Guide: Posting pictures on the forum
07-19-2006, 03:15 AM
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Join Date: Jul 2006
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Guide: Posting pictures on the forum
Have you ever wondered how to post a picture on the internet? Do you buy anything used online without seeing what it looks like? Most people don’t and I agree 100%. It’s often overlooked but pictures are an easy way to get top dollar for your item. I am going to show you an easy way to prepare a picture, upload it to a hosting site, and finally how to get it shown on the internet. You just need to know how to take a picture and put it on your computer (digital camera, photo cd, captured image, camera phone you emailed to yourself)
First off let’s get you the one program you need to do this, its 100% free and works great. It’s super easy for beginners and has most tools an advanced user would need. It’s called IrfanView v3.98
www.download.com/3000-2192-10491149.html
Just download and install it, I don’t install the desktop search as I am very computer literate and I find it useless.
Open up IrFanView (little red road kill looking thing) and click on file (or the file picture, or if you want to be smart or lazy just hit the O key) and navigate to where the picture is that you want to use. Click on the picture and hit the Open button. That will load the picture for you to work with.
1st off we will crop the picture down, this helps reduce the overall size as well as makes the picture easier on the viewer. Left click (hold) where you want one of the corners to be, and drag the box around where you want to keep. Once you do this you can click on Edit and select Crop Selection.
Once your picture is cropped where you would we need to resize it to something more user friendly. Click on Image and select Resize/ Resample. This will open a box where you can make adjustments. You will see the Width and Height boxes, find the larger of the 2 values and enter in 800. This will keep the correct aspect ratio so your picture does not look distorted, whale it limits the height/width to 800 pixels or under. (This is also the max displayed size for eBay) This is much easier for people to view on there computers without having to scroll and it also reduces the overall file size so you can post it on most free images services.
Once you have the picture resized we are going to sharpen the image. This makes even the best digital camera look better and can be a real life savor for those of us with a medium or lower quality camera. Just click on Image again and select Sharpen. I normally do this once and I do not recommend you do it more than twice, it will sharpen the picture to much and make it start to appear grainy. (This is how I get so many complements on pictures that I post).
Now we just need to save the picture, click on file and select Save As, this will bring up the save window where you can type in a new file name and what type of file. Most files I recommend saving in jpeg (jpg) format. Once you select the jpg format a new box will open up and you can adjust the quality of the picture. Unless I am doing a huge picture (anything over 1600x1200 resolution) I save at 100%. Once you have it set just hit Save.
Congratulations now your picture is ready to be uploaded to an image hosting service. This is where you picture is stored and linked to. There are many free ones (and paid) but the one I like the best is xs.to, there is no registration or sign-ups. Just select your picture and upload it.
Once it loads to the server you will see a picture preview and below it a list of links. There are 2 that we will be concerned with. The 1st is the one below Forum code that displays a thumbnail that links to your full-sized image:, most forums allow thumbnail linking so just copy this and paste it in your post. It will do the rest, pretty tough don’t you think. Well let’s say you are somewhere that does not allow thumbnails, well you need to copy below the Direct Link: and post this. Most forums will have a box where you can place the link into to post a picture (looks like a little picture). Otherwise many forums allow the use of img tags to post.
Once your links are in place you are done. Congratulations on your new found skills and now you no longer look like a beginner.
First off let’s get you the one program you need to do this, its 100% free and works great. It’s super easy for beginners and has most tools an advanced user would need. It’s called IrfanView v3.98
www.download.com/3000-2192-10491149.html
Just download and install it, I don’t install the desktop search as I am very computer literate and I find it useless.
Open up IrFanView (little red road kill looking thing) and click on file (or the file picture, or if you want to be smart or lazy just hit the O key) and navigate to where the picture is that you want to use. Click on the picture and hit the Open button. That will load the picture for you to work with.
1st off we will crop the picture down, this helps reduce the overall size as well as makes the picture easier on the viewer. Left click (hold) where you want one of the corners to be, and drag the box around where you want to keep. Once you do this you can click on Edit and select Crop Selection.
Once your picture is cropped where you would we need to resize it to something more user friendly. Click on Image and select Resize/ Resample. This will open a box where you can make adjustments. You will see the Width and Height boxes, find the larger of the 2 values and enter in 800. This will keep the correct aspect ratio so your picture does not look distorted, whale it limits the height/width to 800 pixels or under. (This is also the max displayed size for eBay) This is much easier for people to view on there computers without having to scroll and it also reduces the overall file size so you can post it on most free images services.
Once you have the picture resized we are going to sharpen the image. This makes even the best digital camera look better and can be a real life savor for those of us with a medium or lower quality camera. Just click on Image again and select Sharpen. I normally do this once and I do not recommend you do it more than twice, it will sharpen the picture to much and make it start to appear grainy. (This is how I get so many complements on pictures that I post).
Now we just need to save the picture, click on file and select Save As, this will bring up the save window where you can type in a new file name and what type of file. Most files I recommend saving in jpeg (jpg) format. Once you select the jpg format a new box will open up and you can adjust the quality of the picture. Unless I am doing a huge picture (anything over 1600x1200 resolution) I save at 100%. Once you have it set just hit Save.
Congratulations now your picture is ready to be uploaded to an image hosting service. This is where you picture is stored and linked to. There are many free ones (and paid) but the one I like the best is xs.to, there is no registration or sign-ups. Just select your picture and upload it.
Once it loads to the server you will see a picture preview and below it a list of links. There are 2 that we will be concerned with. The 1st is the one below Forum code that displays a thumbnail that links to your full-sized image:, most forums allow thumbnail linking so just copy this and paste it in your post. It will do the rest, pretty tough don’t you think. Well let’s say you are somewhere that does not allow thumbnails, well you need to copy below the Direct Link: and post this. Most forums will have a box where you can place the link into to post a picture (looks like a little picture). Otherwise many forums allow the use of img tags to post.
Once your links are in place you are done. Congratulations on your new found skills and now you no longer look like a beginner.
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