Posting photos to the Web

[Calamity Jane]

I couldn't find a recent answer to this question so I'll ask . . .

All the free photo hosting sites I have found have limited monthly bandwidth, limited enough to not do justice to a LF picture.

Question #1 - Is there a broadband photo host that's free? If not, who offers the most Megs/month for the least money (though it would pain me greatly to actually PAY to share photos)?

I have access to a flat-bed scanner at work and with Paint Shop Pro I can save in most formats.

Question #2 - Which format gives the best picture per megabyte?

I figger, if I am gonna hang around this place, I had better post some of my work ;-)

Thanks group!

[Ralph Barker]

I use Photogserver.net to host my domain (and, store my online scans). He has various packages available that are reasonably priced, with his standard deal providing 200MB of storage and unlimited bandwidth. He's a one-man shop, however, so don't expect the level of support that you'd get with the large commercial service providers.

The best file format for online display is JPEG. It is supported by virtually all Web browsers, and provides a reasonable compromise between file size and image quality. Scanning and image editing procedures can vary widely, but with a bit of practice, you'll develop a "work flow" that is convenient for you for the equipment and software you have.

FWIW, my procedure is to scan at a resolution that will give me the pixels needed to produce 300DPI for the largest digital print I might want to make from the scan. I use Photoshop, so I store this "master" file in Photoshop's PSD format, but TIFF in other programs works too. I then do any spotting or other adjustments to the scan (most will require some adjustment of the black point and contrast curve, "Levels" in Photoshop is a good place to start), and re-save in the uncompressed format (PSD or TIFF- don't save as JPEG at this point). Then, I start preparing the version that will get displayed on the Web. I resize the image in steps of no more than 50%, using a light touch of unsharp masking between each step. The final image size and level of JPEG compression is a compromise between accuracy of display and convenience of download (file size). Once at the final size in terms of pixels, save that as a JPEG. I add the long-side pixel dimension to the file name, and a B&W/color indicator, so it is easily identified in file listings. So, "worlds_greatest_photo.PSD" becomes "worlds_greatest_photo-600bw.jpg" before it gets uploaded to the Web server.

In most cases, resizing so the long side of the image is between 500 and 600 pixels, and using moderate JPEG compression will give you a decent-looking image and a file size of 60-70KB. Image files larger than 60-70KB take too long for people on dial-up connections to download, and are thus generally considered "anti-social" on the Internet. Once the scanning and resizing is done, you can upload the file to your web server using FTP or whatever the service requires.

I also have an image-posting tutorial on my Web site that may be helpful.

[Ted Harris]

Jane,

You can post a picture here every once in a while as some of us do or post images on your own website with a link. Bandwith is not really a problem since, once you reduce the size of the file so that your internet connection won't choke on upload and/or those of your viewers won't do the same on download or file opening, you will generally be working with a relatively small jpeg file. To me the problem is that unless you have an excellent scan it is probably not worth the effort as the image you post on the web will nto even come close to capturing the beauty of your chrome or print.



I used to have a lot of my work up on the web. I took it down a year ago when I realized that the quality of the original scans and hence the images were not even close to equal to the currently available technology. When I get a new scanner I will start putting images on teh web again but NOT with the old workhorse of a 1200x1200 ppi UMAX Powerlook III that I currently use. I just don; tthink it does justice to the images. I suppose I should have my labe send me some of the files from drum scanned images that they have on file but I keep forgetting to ask!



If the scanner you have available is good quality go for it. You will see some beautiful imgages poseted here by some of the 'regulars' like Ken Lee.

[Ted Harris]

Ralph,





Nice tutorial! Now a question .... is >> Photogserver.net<< the right URL? I can't seem to get there.

[Carl Schofield]

Look at pbase. I think the minimum charge is $23 for 200 MB storage. http://www.pbase.com

[Darin Cozine]

Jane,



As pointed out allready, posting large files that 'do justice' to large format is not realistic. Most people do not have the fast connections in order to view large images. One alternative I have found is to include a clip of a small portion of the image which shows just how much detail is available.,



As far as where to showcase your images, there are many choices. I like photo.net for starters. heres my gallery Other choices are apug.org, photosig.com, photoblog.net, photopoints.com, photographyblog.com, pbase.com, fine-art.com, and photoblink.com.



If you want to create your own website, you get full control over presentation. But generally you will have to pay for webspace at 10-20$ a month. Buying the domain name is cheap though, as little as $8 per year at godaddy.com.



JPG is standard format for the web, mainly because it compresses the image the most. However it really can thrash an images details. PNG is another alternative which does not compress as well but is viewable by all browsers and most applications. Finally TIFF is the standard format for high-quality images to store and print. But it does the worst job at compression. There aint nothin like a print from a 100 megapixel (9,000x12,000) 36-bit tiff.

Email me if you have more questions.

[Frank Petronio]

Keep it simple and buy a domain and have it hosted all by the same company. Learn how to use FrontPage, Dreamweaver, GoLive or one the other dozen decent webdesign programs (take a class?) and you'll be able to do whatever you want to do. If I had as cool a name as "Calmity Jane" I'd be rich and famous on the web

I like webcorelabs.com - they are reliable, not too large or too small, and they will host a site with several email adresses, etc. for $6 per month.

I like larger online images - 500-600 pixels wide and 30-50kb) - because a photography website should attract people willing to wait for the larger images to load (you would think...) For a commercial site for a client I try to keep the images much smaller (200-3oo pixels, 2--30kb). Some people don't use large images because they fear image theft, but I think it is a worthwhile trade-off.

[Ralph Barker]

Ted - oops, I mis-typed the URL link. It should be http://www.photogserver.net/

[Calamity Jane]

I do have a Web page (http://www.geocities.com/diannebest/), actually I do a number of Web pages, but I have maxed out my MB/day when I have posted any large pictures. Even a 1 MB picture eats up bandwidth when you get 300 hits a day!

[Diane Maher]

I have two websites, one that is free and one that I paid for a year on. The free one is on fotopic.net and they give you 250 mb free and you can pay for more, if you like. Their site is: http://my.fotopic.net/