How to format pictures for AK Posts

Hey all,

I decided to do a little instructional thread here for the newbies to help people get the most out of their posted photos. I put in the DIY forum because, often, people take pictures of inside their electronics equipment to show problems, parts, wiring, etc. With an image that is is designed to fit the limits of AK picture posts (for JPEG, it is 900x900 and 190KB max.), everyone will be able to easily see what is trying to be pointed out . This way, it will be easier for people to give the best advice for whatever the problem, or just see your fancy equipment better .

1) Download free and install "The GIMP" Image editor from http://www.gimp.org/.


2) Transfer your image from you digital camera to wherever you see fit.

3) Run "The GIMP" and open the image file via: FILE -> OPEN


4) Cropping the image will let you focus in a part of the picture you are really interested. Therefore, less pixels and memory are wasted on unimportant parts of the picture. To crop the image, click the rectangular select tool in the top left of the GIMP. A yellow tooltip will highlight the button if you hold your mouse over it for a second, to make sure you have the right tool. After the rectangular selection tool is selected, click and drag a rectangle over the portion of the photo you are interested in. If your entire picture is of interest, skip to step 6.


5) Click IMAGE -> CROP TO SELECTION to discard the rest of the image


6) If your image is larger than 900x900 pixels, scale the image to the AK maximum of 900x900 pixels (or whatever size you desire) by clicking IMAGE -> SCALE IMAGE. Under "Image Size," make sure the units are set to pixels and click in the box of width or height which has the largest dimensions. Type in 900 (or your size choice) and click SCALE. As you click SCALE, notice the other axis (either width or height) will change so the picture's aspect ratio stays the same. The number will also change if click in the other box (either width or height). Here, my photo, after cropping was 1050 width by 825 height. I typed in 900 for the width and the height automatically changed to 707 pixels.


7) To view the full size image, select 100% from the zoom dropdown box.


8) Now to save the image, click FILE -> SAVE and click on the "Advanced Options" arrow. Unclick all but the "optimize" checkbox. The "EXIF data" is information about the camera that took the photo, an can take up quite a bit of space. On my camera, the EXIF data is commonly around 50KB, which will take up a quarter of the space allowed for AK pictures. It is unnecessary for our purposes, and it can't be removed with Microsoft Image Picture Editor or Paint (that I know of). The 'thumbnail' is a small version of the file attached to make previews quicker, also unnecessary here. Click "Show preview in image window" to get a real-time preview of what the saved image will look like. In the "Quality" adjustment bar at the top, adjust the quality until the image file size is as high as possible but below 190KB. My file here is 184KB. Click SAVE, that's it! Ready to be posted. :thmbsp:




sticky perhaps??

Great idea Bricktop, it took me forever to figure it out. BTW, Picasa is a good free one for anyone running Vista.:thmbsp:

Excellent write-up, bricktop! :thmbsp:

I would make only one change:

bricktop said:

6) Scale the image to the AK maximum of 900 by 900 pixels by clicking IMAGE -> SCALE IMAGE.

Click to expand...

If your image is already smaller than 900x900, scaling it is not needed. The original resolution is going to look the sharpest.

Also, I usually make my pics 720p in the longest dimension - lots of folks are still using older monitors, and it fits better within the post if your viewer is at an 800x600 monitor. (Also loads a little faster for those on dial-up, too.)

Great idea, Bricktop: Members are running into attachment problems caused by file-size restrictions all the time. In addition to Picasa, as suggested by Jaymanaa, one can also use commercial apps such as Photoshop or Paint Shop Pro, shareware apps such as Irfanview, or web-based apps such as Picnik.

I have a question for you: In your directions, you have embedded thumbnails of AK attachments: How do you that, when there are no attachments to the post? :scratch2:

If your using XP go here:
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/downloads/powertoys/xppowertoys.mspx
and get the XP Powertoy called Image Resizer... for a quick resize to attach you can just right click on the file and choose from the three preset sizes or enter an exact size if you want. The 800x600 works great for AK and the file is seldom over 100k. It creates the thumb and keeps it in the same file as the original.... quick and easy.:thmbsp:

jaymanaa said:

Great idea Bricktop, it took me forever to figure it out. BTW, Picasa is a good free one for anyone running Vista.:thmbsp:

Click to expand...

Nice! I haven't upgraded to Vista yet for fear of compatibility problems, but it might be in store for me soon.

ozmoid said:

Excellent write-up, bricktop! :thmbsp:

I would make only one change:If your image is already smaller than 900x900, scaling it is not needed. The original resolution is going to look the sharpest.

Also, I usually make my pics 720p in the longest dimension - lots of folks are still using older monitors, and it fits better within the post if your viewer is at an 800x600 monitor. (Also loads a little faster for those on dial-up, too.)

Click to expand...

Right you are! I'm used to pics from my camera that are huge. I fixed the original post.

Njord Noatun said:

I have a question for you: In your directions, you have embedded thumbnails of AK attachments: How do you that, when there are no attachments to the post? :scratch2:

Click to expand...

After the picture is uploaded with the Manage Attachments button, the picture thumbnail can be put in by clicking on the dropdown arrow of the paperclip button right above the AK text entry window. Just select your image filename and the proper text will be inserted in the AK text editor that will show your pic.

Acoustic said:

If your using XP go here:
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/downloads/powertoys/xppowertoys.mspx
and get the XP Powertoy called Image Resizer... for a quick resize to attach you can just right click on the file and choose from the three preset sizes or enter an exact size if you want. The 800x600 works great for AK and the file is seldom over 100k. It creates the thumb and keeps it in the same file as the original.... quick and easy.:thmbsp:

Click to expand...

I've never tried it, but it looks interesting. I wonder if it removes EXIF data, because I've always found that to hog up the data in the JPEG file. Do you know off hand?

I shrink my images to 800x600 with Corel Photohouse, upload them to Photobucket.com and just paste the image link here, the nice thing is that it ties up no space on the AK servers!! I just use a cheapo $80 Canon 5.0 megapixel camera, Dave. :yes:

dgwojo said:

I shrink my images to 800x600 with Corel Photohouse, upload them to Photobucket.com and just paste the image link here, the nice thing is that it ties up no space on the AK servers!! I just use a cheapo $80 Canon 5.0 megapixel camera, Dave. :yes:

Click to expand...

WOW nice cars! Classic cars like those need classic tube amps in them

Yup, there are about 600 different stones to kill the 'posting pictures' bird, I just named one. It is nice not using the AK server, I wonder how much Grumpy cares, how much space there is, etc. I wish my camera would take better pics up close, my Samsung 6MP L60 is kind of a cheap model and has a small image sensor. I did have an older Sony Cybershot 5MP that took great pictures, but I lost it :sigh:.

Just signed up with Photobucket.Is that the preferred storage site?

Njord Noatun said:

Great idea, Bricktop: ...I have a question for you: In your directions, you have embedded thumbnails of AK attachments: How do you that, when there are no attachments to the post? :scratch2:

Click to expand...

Some members have accounts at flickr, or photobucket, or any one of a dozen other image hosting sites. Just link to your files stored on their server, no need to upload to AK.

If you have personal web space through your ISP, or manage your own server, you could use that space to store photos too, just linking back to the images from your AK post.

bricktop said:

WOW nice cars! Classic cars like those need classic tube amps in them

Yup, there are about 600 different stones to kill the 'posting pictures' bird, I just named one. It is nice not using the AK server, I wonder how much Grumpy cares, how much space there is, etc. I wish my camera would take better pics up close, my Samsung 6MP L60 is kind of a cheap model and has a small image sensor. I did have an older Sony Cybershot 5MP that took great pictures, but I lost it :sigh:.

Click to expand...

Tubes would be cool in that Caddy!! That car is from right here in Brighton, MI, it won the Concour's D'Elegance at Meadowbrook a few years ago, it's a real show stopper!! I stopped uploading images to AK, that size limit is hard to meet and the images won't show up unless you're signed in, Photobucket images show up even if you're not signed on since they're just links. Good info here in this thread!!

bricktop said:

I've never tried it, but it looks interesting. I wonder if it removes EXIF data, because I've always found that to hog up the data in the JPEG file. Do you know off hand?

Click to expand...

It does not remove the EXIF info.

dgwojo said:

the nice thing is that it ties up no space on the AK servers!

Click to expand...

bricktop said:

It is nice not using the AK server, I wonder how much Grumpy cares, how much space there is, etc.

Click to expand...

Although there are obvious advantages, principally related to reducing the space requirements on AK servers, there are also disadvantages to embedding photos straight into the thread, notably that the page will take longer to load. This might not be so much of an issue if you have a broadband Internet connection, but might cause painful slowdowns for those that are on dial-up. Even with broadband, I notice a substantial slowdown in load times for threads such as "Show me your Sansui" (et. al.).

That reminds me - does anyone remember the incredible load times, even with broadband, for the now defunct "Chicks with Stereos" thread? It took forever to load.

imageshack.us, and you can use thumbnails.

Njord Noatun said:

...there are also disadvantages to embedding photos straight into the thread, notably that the page will take longer to load. This might not be so much of an issue if you have a broadband Internet connection, but might cause painful slowdowns for those that are on dial-up.

Click to expand...

Using flickr, I can embed a small version of the image that links back to a high res file. I'm pretty sensitive to these issues, because 50% of my AK time is spent using dial-up. :yes:

Njord Noatun said:

Although there are obvious advantages, principally related to reducing the space requirements on AK servers, there are also disadvantages to embedding photos straight into the thread, notably that the page will take longer to load. This might not be so much of an issue if you have a broadband Internet connection, but might cause painful slowdowns for those that are on dial-up. Even with broadband, I notice a substantial slowdown in load times for threads such as "Show me your Sansui" (et. al.).

That reminds me - does anyone remember the incredible load times, even with broadband, for the now defunct "Chicks with Stereos" thread? It took forever to load.

Click to expand...

HMMM, been off dial-ip for over 2 years, forgot about the slow times, luckily I compress all my images to around 100k so they load fairly quick, Dave.

What is good photo etiquette?

ozmoid said:

Using flickr, I can embed a small version of the image that links back to a high res file. I'm pretty sensitive to these issues, because 50% of my AK time is spent using dial-up. :yes:

Click to expand...

Although I have been known to "do it when others are doing it", I always felt like embedding a full-size (regardless of compression) photo straight into the post was a bit rude and "in your face", when a proper attachment would have done the job and been more considerate.

Any thoughts from AK principals or membership on what is the proper photo etiquette and protocol - attach or embed?

Thanks.

We would prefer that you attach your pictures, by posting them on AK's server, rather than leave them stored elsewhere. Server space is not an issue. Especially irritating is the linking of an interesting photo on an eBay listing, which quickly disappears, after the auction closes.

Dear Admin,
I've read your smart post because I was searching max pixel size of images posted on AK.
Now I know it's 900x900 and 190KB max. If you want to have your picture untouched and sharpest you have to fall below those two limits. Good.

But it's not quite the case...

Even if I attach an image BELOW the limits (original file 899x899 and 160K on my desktop) it is resized to 600x600 and 90K in the view overlay. Like the following:



How do you explain that?

Kind regards,
Dr.Turner