Posting images in the forums

Discussion of photography, editing and publishing techniques
Post Reply
User avatar
Bruce N H
Precentor of the Scriptorium
Posts: 6311
Joined: Mon Sep 15, 2003 9:11 pm
Location: Middle Zealand
Contact:

Posting images in the forums

Post by Bruce N H »

Hey all,

A few notes on posting images in the forums, since we've had a number of new members recently.

Please don't post images over 400 pixels wide or high in the forums. It messes up the forum formatting and slows things down for people without high-speed connections. If you do post over-large images, an admin or mod will generally remove them from your post.

If you want to edit your images (and you should), you can certainly use any software that came with your camera, something like Photoshop, or the free program Gimp. Kevin wrote a great article about how to download and use Gimp.

To post an image in the forums, it has to be already hosted somewhere on-line. Two common free services are Brickshelf and Flickr. Some details about each of these services is found below.

The proper syntax for posting an image is as follows (remove the asterixes):
[*img]http://www.imageaddress.jpg[*/img]
If you wish the make the image a clickable link, the syntax is as follows (again, remove the asterixes):
[*url=http://www.websiteaddress.com][*img]http://www.imageaddress.jpg[*/img][*/url]

If you include an image in your sig line, it should be 100 pixels high by 400 pixels wide, or less.

Image resizing applications
Thanks to Muskey15 and Morgan19 in this thread, here are some on-line applications to help resize images if you don't want do use a more advanced program such as Photoshop or Gimp:
Create Avatar
Online image resizer (Easy version)
Online image resizer (Advanced version)

Brickshelf
You can sign up for a free Brickshelf account here. When you first post something to Brickshelf, it is not immediately visible to the public until Kevin (owner and moderator of Brickshelf) okays it. This is to prevent someone from posting inappropriate content. Usually it will become public within a few hours. In the meantime you could wait to post the link in our forums, or you could post a deeplink. To find the deeplink address, keep clicking on the image on Brickshelf until you see only the image, with no border of Brickshelf banner. The address should end in ".jpg" or ".gif" rather than "cgi=?i########". For comparison, this is a deeplink:
http://www.brickshelf.com/gallery/brick ... et6085.jpg
This is not:
http://www.brickshelf.com/cgi-bin/gallery.cgi?i=3210579
You might also want to post thumbnails in your post. Brickshelf automatically creates thumbnails when you upload images. When you are looking at the page of thumbnails (e.g. this), right-click (or control-click for you Mac users) on an image to get the address of the thumbnail. It should end in "_thumb.jpg", like this:
http://www.brickshelf.com/gallery/brick ... _thumb.jpg

Flickr
You can sign up for a free Flickr account here. You can also pay to get enhanced features on your account. Unlike Brickshelf, Flickr is not exclusively LEGO, but it does have a lot of additional features like the ability to comment on photos or create user groups. I'll leave any further comment on the relative merits of these two sites to others. One nice aspect of Flickr is that it automatically creates several different image sizes for you. When you upload an image to Flickr, such as this, you'll notice a little icon above the photo saying "all sizes". This takes you to a page that offers you different choices. This makes it easy to choose an image that is smaller than the 400 pixel limit for the forums. To get the address of the image, right click (or control-click) the picture and copy the image address. It should look something like this:
http://farm1.static.flickr.com/231/4530 ... 2aee_m.jpg
When posting images to Flickr, it is helpful if you added a "LEGO" tag, as this will help other LEGO fans to find your images among the other Flickr content.


Other image hosting sites
In addition to these two sites, there are a number of other image hosting sites you can use. I won't go into any additional detail on these.
Exclusively LEGO sites: MOCpages, YouBrick, MOCshow, Brickery, BrickImage, MyImages (1000Steine members)
General image hosting: Maj, PhotoBucket, ImageShack

Bruce
Last edited by Bruce N H on Fri Sep 05, 2008 9:03 am, edited 4 times in total.
[url=http://comicbricks.blogspot.com/]ComicBricks[/url] [url=http://godbricks.blogspot.com/]GodBricks[/url] [url=http://microbricks.blogspot.com/]MicroBricks[/url] [url=http://minilandbricks.blogspot.com/]MinilandBricks[/url] [url=http://scibricks.blogspot.com/]SciBricks[/url] [url=http://vignettebricks.blogspot.com/]VignetteBricks[/url] [url=http://www.classic-castle.com/bricktales/]Brick Tales[/url]
User avatar
DNL
Master Builder
Master Builder
Posts: 673
Joined: Fri Jan 12, 2007 7:44 pm
Location: Norway
Contact:

Post by DNL »

I use 'The Gimp' and I recommand it to everyone. It's free and you can do many things with it, like scaling pictures and give them a transparant background.
User avatar
Bruce N H
Precentor of the Scriptorium
Posts: 6311
Joined: Mon Sep 15, 2003 9:11 pm
Location: Middle Zealand
Contact:

Post by Bruce N H »

Oh, a couple of additional notes on the moderation of photos by Brickshelf.

If you add new images to an already existing Brickshelf gallery, it will go back into un-moderated mode until Kevin okays it.

Also, if someone has a link to a Brickshelf gallery and you get to a white screen saying "This folder is not yet public." it simply means that it is awaiting moderation. Check back in a couple of hours.

Bruce
[url=http://comicbricks.blogspot.com/]ComicBricks[/url] [url=http://godbricks.blogspot.com/]GodBricks[/url] [url=http://microbricks.blogspot.com/]MicroBricks[/url] [url=http://minilandbricks.blogspot.com/]MinilandBricks[/url] [url=http://scibricks.blogspot.com/]SciBricks[/url] [url=http://vignettebricks.blogspot.com/]VignetteBricks[/url] [url=http://www.classic-castle.com/bricktales/]Brick Tales[/url]
User avatar
Voran_the_Scholar
Landlord
Posts: 912
Joined: Wed Mar 19, 2008 10:18 pm
Contact:

Post by Voran_the_Scholar »

Yes, Gimp is a wonderful program. Especially once you learn to do stuff! Two thumbs up.
May the blessing of the Lord be upon you. <><

[url=http://www.flickr.com/photos/voran/]Flickr[/url]
kk634
Villein
Posts: 44
Joined: Mon Mar 02, 2009 12:22 am
Location: Earth

Picnik

Post by kk634 »

Also, Picnik is free and non-download-able and allows you to edit pictures from Flickr. I use it, and it's great!
Let Lego Live On!
[url=http://www.flickr.com/photos/34499057@N02/]My Flickr[/url]
User avatar
RichardAM
Merchant
Posts: 1257
Joined: Sat Mar 11, 2006 4:23 pm
Contact:

Re: Posting images in the forums

Post by RichardAM »

Bruce N H wrote: Please don't post images over 400 pixels wide or high in the forums. It messes up the forum formatting and slows things down for people without high-speed connections. If you do post over-large images, an admin or mod will generally remove them from your post.
Since kk bumped, I may as well ask- will this be something that will be getting reconsidered as a result of the forum upgrade?
User avatar
architect
Baron von Ellermann
Posts: 3708
Joined: Mon Sep 08, 2003 5:10 pm
Location: Saint Louis, MO USA
Contact:

Re: Posting images in the forums

Post by architect »

RichardAM wrote:Since kk bumped, I may as well ask- will this be something that will be getting reconsidered as a result of the forum upgrade?
Most likely it will not be reconsidered. The image link is your friend ;) Classic-Castle probably will not turn into other fan sites which use forum posts as their own personal moc pages or brickshelf page.

Ben
Post Reply