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Helpful Hints/D.I.Y.: Posting images: an illustrated how-to

Cem_Usakligil

Well-known member
Hi All,

One of the most frequently asked questions in OPF is how to post images. I have come to the conclusion that this FAQ deserves its own illustrated how-to, so that we do not have to explain it over and over again. Since there are many steps involved in the process of posting an image, it makes sense to illustrate the instructions using screen captures where possible. Hopefully, this will take the pain out of this process. If something is not clear or missing, please react so that I can make the necessary amendments on an on-going basis.

Table of contents:
1) Can I directly upload my image (as an attachment) to OPF from my computer?
2) How to make my images available (visible) on the Internet?
3) My image is available (visible) on the Internet. How do I add it to my post?
4) How to get the URL of an image which is available (visible) on the Internet?
5) Getting the URL: Right/Cmd-Click method 1 (Copy Image Location/address)
6) Getting the URL: Right/Cmd-Click method 2 (Properties)
7) Getting the URL: Drag & Drop method (coming soon)
8) Getting the URL: for images hosted on flickr (coming soon)


Cheers,
 

Cem_Usakligil

Well-known member
1) Can I directly upload my image (as an attachment) to OPF from my computer?

1) Can I directly upload my image (as an attachment) to OPF from my computer?

No, unfortunately you can't. At the moment, OPF does not host any images and "attachments" are not allowed. To post an image in OPF, the image must be made available (visible) on the Internet first. Do NOT try adding images using the attachments button as shown below, as it won't work:

postim01.png
 

Cem_Usakligil

Well-known member
2) How to make my images available (visible) on the Internet?

2) How to make my images available (visible) on the Internet?

The short answer is that you should upload it to a web site which hosts images. The possibilities are endless and it is not my intention to provide a full blown overview here. The most common options are:
a) You may have your own web site. In that case, you can upload your images to (a subdirectory) of your website.
b) You may have an account with a photography site (flickr, pbase, smugmug, zenfolio, etc). Upload your images there. Please note that some sites are free of charge (such as flickr) for basic accounts and some are paid services (such as smugmug).
c) You may have an account with a social networking site (myspace, facebook, etc). Upload your images there.
I won't describe the uploading process for those options as it is too varied and out of scope for this how-to. Please refer to the specific instructions for the web sites to which you will be uploading.
 

Cem_Usakligil

Well-known member
3) My image is available (visible) on the Internet. How do I add it to my post?

3) My image is available (visible) on the Internet. How do I add it to my post?

The first thing you need to do is to find out what the unique address of the image is. This is the so-called URL of the image. Without this URL, you cannot refer to the image in your post. Again, there are various ways of achieving this, depending on where the image is hosted. I will describe in the following posts the most common methods used. For any other situations, you have to refer to the specific web site's instructions or ask here and we shall try to answer.

Once you have the URL of your image, follow these steps to add the image to a post you are creating.
1) Start creating a new post or editing an existing one within the allowed time limit to edit your own posts. After the time limit has passed, only mods can edit a post.

2) Click on the "Insert Image" icon.
postim05.png


3) Paste (Ctl/Cmd-V) the URL of the image into the text box which appears.
postim06.png


4) The image is now added to your post. To CENTER it across the page, click on the image to select it and then click on the "Align Center" icon as follows:
postim07.png


5) If the image is not showing as in the examples above, check the "Switch Editor Mode" status. If the mode is set to off (shown as follows), all the images will show as text between IMG tags. To show the images themselves, click on that icon to set the Editor mode to ON.
postim08.png
 

Cem_Usakligil

Well-known member
How to get the URL of an image which is available (visible) on the Internet?

4) How to get the URL of an image which is available (visible) on the Internet?

First, surf to the web site and get to the point where the image is displayed on your browser. Then, you can execute any of the following methods explained in the following posts . Some of the options are browser and/or OS specific and may not apply to you specifically. If that is the case, try another method.

Please note that these instructions will not work if the image is displayed using the Flash application! If you want to share images in posts, do not use the Flash application. Some photography web sites give you the option to use Flash, so be aware of this restriction.
 

Cem_Usakligil

Well-known member
5) Getting the URL: Right/Cmd-Click method 1 (Copy Image Location/address)

5) Getting the URL: Right/Cmd-Click method 1 (Copy Image Location/address):

Right-click (or Command-click on the Mac) on the image. A so-called "context menu" will be displayed as follows.

Choose the option "Copy image location":
postim02.png


That should do it, now the URL of this image has been copied to your clipboard. You can then continue to the step 3 above to include this image is your posts.

If the context menu doesn't show or if the option "Copy image location" is missing, go to the next method.
 

Cem_Usakligil

Well-known member
6) Getting the URL: Right/Cmd-Click method 2 (Properties)

6) Getting the URL: Right/Cmd-Click method 2 (Properties):

Right-click (or Command-click on the Mac) on the image. A so-called "context menu" will be displayed as follows.
postim03.png


Choose the option "Properties". A new window will be shown as follows:
postim04.png


Follow the instructions given in the image to copy the URL to the clipboard of your computer. You can then continue to the next step to show this image is your posts. If the context menu doesn't show or if the option "Properties" is missing, go to the next method.
 

Cem_Usakligil

Well-known member
7) Getting the URL: Drag & Drop method

7) Getting the URL: Drag & Drop method:

Almost all modern browsers support browsing using Tabbed pages. We can use this to drag and drop the image to a new tab on the browser window. If we do that, the URL of the image will be displayed directly on the address box atop the window. Let me demonstrate:

Click and hold on the image (hold meaning: keep on clicking all the time). Now mover the mouse pointer over to the Tab bar as shown below:

(...work in progress folks :)))
 

Asher Kelman

OPF Owner/Editor-in-Chief
Linking to images on flickr?

This questions keeps coming up so what's the best answer? When the image is protected with a transparent top layer, one can't use the usual methods to link determine the URL of the image. However, I'd imagine the person who posted the images should have access to the URL. how is that done with Flickr?

Asher
 
Linking to images on flickr?

This questions keeps coming up so what's the best answer? When the image is protected with a transparent top layer, one can't use the usual methods to link determine the URL of the image. However, I'd imagine the person who posted the images should have access to the URL. how is that done with Flickr?

Asher
Asher, Although I don't post images on flickr, I'm at present helping a small group doing a 30 day challenge mostly by showing them better ways to do composition and need to get to the images to do cropping. I'm sure flickr users have access to their .jpg urls, but if they do have a problem, right-click the image, it will show you different sizes that are available, choose the one you want, it opens up on a new page, then right-click again and choose view image which will give the url.
 

Jerome Marot

Well-known member
I don’t know how Facebook formats the links to their stored images.


Facebook goes to extraordinary efforts to make sure that link is not usable in any external web site, ever. I had a look at the html code and -yes- there is a .jpg somewhere as your browser would not display an image otherwise, but it is dynamically generated and expires pretty fast.
 

Asher Kelman

OPF Owner/Editor-in-Chief
It’s sensitive image!

So, now can you explain your methodology for getting that URL from Facebook?

Asher
 

nicolas claris

OPF Co-founder/Administrator
It’s sensitive image!

So, now can you explain your methodology for getting that URL from Facebook?

Asher

Once you have shared your image on Fb (alone or within an "album"):
- click on it to view it in the Fb window
- do a right click on the image to get the pop-up submenu "view image in a new window"
- once done copy the Fb image address in the url browser bar
- don't be afraid by the length of the url
the url of image I posted above is :
https://scontent-cdt1-1.xx.fbcdn.ne...=99d4b84bd8bdf78fd94c4c480c94e838&oe=5BB67071
It contains the Fb database info…
- Embed that url in your OPF post between IMG tags

et voilà
:)
 

Jerome Marot

Well-known member
Interesting. So you need to post the database info with the jpg link. I had not thought of that.


Small explanation:

The image address is as follows:


Code:
1: https://

2: scontent-cdt1-1.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t1.0-9/

3: 32844711_2040446739527329_6355592437393522688_o.jpg

4: ?_nc_cat=0&_nc_eui2=AeGbcyDr5eGP65QHa4s-iLd_fG-slsdfoKUv8l2g0Ay82UCGsl87HU8Migm0E2kCBXfMN-I707EgHex19i5oT8CNzRSiIr8in8Kpmk66cn7PTA&oh=99d4b84bd8bdf78fd94c4c480c94e838&oe=5BB67071

1: encrypted connection

2: the name of the server hosting the image (facebook may cache the same image on different servers for different countries) and in which directory it is

3: the actual name of the jpeg file at the given resolution

4: a set of database calls to check one is authorised to download that image: nc_cat, nc_eui2, oh and oe
I would guess oe is a checksum and oh the person who called the image on facebook (that means: should a friend post a link to the same image viewed from his FB account, that number will be different). The length of mc_eui2 baffles me.

This obviously works, but FB may have a mechanism to automatically expire these links after a set time. It may also have other effects on your account, as the link is personalised.
 

nicolas claris

OPF Co-founder/Administrator
Ok, now as we know how to post in OPF an image "hosted" by Fb, let me tell you that I don't think it is the best solution.
If you care your image, you should care the jpg compression which is impossible with FB.

There are a lot of "free" possibilities on the web, but remember:
"You get what You pay for"
and also:
If it's free it means that YOU are the product…
 

Robert Watcher

Well-known member
I have a Free Image Hosting website - arwpix.com - that is perfect for storing your photos and providing the BB Code that can be copied and pasted right into a forum.

Images can be resized on Upload - naturally the best sharpness and results will come from uploading images that have been resized in PS or LR as an example. As well all Exif data is stored and displayed with each image.

Anyone is free to use my service. The one restriction I have is that I do not allow photos containing nudity or pornographic content to be uploaded and stored on my servers. This is how the embed code displays:


8FB045CF-55EA-4A48-AB26-C8C5C3E2AB37.jpg


Here are some screenshots:



B2F50CE7-551A-4A2A-9747-B44E41545E21.png



E26D7F40-1CDB-4F6F-8FBE-777F10E0D464.png



36174595-73E2-4E3B-BC91-20DE66B79BB8.png



44ADDD47-EE18-4002-B894-FCD4DD7F06A6.png



 

nicolas claris

OPF Co-founder/Administrator
Hi Robert,
this is really cool!
When you write
I have a Free Image Hosting website
do you mean you own it or do you "only" use it?
In the later case, what is the business model of arwpix.com?
How do they pay for storage and bandwidth?
There are less and less free (I mean really free) services on the Internet nowadays… This is why I ask :)
 

Robert Watcher

Well-known member
Hi Robert,
this is really cool!
When you write do you mean you own it or do you "only" use it?
In the later case, what is the business model of arwpix.com?
How do they pay for storage and bandwidth?
There are less and less free (I mean really free) services on the Internet nowadays… This is why I ask :)

It is my website. I own it and pay for it. I have the site so that I can store my images for Sharing on forums and in other ways on the web. Others can benefit for that purpose if they have a need. It is not provided for the mass storage or backup of raw images. So there are some limitations for it to be free. I have a small web hosting business since 2007 and arwpix.com is part of that business model.
 
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