First thing you need is a digital picture on your computer. We're going to assume you know how to take a picture and save it to your hard drive (and I'd REALLY encourage you to learn to make CD copies of your pictures so you won't lose them in an eventual hard drive crash - but that's the subject for a different post)
So, now you need to get them onto an internet server so that they'll be available for viewing by others. For the purposes of this tutorial we're going to choose Photo Bucket since they have a nifty feature for posting pics on forums like this one. You need to create an account with
Now that you've got an account, you need to upload pictures to their server. Log in at
OK. Once you've got your picture chosen, click on "Open" and then "upload" - unless there's a second picture you want to upload at the same time in which case you'd repeat the browsing to the image you want to upload, click on "Open" and then "Upload".
Once the upload finishes the page will state: "X of X image(s) have uploaded" At this point you're ready to share the pic with the forum. Just scroll straight down on that page and you'll see the new picture(s). Right below the pictures are various options.
Email and Instant Messaging
Direct Link
HTML Tag
IMG Code
For sharing on this forum you need the IMG Code so click on the text that says "IMG Code" below the picture you want to share. You'll see "Copied" show up briefly to the right of the text line. Now, open a new tab or window and login here at the forum. Now you either start a new topic or reply to another topic. Once you have the new or reply to topic window open you paste the URL you just copied. It should start with
Now click "Preview" and you'll see the post as it will look once it's submitted. If you did everything right you'll find that the preview has the picture you want to share showing nice and pretty. If it looks like you wanted it to, click on "Submit" - and voilá! You've posted a picture right here on the forum. There you go, that's the basics. NOW for a bit of etiquette.
It's bad form to post full blown 8 megapixel pictures on the forum. It shows a lack of consideration for folks who are worse off with their internet connections and computer equipment than some missionary in a third world country. (weak attempt at humor - yours truly has a good monitor and a slow broadband connection - unlike many folks here who have only dialup internet and an old 14" VGA monitor)
So you need to learn to resize your pictures before you share them. Again, we're going to use Photo Bucket. In your photobucket account, click on the picture you want to share. It will open in a new window and will have a few options across the top. The one you want is "Resize" Click on it and you'll have a series of options, from "Avatar" to "15" Screen" The two that you want to consider are "Message Board" and "15" Screen" The 800 X 600 (15" Screen) will work for at least 99% of the posters on this forum and is the size I use by default when posting images, unless I've cropped a picture to a smaller size yet. You can also rotate a picture in Photobucket so that it will line up right and folks won't get a kink in their neck trying to see that sideways image. Once you've got it resized, you can copy the IMG Code and paste it here as per the directions above.
Just click on "Current Album" up above the picture and then scroll down to the picture you just resized. Click on "IMG Code" and follow the instructions above.
There you have it. A quick and easy way to share pictures here.
Now, for a bit more advanced sharing, you can crop and rotate and optimize pictures BEFORE you upload them to the 'net. There's a program I've been using for years. It's called XAT Image Optimizer. You can download it at http://www.xat.com It's share ware so you can try before you buy. I know there's more complete programs out there, but I've not found any that allow me to compress pictures as well as this one. that's what it does, rotate, crop, resize and compress - and it does it well. And future upgrades to the software are covered in the purchase price. I've not paid a dime since I registered it MANY years ago - and am running the current "New and Improved' version. Why use XAT Image Optimizer? Because it's not just the visual size of the image that slows things down on the internet. It's also the size of the file. An 800X600 picture can be up to 200 Kilobytes in size. Using XAT Image Optimizer you can shrink that file size down by 75% or more. For example, my camera takes pictures that are around 800 Kilobytes in size, sometimes larger. I use XAT to crop and then to resize them to 800X600 or so then I compress them - usually getting down to around 50 Kilobytes or even smaller -depending on the detail in the picture. A lot of different colors (spring flowers in the Rockies) will take up more kilobytes than a polarbear in a blizzard eating a vanilla ice cream cone with his eyes closed and his nose in a snow drift. Anyway, that's something else you might like to play around with.
