YBW PHOTO TUTOR


	Many people ask how do you post a photograph on the YBW forums. This tutor will show you from start to finish how to resize, host and post an image to the YBW forums. If you follow it exactly you will at the end be able to post your own image to the forum. The previous tutor (this is version 2.1) gave some alternative methods, this caused some problems. This tutor gives a single route to follow.


	STAGE 1 - Resize your image		I don't need to resize my image take me to hosting

	You have a photograph that you would like to share with the other like minded souls on the YBW forums. It is best to keep it as a jpeg image and keep the size below 640x480 pixels. To resize the image there are literally thousands of applications out there that will do the job. I have found a free resize tool that works well and is easy to use. You can download it from here.

	Download PIXresizer tool		Get Winzip if needed		Visit PIXresizer website

Now, install the PIXresizer tool on your computer, you will first need to unzip the file. If you do not have winzip or an application to unzip, you can download a program called winzip from here.



			When you first open PIXresizer you are faced with the interface on the left. To resize an image is fairly intuitive, but lets go through it.


			First we press Load Picture (see left). For this exercise I have chosen to post an image called chain. I find this image on my hard drive and select it to open.


			Prepare the image to post

			The program presents you with some set sizes but I have decided to use my own size. I prefer to make my images for posting use a width of 500 pixels. Click custom size and enter 500 in the first box (see below). The program will work out the height automatically as you have left the maintain aspect ratio option checked.

			We need to choose the file type and amount of compression we apply to the image. Leaving the program to choose at this stage does not apply enough compression. This means the file size will be too big and people who do not have broadband will suffer. Click on the (JPEG) Joint Photographic Experts Group button (in blue) shown on the left.



			I found the ideal amount of compression to apply to an image to post to the forum is 60. The program uses a default of 90 which is not enough. Use the slider to bring down to 60.



			We are ready to save the resized image. Click save picture at the bottom and choose where on your computer you want to save it. The program adds the dimensions (in brackets) which allows you to save it to the same folder as the original image. As you can see on the left my new file name is Chain (500 x 375).jpg.

			Important

				Make a note of where you save the image. There is nothing more annoying than losing images on your hard drive.

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	STAGE 2 - Upload your image

	By far the best site to upload images to is photobucket.com.

	*But why not just paste into the forum message ?*

	In order to show a photograph on the YBW forum it must first be available online. You can not upload a photograph from your hard drive to the forum. In theory when you see a photograph in somebody's message it is not in their message at all, what you actually see is a piece of code that tells the YBW forum where that photograph resides on the internet, the forum software will display it in the message even though it resides somewhere else. Herein lies the problem for many users, where can we upload our photographs to. This has been a stumbling block for many people who wish to show off their photographs on the YBW forums.



				Navigate to the photobucket website at the following address. http://photobucket.com/

			If you don't already have an account click on the Register Now button and create your own private account.



			Fill in the details on the Sign up page, for the purposes of this tutor I created an account called ybwphototutor. Once you click Get signed up at the bottom, that's it, you have a photobucket account.



				When you open your personal page this box is at the top, click browse to search your hard drive for the image prepared earlier (blue peter style).



				Select the resized image to upload, in this case Chain (500 x 375).jpg Click upload and that's it, your image will be uploaded to photobucket.

				Important

				At this point, keep the photobucket window open as you will need to come back to it during the message writing stage.

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STAGE 3 - Add your image to a message


	In your photobucket window which you kept open, scroll down to your image library. If this is your first time, you will only have one image thumbnail at the bottom of the page. Under the thumbnail you will see three boxes, we are ONLY interested in the box marked Img. This is the address of your image. Right click with your mouse inside the IMG Tag box and it will flash up 'copied' as you see in the image on the left. This means the photograph is now copied to your computer clipboard. Ok, happy, lets add the photo...



		Here is the window familiar to all of us. To add an image which will appear at the flashing cursor we need to paste the address we gained from our photobucket gallery. Right click at the cursor and from the drop down menu (shown) select paste.

		Shortcut. Rather than using your mouse, you can use the key combination [Ctrl] + [v] to paste the address into your message.


			The box on the left shows how your message box should look, I have added text above and below the image commands to show how it is done. Click submit, and you should have an image in your post.


	To see this post on YBW forums, click HERE.


	Footnote. If your image does not show on the preview screen after pressing continue, you have done something wrong, check over all these stages to find out what happened.

			Last update - August 9, 2008 17:34

	photo tutor
	Written by Dogwatch__