How To Post Photos in Forum Message

[DPDISXR4Ti]

*** Update October 2017 *** Everything written below still holds true but with two important updates...
1) The forum software DOES now support uploading of images directly, and we have enabled this feature for paid-up MCA members. All others can still use the method described below, utilizing a 3rd-party host.

2) Counter to what I first wrote ten years ago, Photobucket has recently become a HORRIBLE solution for image-hosting. The capability they provided for years for free now costs $399/year. There are better, less expensive (i.e. free) solutions. See these threads (and many others like it) for some alternate suggestions... viewtopic.php?f=19&t=32230
https://www.lifewire.com/free-image-hos ... es-3486329
(Nov 2018 Update.... Photobucket has updated their policy and backed off the idea of trying to sell 3rd-party hosting for $399/year. Apparently it's free again, they just add a watermark to any images)

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This question comes up from time to time, so I thought I'd make it a "sticky" post here in the Photo section - seemed like the most logical place to me.

First off, you can NOT directly include/attach a picture to a forum message here; the photo MUST be hosted (i.e. uploaded), to another site first. The most common one is www.Photobucket.com If you don't have a photobucket account, just go to the site and create an account - it's free and relatively simple.

Once you have your Photobucket account in place, go ahead an upload any pics there. Again, it's relatively easy.

With your pics uploaded, each one will be given it's own web address, which will appear underneath the picture. There's actually four different versions - the one we want to use is the one entitled "IMG code". This one has the correct header/footer "pre-installed", so you simply need to cut and paste that link into your message where you want the picture to appear. As a result, no need to click on the "Img" button at this site at all.

To cut and paste....

1) Highlight link text to be copied from the Photoshop page
2) Hit Ctrl-C (this copies the text to memory)
3) Go to the message you're drafting and locate the cursor where you want the picture to be inserted
4) Hit Ctrl-V

To include multiple pics in the same message posting, just repeat the process.

[Ray]

what is the format for linking a linked higher res picture, or using a picture to link another link?

also, while photobucket is the most common - it's also the most common to be blocked for people at work, while imageshack and other similar ones are not (which are also free)

[DSPXR4ti]

Hey Brad,

How do you upload it to your sig.

Ben

[DPDISXR4Ti]

Hey Brad,

How do you upload it to your sig.

Ben

Not really sure off-hand, as I've never bothered. I think there are limitations on signature size, so be careful how large a picture you try to load into your sig.

If someone wants to help Ben, please feel free to post the info here....

[Colin]

Same way it's done in any post:

Code: Select all

[img]http://www.yoururlhere.com/folder/file.jpg[/img]

[Studeman]

[quote="demonfire"]what is the format for linking a linked higher res picture, or using a picture to link another link?

I think something like this:
Start with- [url=http://www.website.com/high-res image.jpg] (URL of image you want to link to)

Then....[img]http://www.website.com/low-res image.jpg[/img] (image you want displayed on forum)

Then..... [/url] (to stop the link with the image)

ALL (3) of the above will be on one line with no spaces... IE: [url=xxxx][img]url of xxx[/img][/url]

Ray

[DPDISXR4Ti]

I think something like this:
Start with- (URL of image you want to link to)

Then.... (image you want displayed on forum)

Then..... (to stop the link with the image)

ALL (3) of the above will be on one line with no spaces... IE:

Nope, you're making it too complicated.

All you need is the at the end of the web address for the pic.

Or, if you follow the directions exactly as I've indicated above, Photobucket adds those for you and you can simply cut and paste the whole address, with the tags already included.

[Studeman]

Nope, you're making it too complicated.

All you need is the at the end of the web address for the pic.

Another poster (demonfire)wanted to know how to post a PHOTO that is hyperlinked (internally) to another website address or a larger high-res photo.... presumably- so that they can post a "thumbnail" in this forum for the dial-up guys to see quickly... but they can choose to click on the image to go to the higher resolution photo. This would speed up this forum, and save the bandwidth-challenged posters from having to wait for images to load that they may not necessarily be interested in...
The only way to accomplish that in BBCode is as I posted.

Like this one: Low-res, hyperlinked to a different view... click on image to follow link


Ray

[Ed Lijewski]

Two points:

Could you please clarify what the low-res/high res difference is with respect to inputing that into the link you created .


Your example may have answered it, but since I'm not sure, how does one insert a thumbnail size photo which when clicked on with a cursor then will enlarge? The one in your example is already a large size photo.

Thank you.

YMMV

[hEaT]

I think it's something like this. Note that this would only work with two images. This does not shrink the image, but inserts one and then links to another. You would insert the thumbnail image using the image code and then link to the higher resolution version using the url code. With HTML you can specify the image resolution when inserted, but makes the image grainy and still loads the full image file, just the viewing size is decreased. Doesn't save bandwidth or RAM. This is used on the homepage for OPMD. Look at the image they use of different cars. With Firefox hit right click view image or under IE go to properties and copy the address into the bar at the top and go to it. The image is shrunk using HTML and takes the same amount of resources (RAM and bandwidth) to load the page as it would if the full image was linked.

Code: Select all

[url=http://ncsdc.com/TechnicalPages/Seatbelts/t415.jpg][img]http://ncsdc.com/TechnicalPages/Seatbelts/t415.jpg[/img][/url]

And for LOTs of info on BBCode:

http://www.phpbb.com/community/faq.php?mode=bbcode

[Ed Lijewski]

So, coming back to this topic (posts immediately above), when someone inserts several photos into a post using the code logic above, with the one displayed being a thumbnail and the one linked to being a high res photo, does that mean that the person made a thumbnail version of each high res photo on his server (Photobucket or another, e.g.)?

If so, is there a way to automate that process or must you create/save the thumbnail version of each photo you want to display manually? It seems as though people doing this are doing it effortlessly...(photos from Carlisle, eg., here and on MerkurSport).

Thank you.

YMMV

[hEaT]

There has to be two seperate files. I believe photobucket and imageshack do this for you and give you two links. If uploading files to your own webserver, you have to make the thumbnails yourself.

[DPDISXR4Ti]

See this thread for some new news on this topic...
http://forum.merkurclub.com/forum/viewt ... 19&t=32562