One of the most important benefits of taking a photography class is the opportunity to share with the group. To that end here are instructions for how to post your photos in the discussion forum for the course.
You can post images into the forum two different ways. You can add them directly into your post with an html image tag (make sure they are a reasonable size), or you can add a URL to your post that is a direct link to the photo like this: http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2291/2203852425_6beda94042_o.jpg. The forum software knows enough to make the URL an active link. This is the best method.
So you need a place (a server) to upload your photos. There are plenty of websites that will allow you to do this. These are all commercial businesses but they all offer a limited free account option. As you should know the purpose of the fee account is to get you hooked and then irritate you just enough to get you to upgrade to the paid account without driving you away. I'm going to recommend Photobucket as the easiest to use. Flickr is one of the oldest and most popular sites but they've ratcheted up the irritating component lately. If you have a Flickr account and want to keep it that's great. ImageShack is a good choice for a free account without the 1024 pixel size limit imposed by Photobucket and Flickr. One more: Adobe maintains a hosting site at Photoshop.com that's very full-featured compared with the other free sites. Let's do Photobucket first:
- Log on to photobucket.com and create an account -- it's free.
- Use Photoshop or some similar software to create a copy of your photo that is appropriately re-sized for web display. NOTE: Photobucket has a 1024 pixel wide size restriction.
- Upload your photo to Photobucket.
- Leave the Photobucket page open and log into the forum.
- Add a post to the forum and then back in Photobucket click the link under the photo you want to post that's labeled Direct Link.
- Back in the fourm, paste the link directly into the text of your message and you're done. The reader of your post will be able to click on the link and a new window will open displaying your photo.
ImageShack is clean and easy.
- Go to imageshack.us and create a free account.
- Use Photoshop or some similar software to create a copy of your photo that is appropriately sized for web display. 1024 pixels wide is recommended. NOTE: during the upload process there's a drop menu for Image resize. Select Do not resize and make sure you've sized the image yourself.
- Upload your photo to ImageShack.
- Click on the My Images tab to view your gallery. Right click and select View Image to post a specific photo.
- Expand the item Links to share this image (on right).
- Copy the Direct link and paste it into the fourm -- simple.
The Photoshop site is entirely implemented using Flash and if you don't have a stable high speed connection you're going to find the site frustratingly slow.
- Create a free account at Photoshop.com
- Uploading photos is simple.
- You can create multiple albums and sort your photos by album.
- No size limit is imposed and so you'll want to make sure you've resized your photos appropriately.
- Getting a direct link to one of your photos is possible, but a little tricky. Start by going to your Library (see illustration).
- Highlight the photo you want to post and then click on the Share Media icon at the bottom of the page. A dialog box will open.
- In that new dialog below the thumbnail of your photo are two small icons. The first is labeled, "Copy the URL of this photo" and the second one is labeled, "Copy code to embed this photo...." The URL is not a direct link to the photo but rather a link to a webpage that includes the photo. This is OK, but you'll be hosting an add for Adobe if you use it. That's fair after all since the site is free.
- A direct link to just your photo is contained in the code that copies if you click the second icon. To use it you'll have to remove the URL from the HTML IMG tag.
- Photoshop's site has a very attractive feature they call the Gallery: You can place any of your photo albums into your Gallery. To do this the album must be public. When you create your Photoshop account you will select a unique user name. You can use that user name to provide your friends a direct URL link to your Gallery. For example my user name is heligon, and so heligon.photoshop.com will take you straight to the photos in my gallery: heligon. With this feature your URL (link) stays the same regardless of what you add to or remove from your Gallery.
- WARNING: Photoshop.com contains basic editing features that will damage your photographs beyond repair. Don't!