Posting pictures: A plea for mercy

[tstage]

This is just a reminder to all the folks who like to post photos here on the forum:

---

Whether you have dial-up or high-speed internet, it's always a good idea to keep your photo file sizes 100K or less when posting them so that they load faster.

---

As a good example to emulate, Mister Beasley just put together and posted a wonderful photo essay called Making an Atlas Deck into a True Pit turntable, which contains a fair number photos to show his progress and work.  Even with dial-up, each picture loads reasonably quick.  And each of the pictures can be clicked on and enlarged for better detail viewing.  The reason why his sizable essay loads quickly is because his photos average about 50-60K each.  His largest is only 98K.

I see some photos posted here on the forum that are 200K, 400K - even, 1Mg+ in size.  That's just way TOO big and unnecessary for posting.  It's not so bad when it's just one post in a thread.  However, when you have a thread like Weekend or Mid-week Photo Fun, it really snow balls.  If you don't know how large your photos are, right click on the them with your mouse  then scroll down to and click "Properties".  Like I said, 100K are smaller is preferable and more than adequate.

To reduce the size of my pictures, I use Microsoft Picture it!  As well as a good program for viewing my photos, MS Picture it! gives my several options to save them in a variety of sizes for e-mailing and posting them on my web site.  I'm sure there are some freeware programs that you can download that will do the same thing.

Anyway, thanks for your consideration!

Tom

[spidge]

Tom, thanks a bunch for the post. I am sure I am an offender and will look into this with your dirrection.

Very well said too.

[spidge]

That did not take too much effort at all. Please check out my WWW below and let me know if there are any offenders left.

I stuff that was from 35 to 250 in size and I am sure that many gave up on my photo album just a few pictures into it.

Again thank you Tom.

[jbinkley60]

That did not take too much effort at all. Please check out my WWW below and let me know if there are any offenders left.

I stuff that was from 35 to 250 in size and I am sure that many gave up on my photo album just a few pictures into it.

Again thank you Tom.

What WWW below ?  I don't see a URL.

Edit...  Duhhh.  I see the blue buttons now.  I must have gone blind earlier... 

 

[loathar]

How about not quoting pictures over and over 10 times too! This gets really annoying on WPF. I feel sorry for the dial up folks. All you have to do is take the ] off of the last [/img ] when posting a quote with a picture. This disables the picture but leaves the words. (have a heart people)

[spidge]

That did not take too much effort at all. Please check out my WWW below and let me know if there are any offenders left.

I stuff that was from 35 to 250 in size and I am sure that many gave up on my photo album just a few pictures into it.

Again thank you Tom.

What WWW below ?  I don't see a URL.

 

At the bottom of both our posts there are links provided by this forum.

Mine is email,pm,www(links to my photos),weblog(yahoo site)

[cordon]

 

OK.  Good idea.  I'll try to remember to do it.

I use Paint Shop Pro (PSP) 3.  I did not like PSP 4 and have never looked at any later version.

 

 

[ShadowNix]

Hello,

I mostly agree (especially about reposting pic's)... but there are times when larger shots are required and file size will be bigger.  As technology (e.g. 10-20 megapixel cameras) advances, this limit becomes cumbersome.  Two options come to mind:

1.  Post the smaller pic and then a link for a larger version of the pic.

2.  Get a faster connection (or lobby for one!!!)

Just my humble opinion...

Brian

[selector]

Most of us keep images in folders under "My Documents", "My pictures".  When you open a photo there, on the left is a task bar, with one of the offerings "e-mail this picture".  If you indicate a photo, then click on this link, you will automatically be suggested to resize, which the program does for you when you agree to it.  The resulting image can be saved to a new file folder for all resized photos...which is where I keep mine.  When I go to upload to railimages, I go to that one folder that has no photo file larger than about 80k.

So, virtually everyone has such a capability in their software right now...or should.

[tstage]

Brian,

I would agree that if the details are THAT important to the picture, a link to another site (like folks do for their YouTube videos) would be the most appropriate.  Cropping the non-essentials from a photo would also be another way to display details without having a large file.

Tom 

[MisterBeasley]

As a good example to emulate, Mister Beasley just put together and posted ...

I keep my digitial camera set at 1 megapixels.  I upload the pictures to my computer, and then host them on Railimages.  That site, free but donation supported (hint hint) automatically compresses the pictures (or whatever) to the size I post with.  It's basically no work at all for me.  The auto-expand characteristic comes for free from Railimages, too.

[marknewton]

Most of us keep images in folders under "My Documents", "My pictures".  When you open a photo there, on the left is a task bar, with one of the offerings "e-mail this picture".  If you indicate a photo, then click on this link, you will automatically be suggested to resize, which the program does for you when you agree to it.  The resulting image canbe saved to a new file folder for all resized photos...which is where I keep mine

So, virtually everyone has such a capability in their software right now...or should.

Do we? I've never seen or heard of these things you describe...Oh, you must be talking about PC users! In that case I offer my condolences. :-)

All the best,

Mark.

[SteamFreak]

Tom,

When I posted on WPF last weekend I remembered that you had mentioned this issue somewhere, but my photos were about 130K, which I thought wasn't too far over the 100K limit. However, I just went back to check them, and a number of them were around 250K and I didn't even realize it!

Sorry. I tend to think of everyone as having high speed these days.

[Anonymous]

It takes me longer to break and block the advertising than it is to load pictures. That is one reason I prefer just to link to them off-site.

[modelalaska]

How about not quoting pictures over and over 10 times too! This gets really annoying on WPF. I feel sorry for the dial up folks. All you have to do is take the ] off of the last [/img ] when posting a quote with a picture. This disables the picture but leaves the words. (have a heart people)

Thanks Loathar, you took the words right out of my mouth. Having the same big pictures downloading more than once is a major waste! I pass up on WFP most of the time because of this.
Peter

[selector]

...Do we? I've never seen or heard of these things you describe...Oh, you must be talking about PC users! In that case I offer my condolences. :-)

All the best,

Mark.

Whatever.... 

[Anonymous]

How about not quoting pictures over and over 10 times too! This gets really annoying on WPF. I feel sorry for the dial up folks. All you have to do is take the ] off of the last [/img ] when posting a quote with a picture. This disables the picture but leaves the words. (have a heart people)

 

[jeffrey-wimberly]

Almost all of mine are under 100k. Those that are over are ones that don't getb used much. Even then, they're not over by much.

[claymore1977]

Most of us keep images in folders

Do we? I've never seen or heard of these things you describe...Oh, you must be talking about PC users! In that case I offer my condolences. :-)

All the best,

Mark.

 LOL another die hard anti PC person. I am assuming a mac perefence?  ;)   I use a Dual Xeon machine, a quad Mac Pro and a Quad Athlon RHEL4 machine at work.... I prefer the Linux machine first, PC second and mac dead last.  Sure the Mac OS is pretty and easy to use, but the software makes the bulk of the productivity of the machine!  Try as they might, Apple still just doesn't have the software availability they should have at this point in their company life.  I could launch into a deep this vs that debate, but its rather pointless as I imagine what I use my computers for is not the same as anyone else, so we would be debating about apples and oranges... and a banana or two :P

 

As for photo editing software, I know its an expenditure, but look into Photoshop Elements.  Its a watered down version of the whole Photoshop suite for like 60-80 bucks.  I have tried all the freeware Photoshop replacements and have only been annoyed by them.  Having a tech supported, registered peice of software is worth it in this arena... in my opinion of course.  I designed my website graphics 100% in Photoshop elements (Link is in signature) in about 15 minutes.  Great software!

 

One last thing.  PSE has a batch processing feature.  If you have a ton of huge pictures, it can copy them, resize them, and rename them, all automaticly :)

 

[GAPPLEG]

Thanks for breaching the subject again, Being on dialup at home, it's painful to view WPF etc from there. Here at work I'm T-1 so no problems here. Perhaps when I retire this year , I'll go broadband at home, but for now it's dialup at home. The really painful one are the people that repeatedly quote photos over and over. Makes looking at anything a trial of patience.

[secondhandmodeler]

I have a question.  If my photo is linked to photobucket, does it load a smaller size than listed.  As much as I use a computer, I'm still learning some of this stuff.  The reason I ask is, when I look at the properties of the small picture, the size is the same as the bigger version.  I'm just trying to not be an offending party. Any guidance would be appreciated.

[claymore1977]

I have a question.  If my photo is linked to photobucket, does it load a smaller size than listed.  As much as I use a computer, I'm still learning some of this stuff.  The reason I ask is, when I look at the properties of the small picture, the size is the same as the bigger version.  I'm just trying to not be an offending party. Any guidance would be appreciated.

 

If I am understanding you correctly, then yes, these forums do a 'preview' of sorts to make your picture fit inside the thread posts.  Once you click on the 'preview' picture then the full resolution picture will pop up.

... or did I miss your point?

[spidge]

I have a question.  If my photo is linked to photobucket, does it load a smaller size than listed.  As much as I use a computer, I'm still learning some of this stuff.  The reason I ask is, when I look at the properties of the small picture, the size is the same as the bigger version.  I'm just trying to not be an offending party. Any guidance would be appreciated.

I also use photobucket and when you sign in and view your album look above the picture to the left and you will see an option to resize the photo. Don't go to small as you cannot make them larger again. Also remember that when you post a photo here all we have to do is click on it to make it large.

[secondhandmodeler]

Yes, that was my question.  Thank you for the reply.  I wanted to make sure I wasn't doing this wrong.

[TheK4Kid]

Hi everyone!

 I have a question.

I too am still learning the picture posting business.

I use Photobucket.

Okay, under the lower left hand side of my pictures, it will say "picture by" then give the size, example, I have one that says 42kb, so if I post it to the forum, will it load as 42 kb, or larger?

I see the "resize" feature above the upper left hand side of my pictures. 

I'd apprecaite any help or advice.

 Thanks and everyone have a great day and happy MRRing.

As for me, I am still  nursing a broken left foot, and still can't negotiate the stairway down to my trainroom.Plus I can't put any weight on my left foot yet, so attempting to work on my layout while on crutchees just doesn't work.

 So for now, I have several building kits I am assembling, I have some newsppers stretched across my coffee table, and half of an old hollow wood door on top of this, and presently am working on a Walthers "City Station" and a "Cheyenne Coal Bunker" by IHC.

Does anyone have any decent photos of a "real" Cheyenne Coal Bunker, I can use for reference when painting it later on?

For those not knowledgeable on the IHC Cheyenne coal bunker, it comes with a "gaudy orange" main structure with bright yellow stairways,etc, and the top structure is silver  or simulated aluminum in color.

Best regards to everyone!

Ed 

 

 

[Anonymous]

...Do we? I've never seen or heard of these things you describe...Oh, you must be talking about PC users! In that case I offer my condolences. :-)

All the best,

Mark.

Whatever.... 

 

 

 

 

[loathar]

I just looked on my photobucket page. The thumb nails are all around 4000 bytes. When you click to enlarge them they are about 100kb. This was the default Photobucket resizing.

[tstage]

Loathar,

I believe that Railimages.com has the same limit.

Tom 

[SteamFreak]

Do we? I've never seen or heard of these things you describe...Oh, you must be talking about PC users! In that case I offer my condolences. :-)

Mac Switch Parody by Hunter Cressall

 

 As for photo editing software, I know its an expenditure, but look into Photoshop Elements.  Its a watered down version of the whole Photoshop suite for like 60-80 bucks.  I have tried all the freeware Photoshop replacements and have only been annoyed by them.  Having a tech supported, registered peice of software is worth it in this arena... in my opinion of course.  I designed my website graphics 100% in Photoshop elements (Link is in signature) in about 15 minutes.  Great software!

 One last thing.  PSE has a batch processing feature.  If you have a ton of huge pictures, it can copy them, resize them, and rename them, all automaticly :)

There is no reason to purchase Photoshop if all you need to do is resize images for this forum. All that's necessary is to reduce the resolution to 800x600 or 640x480, and reduce the file quality for a good compromise between file size and quality when you save. I used to use Irfanview, but switched to FastStone image viewer, which has a ton of features and is totally free. They also have a batch resizer.

FastStone 

[WCfan]

Do we? I've never seen or heard of these things you describe...Oh, you must be talking about PC users! In that case I offer my condolences. :-)

Mac Switch Parody by Hunter Cressall

 

 

OMG. I'm still laughfing after the second time Watching it.