How can I effectively include pictures in my forum posts?

[BillTre]

I have been messing around with creating a post with a picture in it and have met with various problems.
As a result I have looked in the help file under INFO and searched through several threads (most recent 2014) that discussed this.

It would be handy (meaning easier for a first time user to use) to have all the relevant information in the help file, such as:
• how to get pictures into a post ( I am using codes from photobucket; not all codes there seem to work)
• how large they can be (my picture may be too big)
• how many/post
• whether they have to get approved first (mentioned in a post, possibly without certainty)
• are there differences in the different forums (mentioned in a post without certainty)

For reasons of spam suppression, I can understand not posting photos or links on the first post (something else I read about during my search), but if so that should be stated somewhere so people can understand what is going on with their posts.

 

[mfb]

how to get pictures into a post ( I am using codes from photobucket; not all codes there seem to work)

Typically there is a link like "for forums". You need the one with url [/plain], as explained on our help site.

I'm not aware of limits for externally hosted images. Attachments, an alternative method to include images, have an image size limit that is given in the upload window, the formats are limited as well.
How many per post: I don't know if there is a limit, if yes it is large enough for all normal uses.
There is no approval process for images.

The technical side is the same for all subforums, different subforums can have separate rules about images (e. g. images of homework are strongly discouraged).

 

[BillTre]

Typically there is a link like "for forums". You need the one with http://url , as explained on our help site.

Great. I did not find it, I guess, since I was looking for posting and images.

When my largish picture did not work the first time, I found out there is a limit on picture size (or so said the error box):
3 MB
960 pixels wide x 720 pixels tall
The error box also had a list of image formats it would accept. There were many, but I did not copy them down.

 

[Mark44]

I regularly visit a number of sites besides this one -- and PF is by far the easiest one to post images on. I don't use image hosting sites at all. I always have the image I want to post on my computer, and I use the UPLOAD button at the lower right of the text entry pane to upload the image.

I captured this image from my screen. It shows the max. file size (3 MB) and the acceptable file types.

Click the Browse button to navigate to the directory that contains the file you want to upload, and click Open on that dialog. That should bring you back to the PF text entry window. You can then choose whether the attached image will be a thumbnail or a full-size image.

 

[BillTre]

I regularly visit a number of sites besides this one -- and PF is by far the easiest one to post images on. I don't use image hosting sites at all. I always have the image I want to post on my computer, and I use the UPLOAD button at the lower right of the text entry pane to upload the image.

I captured this image from my screen. It shows the max. file size (3 MB) and the acceptable file types.

View attachment 108145

Click the Browse button to navigate to the directory that contains the file you want to upload, and click Open on that dialog. That should bring you back to the PF text entry window. You can then choose whether the attached image will be a thumbnail or a full-size image.

Well that's great.
I am surprised it could be so easy.
The box that pops up also has all the info of the error box I got. Cool.

Ideally (IMHO), all the information in this post should be in help under something obvious like images or photos.
Then people could find it more easily. Of course they would miss out on the informative conversation.

 

[Fervent Freyja]

Linking images from photobucket usually works well on here. However, if you alter the image in photobucket afterwards, like editing or moving it's location, then the link will no longer work. The image must also be on public view in your account settings on the host site. Using the upload option or linking to photos from a personal account implies that you own the images, you have permission to use them, or that they are public domain. Unless it can be found in reverse image searching, then others won't be able to know the source of the photo. You can link to photos that you find online by right-clicking it to copy the image URL, then click the 'image' button above this reply box and paste. When you do that, others can see a published source (although they may not have done the same). Copyrights on images always seem iffy to me.

 

[BillTre]

Thanks for the information rich answer @Fervent Freyja.
I like the right clicking trick. Presumably it would be control-click on a Mac without two buttons. I should do that all the time when I have problems.

I'll have to check my photobucket account. I thought I had it non-public, but I might have changed it (since my picture worked).

My main take on copyrights is it often depends on the use (money making vs. not). But its always good to credit people.
Some very cool sites are pretty open, like NASA and Wikipedia.

 

[mfb]

Some very cool sites are pretty open, like NASA and Wikipedia.

Especially with wikipedia, make sure to include at least a link to the source. Some people watch the correct usage of their image very strictly, and it can lead to all sorts of legal trouble if the images are not used correctly.

 

[Fervent Freyja]

mfb is right, many members probably don't post images in their responses on account of that. Being able to provide a small visual in threads would be of help, these fields are heavily dependent on using diagrams as aids. PF may do well to have its own image database full of images that are already public domain and allow users to share their own images, a simple database full of the most commonly used diagrams and visual aids in textbooks might help (not sure how costly that is though). So many threads are repeats, so they would probably be used well. Being able to adjust the size and allow images to wrap around the text would be ideal. Having a built in sketchpad option to create a image from scratch would be neat to use. I don't always like adding images to my reply because of the large size.

 

[OCR]

Especially with wikipedia, make sure to include at least a link to the source.

In Wikipedia, you can usually left click an image, just once to expand it, and then copy that URL and make a link for here... this method provides some information about the picture as well.

Then, you can click the X at the upper right and read the article, if you like... see here.[COLOR=#black]. [/COLOR] Oh yeah, BTW, double left click the "see here" image ... it gets really big! [COLOR=#black]..[/COLOR]

You can also just copy and paste it here... you can usually zoom those and get good detail.

 

[dlgoff]

Just be aware of Hotlinking and Bandwidth Theft. See this thread: https://www.physicsforums.com/threads/hyperphysics-images.868337/

 

[jtbell]

For what it's worth, when I make a diagram for my own posts, I usually do it like this:

• Draw it on a sheet of paper, using black ink and maybe one or two other colors for emphasis or contrast where appropriate.
• Scan it using the scanner that is part of my desktop printer
  
• Adjust the image in Photoshop, using the Levels tool, to make the background pure white and maximize the contrast and sharpness of the lines. I can also clean up my original diagram if necessary, e.g. by "erasing" parts that I had to X out.
  
• Save the image as a GIF file, which I think is the most efficient format for line diagrams with a clean background.
• Upload the GIF file to PF.

This obviously needs resources that many people don't have, but scanners are actually pretty cheap nowadays, and there's plenty of cheap or free image-editing softwre that will work just as well as Photoshop for this purpose. I just happen to have Photoshop already for other tasks. And you don't even need a scanner if you can use your phone's camera to take a reasonably sharp, evenly-lit photo of the paper, and use image-editing software to optimize it as described above.

I've done enough diagrams over the years as part of homework exercises as a student, and for lecture notes and black/whiteboards as a professor, that it's easier and more flexible for me to draw a diagram with a pen than with a mouse in image-editing software.

 

[BillTre]

Alternatively, you could take a picture of it (with good even lighting) instead of scanning.

 

[jtbell]

Right, as I noted. I've even done that once or twice myself, when I was in my office instead of at home and didn't have my scanner available. However, in my experience at least, it's had to get good even lighting when photographing a sheet of paper. I had to fiddle more with Photoshop to get good clean results.

Hang out in the homework forums long enough and you'll see plenty of blurry gray-on-gray photos of scribbled work.

 

[dlgoff]

Save the image as a GIF file, which I think is the most efficient format for line diagrams with a clean background.

Interesting. I've never really looked into image "efficiency". Here's what seems to be good information: http://www.scantips.com/basics09.html

 

[jtbell]

Right, as per that article,

For graphics of only a few colors, GIF can be much smaller than JPG, with more clear pure colors than JPG

Especially if the image has large solid areas, e.g. the white background of a suitably processed scan or photo of a diagram drawn on paper.