With an increasing number of members using this forum and wishing to share images with others, I have written a short and hopefully helpfull tutorial to allow members to comply with the posting guidelines that the forum has.
File sizes and linking pictures to the forum
This forum has a maximum posting limit on both size (in kB) and length (in pixels), these are 200kB maximum size, and 800 pixels on the longest side, either width or length.
There are easy to follow tutorials
(See Here) on optimising photo’s for use on website’s and forums for the common photo editing software such as Photoshop and Elements, but we realise that not all members have access to the latest editing software and are unsure of how to reduce the size of their files to comply with the posting guidelines
(See Here) this forum has.
The following paragraph was taken from Windows Vista help.
“Many common picture editing programs allow you to change the quality level of a JPEG picture when it is saved. When using the program, look in the program's Save As dialog box for an option to change the compression or quality level. The lower the quality (or higher the compression), the smaller the file will be when it is saved”.
I have tried this in Elements 5, and although not as easy or as controllable as The Save For Web Feature in Photoshop
(See Here) it does work and will comply with the file sizes that the forum requires.
To do this just follow the instructions and picture that follow, and the file sizes will be within the limits that this forum has. Although the dialogue boxes will be different in various editing software the principle is the same.
Open up your picture in your editing program and then go < File < save as
This will bring up a dialogue box, with jpeg options that are usually set to 10 or 12 (maximum) so the file size will be large. If you move the slider (1) to the left as indicated the new file size will be shown in the Size box at the bottom (2)
Aim for a file size of 185KB approx as the file may grow in size when uploaded to a hosting site due to their compression algorithms.
Then all you need to do is upload the images to one of the many photo hosting sites that exist.
The more popular one’s that are Free are
Flickr
(See Here)Photobucket
(See Here)Shutterfly
(See Here)Picasa
(See Here)Snapfish
(See Here)Most are usually free for the basics, and to be honest that is all that is generally needed unless you are uploading hundreds of images a month.
Once you have chosen and registered with one of the photo hosting sites and you wish to share some images on the forum with other members, you will need to get your image’s URL address to do so.
But don’t worry, its really simple :-
Just follow the next few steps and your image will be displayed on the forum.
I’ve used flickr as an example, but nearly all are the same.
Log into your hosting site and go to the image you wish to show on the forum
Go to the ‘All Sizes’ tab and click this. This will then bring up a selection of image sizes in pixels, depending on the size of the original file uploaded.
Click on the file size that you wish to show on the forum, making sure it’s not over 800 pixels in width or length.
Below this image there are two boxes with the address of your images URL.
Highlight the URL as shown above and copy it.
Then in the Images to share section or photo critiques section, click new topic.
This will bring up a dialogue box. In this you will need to click the little image icon (1) shown. This will bring up the image tags in the dialogue box (2) shown.
You then need to click in between the image tags with your cursor
and paste the image URL you copied earlier. It will then look like this
Once you have written your description or information on the picture, just select post and your image will be displayed on the forum.
Photobucket requires that you only need click on the desired link below you’re photo and it will be saved to memory, complete with image tags. You then need only to paste it into your post.
If you still have problems with sizing your files or getting images to display on this forum, then either post a topic
In This Thread or contact one of the Moderation Team.
fother,
AScot,
gazraa or
minolta mad 
Rob [minolta mad]
