting a new message by clicking on it.



In the window that pops up, paste the Address of the picture that you copied.



Then click the OK button. The message window should now look like this:



If you don't wish to use the IMG button, you can simply 'hand-tag' your own addresses by first pasting the address into the Message: field, then by using [img] on one end of the address, and [/img] on the other. You can cut/paste this text block anywhere in your post and it will work (as long as both tags are copied with the address).

Attaching Images to Posts
Now, if you wish to simply attach a photo to a thread you start, resize the photo so that it's under 100K, and use the Attach file: field located under the Options: field when posting a message. If you wish to attach an image when posting a reply to a thread, you need to use the Post Reply button at the bottom right of the thread, you can't attach images through the 'Quick Reply' box (though you 'can' use [img] tags in the 'Quick Reply' box). Just click the Browse... button, navigate to the photo, and double-click the photo to attach it.



Well, I think that about covers it... if you have any questions, or I was unclear on any part of this tutorial, please leave a comment and I'll revise it. The whole purpose is so that everybody can share their pictures without any problem.

[cheeks69]

Excellent David

[addict]

Thanks Robert.

Not too bad of a Windows tutorial for a Macintosh guy, eh?

[Miniatus]

If you want to resize before uploading there is this one from Microsoft.



http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/d...powertoys.mspx

Right hand side look for image resizer.

[reef pig]

Good post, too bad Ididnt read it earlier might need to delete some stuff and repost some photos for more gallery space. Thanks! pig out.

[Aquaman210]

great info thanx

[Kirin1]

Anyone know how to get this done on a Mac? Can't seem to work it out in iPhoto...

Answered my own question.
FIle>Export
...and choose your dimensions. Simple.

I couldn't figure out how to delete my question, so I hope this helps someone else

[Edd1967]

I am getting an error when trying to upload saying image is not acceptable. Are bmp's accepted if below the 500K threshold? I also tried to save as jpeg but it didn't work.