posted 05-29-2001 10:07 PM            

The first step in getting pictures onto this (or any) web page is to get them in digital format. There are generally two ways to do this:

1) Use a digital camera.

2) Scan your exisiting prints with a scanner.

I can't go into detail about those two steps without writing a book, so lets assume you can do either of those two things on your own.

OK so now you've got a file, we'll use file.jpg as an example here. The two formats generally used are .jpg (pronounced jay-peg) and .gif (pronounced Jif like the peanut butter or Gif with a hard "G". Many people disagree on which, but I like Jif... but I digress...

Once you've got your file.jpg, you need to do a couple of things.

First - please make it "web sized". Most digital cameras these days are 2-3 megapixels. This means they can take pictures up to about 2000x1500. Most people run their monitors at say 800x600 or 1024x768. See the problem? If you leave your picture at a huge resolution, people will only see a piece of it, then have to scroll around to see the rest. Plus, the big files can be large in size and take FOREVER to download over a modem.

What to do? Learn to love a photo editing software package. I like Paint Shop Pro. You can download a trial package at http://www.jasc.com . You need to open file.jpg in this package, SAVE IT UNDER A NEW FILE NAME (don't destroy your original!), then resize it to a smaller size. I generally make web-able image to be about 600 pixels wide (or high depending on orientation).

OK - now you've got a nice web-sized file for the internet. Let's say you called it File_600.jpg.

Here's where it get's interesting.

In order to post a picture on this, or any other board, you need to get that picture on the Internet. Now just because it's on your PC, and your PC is "on the Internet" does not mean we're good - far from it.

You see in computer terms your PC is a "workstation". All it does is the work you need of it. What we need is a "server". A server is a machine that "serves" other people for whatever reason. For example my server "serves" the content of this web page to your workstation every time you request it (open it in your browser). Got it?

Now the deal is we need to get your File_600.jpg to a server, and you can't put it on mine. So where do we put it if we don't have our own servers?

Fear not - there are plenty of people out there in the same boat. So many in fact that many, many websites have popped up with the sole purpose of being a server for your pictures. You will need to sign up, then you can upload your pictures on their server (Don't worry it's easy!), then you are just about there.

Some examples of such websites are:

http://www.fototime.com <- My favorite - check out their AWESOME free photo cataloging software too!

http://www.photopoint.com <- now a pay site -

http://www.zing.com/ <- supposedly quite good, though I've never tried them.

http://www.clubphoto.com

and there are many more out there. I can't help you wih how to work them, becuse they are all different, but they are pretty easy to use, so don't be intimidated.

OK now's a good time to go get a drink - I'm almost done.

OK - so now hopefully you've got your picture, File_600.jog sitting on a server somewhere. Now you'll need to get to that picture, and to do that the service (whichever you chose) should somehow be able to tell you the URL (Universal Resource Locator), for the picture.

Huh?

Well the web site here is Http://www.newf.net. That's the URL, but did you know that every picture on ever website has a URL too? For example the picture of Daisy at the top of every page is at URL: http://www.newf.net/ubb/GAD-Images/NewfNetForums_300-2.jpg ! Click on it and see!

So now that you've got your URL, you need to reference it here. How to do that? Simple - take the URL and surround it with "URL Tags". What's a URL Tag?

[URL] [\URL]

These are tags. They are URL tags because they say URL in them.

Important! When you put them in your message use a forward slash "/" NOT a backslash "\" like I did in the example. Why'd I do it wrong? Because if I did it right, then you'd not see the tags!

Oh and if you have trouble remembering which damn slash is which? Try this - on most keyboard the BACKslash is near the BACKspace.

So here's what my Daisy image tag would look like if I were to include it (Remember - forward slash in yours - mine is just an example!)

[URL]http://www.newf.net/ubb/GAD-Images/NewfNetForums_300-2.jpg[\URL]

Cool huh? But that only make a link to the picture. I want to see the picture IN the post!

No problem. Simply change the URL tags to IMG tags! [IMG] [\IMG] (Use a slash - not a backslash!)

Hence a line like this: [IMG]http://www.newf.net/ubb/GAD-Images/NewfNetForums_300-2.jpg[\IMG]

Results in this:

Cool huh?

BTW - if you forget about how the tags work, when you're posting there is a link to the left of the message window which says "*UBB Code is ON". If you click that link it will show you how to do the tags (There are more too!).

-Whew!-

Oh yeah - don't put any spaces between your URL and the tags.

Well, I hope that helps. Me? I'm off to bed. I do all this and work too ya' know!

Enjoy,

posted 05-30-2001 02:05 AM         

Thanks!

posted 05-30-2001 09:39 AM            

I am going to buy some film and take photos of Rory sometime soon (because we really don't have enough of her and I know I'm going to regret that when she's older!) and I'll get some up here.

posted 12-29-2001 02:27 PM            

HTH,

posted 12-29-2001 10:37 PM            

You must have esp!!! I was thinking of this exact topic last night!!!! I want to try and get some new pics of the girls, and post some here. I used fototime, but I think that they are now a "pay site" as well