... or should that be the advanced 102 class now... :P

Anyway, a lot of new members (don't be shy, we were new once too) are put off by the concept of posting pics. Given our new technology (well new to anyone in the 80's) it's a fairly simple process. However, the code to do it is pretty vague at times. So here's how it's done.

STEP 1: HOST THE PIC
This is a nice and simple one. You find yourself a website to host the pics :D there are a lot of options here. First of all, if your ISP gives you a webpage with your net access, you're laughing as you can use that. Alternatively, a lot of websites offer free hosting services now. I use Photobucket myself, but a few people use ImageShack too with equally good results.

STEP 2: RESIZE THE PIC
Well okay this really should be step 1.... or step 0.

Basically, like any electronic or physical object, pics take up a lot of space. On the net, that translates to loading times. So you want to have a small pic, without sacrificing picture detail.

Thankfully, Windows usually provides the tools for this for FREE. That's right, simple Windows Paint! Alternatively (or in some cases for preference) there's PhotoShop and other picture editing software, but all you really need a program to do is to crop the picture to focus purely on the central part, and to shrink it. When cropping the pic, try to get a rectangle of what you really need, so if the pic itself is only a small model on a large table, you can get rid of most of the pic.

For size, I try to limit myself to no more than 700 pixels a side (more for composite pics). That seems to work well on forums.

STEP 3: POSTING THE PIC
Okay, you've got a nice cleaned-up photo that you've hosted on the great interweb. Now what?

Well, first of all, like all online objects, your pic has a URL. Find that. Photobucket and ImageShack give you that below the pic, so it's pretty simple.

Now, you insert it into the Image code. "the image WHAT?" I hear you say. It's simply the following:

Or something to that effect. Again, Photobucket and ImageShack are great about this, as they give the code ready to go (ie with the [ img ] brackets already around it).

And that's it :D

---

Here's one I prepared earlier: a pic of my Orc Vampire (see my blog for further details).

The pic URL (hosted on Photobucket): http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v405/Bor...reenskins36.jpg

The posting code:

The final pic:


See? Easy as hittin' a gobbo :D

Cheers!

Borzag

Great stuff Borzag!

Its worth noting that ImageShack has a re-size image function - just tick the box then pick the maximum size you want from a drop-down menu (and its best not to go bigger than the 640x480 option!). Photobucket also has a re-size function (in a drop-down menu at the top of each image in your gallery).

:D

Thanks, Borzag. Very helpful.

May I also add to the list of Photo hosting sites the one that I use an absolutely adore. Flickr. The site is speedy with plenty of resizing, organizing and tagging options. They also have a nifty uploader app that you can download to your computer of choice that allows picture uploading to be as easy as dragging and dropping. Sweet.

Cheers!
Grim

Flickr sucks compared to flock. Flock is exactely like firefox but with build in quick functions for photobucket and such.

This helps a lot thank you!