Post by Orlaith on Aug 24, 2009 14:02:58 GMT
I hope no one minds but I've noticed a few people lately have been having trouble posting photos on the site so I thought I'd make a basic tutorial to help everyone out.
There are lots of different sites to host your pictures but the one I use is www.photobucket.com, so this is what I'm going to use to show how to post pictures. It's free to use and allows you to upload a decent amount of photos.
First of all, a lot of the pictures you take on your digital camera are too big for the forum and the large file sizes mean that it takes a long time to upload them from your computer. If you have windows XP, you can download a free Image Resizer tool from Microsoft here (the link is on the right hand side) and there is a tutorial on how to use it here. It is very simple and quick to use and will make the process of uploading your pictures much faster. If you don't have Windows XP OR you just forget to resize before uploading, I'll explain how to make your pictures smaller later on.
Organising your photos into albums
It's not essential, but if you're going to upload lots of pictures of your furry friends (and I hope you do!), it helps to organise your pictures into different albums. It is important that you organise as you go along because if you move a picture to a different album later, you will break the link and anywhere you've already posted your picture will end up with a message saying the picture has been deleted.
To add a new album, type the album name into the box indicated by the arrow and click "Save"
Adding photos to an album
Adding photos is very simple. First of all, you click on the name of the album you want to put your pictures in. You will know you're in the right one because at the top left it will say your user name (so mine is ebonyphoenix in these pictures) and the album name (which, in my case, is Animals):
Next you click on the big "Upload images and videos" button:
And you will be shown something like this:
To choose the photos, you click on them with your mouse to highlight them. If you want to choose more than one photo, then press and hold down the "ctrl" button (normally bottom left of the keyboard) while you click and don't let go until you've chosen all the ones you want.
Then click on "Open" on the dialog box, and it'll show you something like this while your pictures are being uploaded:
When the upload is finished, it will take you to a page like this:
On this page you can add names and descriptions to your pictures, as well as tags. Tags can be useful if you want to find all your pictures of a specific guinea pig. For example, if I tag all my photos with my piggies' names, but I only want to see pictures with Xander in them, I can use the tags to search for those rather than going through every single picture I have.
When you are finished, click on "Return to Album" at the bottom:
Congratulations, your photos have now been uploaded!!!
But I forgot to rename my photo!
Don't worry, it's really simple to rename a picture and changing the name won't mess up your links!
First click on "Click to add title" and once you're done, press "OK", easy!
What if my pictures are too big?
The forum usually makes your pictures smaller on its own, but if your picture is still too big or is taking up too much memory, here is how to change the size.
Making your pictures smaller is also really easy. First, click on the "edit" button above your picture:
Next click the "Resize" button:
The normal size is usually about 640x480. Make sure to select "Keep proportions" to make sure your piggies don't get stretched!
There are a LOT of options on this page and you can experiment all you want. Remember to choose "Save a copy" rather than "Replace Original" if you're not sure you want to keep the changes you've made - that means your original picture will still be there for you to use if you decide you don't like what you've done or you want to try something different.
Who can see my pictures?
That is entirely up to you. You can choose to keep your pictures private if you want. If you choose "Private" you can still use your pictures on the forum and use them as your avatar etc., but people will not be able to search for them on the Photobucket website or see them by using your username.
To change the account privacy settings, click on "Account Options" at the very top on the right hand side. Scroll down the page and there is a box where you can choose "Private" or "Public":
. Whatever you choose will be the default setting for ALL the albums you make.
However, if you want to keep some of your albums private or share with a very limited number of friends, you can choose to make individual albums private. This can be useful if there are pictures you would prefer not everyone to see, e.g. family gatherings etc.
To alter the privacy settings of individual albums, click the 'edit' that appears at the top of the album list on the left hand side:
You will then see a list of your albums and their privacy status.
To change from public to private, simply click on 'Public' and it will give you the option to change to private. You can also add a guest password, which you can give to friends and family that will allow them to see only that album, none of your other ones. That means that pictures you want to keep private will stay that way unless you decide otherwise.
Please note that if you decide to make your overall account status private, you cannot choose to make individual albums public. In order to have public albums you must make a public account (which you can change at any time) and then decide for each album.
Okay, I've done all that. Now I want to post some PIGGIES!
Yay! I can't wait to see them! You've done all the hard bits (and it wasn't really too hard, was it?) and now it's really simple to show off your gorgeous girls and boys.
There are two important links you need for each picture you want to share with us and photobucket handily puts them right underneath each photo!
The first is the Direct Link (or http address):
and the second is the img code:
So, how do I use these codes? First, make sure you highlight the whole link right to the end, and copy (either by right-clicking and selecting 'Copy' or by pressing 'ctrl+c' together).
Now, if you want to show us a picture by posting a reply to a thread (or making a new thread for your lovely piggies) then you use the IMG code (beautifully modelled by my lovely girl Mabel!):
and paste it (by right-clicking and pressing 'Paste' or pressing 'ctrl+p') into the reply box like this:
Easy! So now you know how to post pictures in all the competitions like Cavy and Pet Of The Month and how to show off your photos in other threads!
Now, how about adding photos to your profile?
First, click 'Profile' at the top and then 'Modify Profile':
To add a picture as your avatar or as the background of your mini-profile at the side, you need the Direct Link code (thanks again Mabel!):
and you simply copy and paste this link into the relevant box:
Note that avatar images have to be VERY small and the forum will resize them if they're too big. If you want to focus in one one area of a photo, you can use the Crop tool that is part of Photobucket (it's beside the 'Resize' button).
To change your signature, you use the IMG code (as for posting in threads):
And paste in here:
Don't forget to save your changes at the end:
So, that is the end of the photobucket tutorial! I hope I've helped some people to be able to share their pictures with us. It only covers the basic things but it should be most of what you need to know.
If I have left anything out or you would like some more help, please let me know and I will do my best to help you
Happy posting!!!
There are lots of different sites to host your pictures but the one I use is www.photobucket.com, so this is what I'm going to use to show how to post pictures. It's free to use and allows you to upload a decent amount of photos.
First of all, a lot of the pictures you take on your digital camera are too big for the forum and the large file sizes mean that it takes a long time to upload them from your computer. If you have windows XP, you can download a free Image Resizer tool from Microsoft here (the link is on the right hand side) and there is a tutorial on how to use it here. It is very simple and quick to use and will make the process of uploading your pictures much faster. If you don't have Windows XP OR you just forget to resize before uploading, I'll explain how to make your pictures smaller later on.
Organising your photos into albums
It's not essential, but if you're going to upload lots of pictures of your furry friends (and I hope you do!), it helps to organise your pictures into different albums. It is important that you organise as you go along because if you move a picture to a different album later, you will break the link and anywhere you've already posted your picture will end up with a message saying the picture has been deleted.
To add a new album, type the album name into the box indicated by the arrow and click "Save"
Adding photos to an album
Adding photos is very simple. First of all, you click on the name of the album you want to put your pictures in. You will know you're in the right one because at the top left it will say your user name (so mine is ebonyphoenix in these pictures) and the album name (which, in my case, is Animals):
Next you click on the big "Upload images and videos" button:
And you will be shown something like this:
To choose the photos, you click on them with your mouse to highlight them. If you want to choose more than one photo, then press and hold down the "ctrl" button (normally bottom left of the keyboard) while you click and don't let go until you've chosen all the ones you want.
Then click on "Open" on the dialog box, and it'll show you something like this while your pictures are being uploaded:
When the upload is finished, it will take you to a page like this:
On this page you can add names and descriptions to your pictures, as well as tags. Tags can be useful if you want to find all your pictures of a specific guinea pig. For example, if I tag all my photos with my piggies' names, but I only want to see pictures with Xander in them, I can use the tags to search for those rather than going through every single picture I have.
When you are finished, click on "Return to Album" at the bottom:
Congratulations, your photos have now been uploaded!!!
But I forgot to rename my photo!
Don't worry, it's really simple to rename a picture and changing the name won't mess up your links!
First click on "Click to add title" and once you're done, press "OK", easy!
What if my pictures are too big?
The forum usually makes your pictures smaller on its own, but if your picture is still too big or is taking up too much memory, here is how to change the size.
Making your pictures smaller is also really easy. First, click on the "edit" button above your picture:
Next click the "Resize" button:
The normal size is usually about 640x480. Make sure to select "Keep proportions" to make sure your piggies don't get stretched!
There are a LOT of options on this page and you can experiment all you want. Remember to choose "Save a copy" rather than "Replace Original" if you're not sure you want to keep the changes you've made - that means your original picture will still be there for you to use if you decide you don't like what you've done or you want to try something different.
Who can see my pictures?
That is entirely up to you. You can choose to keep your pictures private if you want. If you choose "Private" you can still use your pictures on the forum and use them as your avatar etc., but people will not be able to search for them on the Photobucket website or see them by using your username.
To change the account privacy settings, click on "Account Options" at the very top on the right hand side. Scroll down the page and there is a box where you can choose "Private" or "Public":
. Whatever you choose will be the default setting for ALL the albums you make. However, if you want to keep some of your albums private or share with a very limited number of friends, you can choose to make individual albums private. This can be useful if there are pictures you would prefer not everyone to see, e.g. family gatherings etc.
To alter the privacy settings of individual albums, click the 'edit' that appears at the top of the album list on the left hand side:
You will then see a list of your albums and their privacy status.
To change from public to private, simply click on 'Public' and it will give you the option to change to private. You can also add a guest password, which you can give to friends and family that will allow them to see only that album, none of your other ones. That means that pictures you want to keep private will stay that way unless you decide otherwise.
Please note that if you decide to make your overall account status private, you cannot choose to make individual albums public. In order to have public albums you must make a public account (which you can change at any time) and then decide for each album.
Okay, I've done all that. Now I want to post some PIGGIES!
Yay! I can't wait to see them! You've done all the hard bits (and it wasn't really too hard, was it?) and now it's really simple to show off your gorgeous girls and boys.
There are two important links you need for each picture you want to share with us and photobucket handily puts them right underneath each photo!
The first is the Direct Link (or http address):
and the second is the img code:
So, how do I use these codes? First, make sure you highlight the whole link right to the end, and copy (either by right-clicking and selecting 'Copy' or by pressing 'ctrl+c' together).
Now, if you want to show us a picture by posting a reply to a thread (or making a new thread for your lovely piggies) then you use the IMG code (beautifully modelled by my lovely girl Mabel!):
and paste it (by right-clicking and pressing 'Paste' or pressing 'ctrl+p') into the reply box like this:
Easy! So now you know how to post pictures in all the competitions like Cavy and Pet Of The Month and how to show off your photos in other threads!
Now, how about adding photos to your profile?
First, click 'Profile' at the top and then 'Modify Profile':
To add a picture as your avatar or as the background of your mini-profile at the side, you need the Direct Link code (thanks again Mabel!):
and you simply copy and paste this link into the relevant box:
Note that avatar images have to be VERY small and the forum will resize them if they're too big. If you want to focus in one one area of a photo, you can use the Crop tool that is part of Photobucket (it's beside the 'Resize' button).
To change your signature, you use the IMG code (as for posting in threads):
And paste in here:
Don't forget to save your changes at the end:
So, that is the end of the photobucket tutorial! I hope I've helped some people to be able to share their pictures with us. It only covers the basic things but it should be most of what you need to know.
If I have left anything out or you would like some more help, please let me know and I will do my best to help you
Happy posting!!!
Thanks so much for taking the time to do this for us 
??
