Christian Photographers Community

Introduce Yourself => Tips & Announcements => Topic started by: Pat on May 03, 2009, 01:50:03 PM

Title: Posting Photos on Christian Photographers
Post by: Pat on May 03, 2009, 01:50:03 PM


May 1, 2009


Posting Photos on
Christian Photographers Website

When this website first started (6 years ago), we had a ridiculously small size of photograph that was allowed to be posted on this site.  We started out with 35KB and 500 pixels on the longest side and then we raised that to 50KB (same pixels size) and then 100KB with 600 pixels on the longest side and then we suggested to folks that the largest photos that should be posted in the forums should not be larger than 175KB and we left this up to the members themselves to "police themselves".

Large images slow down a website and even if they are stored on another site and just linked to this site, they are difficult to view for those on slow connections and many of us are still on slow connections.  Each one has to be downloaded.

We also have a problem with our resources being overused and I'm getting messages from my webhoster all the time now that we're over our limit of resources.

I have a couple of URLs (addresses) of sites that I'd like you to look at.   This is very important and we are requesting that you all look at the size of your images that you post on Christian Photographers.

We don't want anyone to stop posting but we want you to check your size of photographs that you are posting.

From this site, School for Champions (http://www.school-for-champions.com/web/slow_page.htm) we read that slow sites lose customers.

Large graphics files take too long to download and thus discourage viewers.
Certainly a page with striking graphics can attract attention and be appealing to the eye. but you must remember that the Web is not the same as a slick magazine. It takes a long time to download large graphics files, even with a fast modem. Many people do not have the patience to wait and will move on to someplace else.


We know that there are many who don't come back now to "CP" due to the slowness of our page loading in our photography area.  We want to change that.

Here's another example from a terrific site entitled Photography on the Web (http://www.zyworld.com/webphoto/pages/print.htm)...

FILE SIZE
The web can be tediously slow and web graphics and photos are the main culprit. The smaller the file the faster your website will download and the better the experience will be for visitors to your website. JPG files are the best way to produce the smallest files while maintaining the best quality. So how big should a typical JPG file be? There's a rule of thumb that says any image much over 30Kbytes is not a good idea.

There's a simple way to estimate how long it will take for a visitor to see a picture. Assume that most users are using a standard modem and typically that means they will be able to download pictures at about 3 Kbytes per second. So a 30K image will take around 10 seconds to view. So you can see why having even a few medium sized photographs can make your website very slow.


The whole article that I've quoted from above can be viewed and printed HERE (http://www.zyworld.com/webphoto/pages/print.htm).  It is invaluable.



Samples of Compressed Photos for Christian Photographers

Here's a photo that came out of my camera.  I cropped a few pixels from the bottom and the right side but it's still a massive file:

CLICK HERE (http://christianphotographers.com/images/DSC_1846LgNotResized.jpg)

Size of photo:
3697px × 2537px (scaled to 826px × 567px)
1594.62 KB (1632894 bytes)

Of course, this is much too large to show on the web so I resized it first of all just by changing the dimensions of it to 640 pixels wide which in turn made the height 439 pixels.


Here's the resized photo.  I didn't do anything with compression.  I only resized it but look what it did to the size of the file in KBs.

(https://www.christianphotographers.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fchristianphotographers.com%2Fimages%2FDSC_1846ResizedOnly640.jpg&hash=be63416ae61aad3c516e7e55e1994469535238f2)

Size of Photo:
640 x 439
123.05 KB (126005 bytes)




(https://www.christianphotographers.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fchristianphotographers.com%2Fimages%2FDSC_1846CompressedTo100_640.jpg&hash=81e931fd5dfdedc1d4afb14d09f73a27b23408e4)

Size of Photo:
640 x 439
97.93 KB (100279 bytes)



(https://www.christianphotographers.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fchristianphotographers.com%2Fimages%2FDSC_1846CompressedTo80_640.jpg&hash=cdcfa352091743004a26e9e9f56126f5b015d5a3)

Size of Photo:
640 x 439
78.79 KB (80676 bytes)




(https://www.christianphotographers.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fchristianphotographers.com%2Fimages%2FDSC_1846CompressedTo60_640.jpg&hash=ca0e1f37f07cd145af200a4eadc816776274418d)

Size of Photo:
640 x 439
57.66 KB (59039 bytes)




I think that you must agree that all of the above photos are pleasant to view and not difficult to download and if you compare any of the above examples to the original massive file, there's not that much difference in colour or detail.

One wonderful feature though, is that no one will attempt to steal any of the resized photos for their own use as they are useless to print!  :)  But we are still able to enjoy viewing them on this site.


We want photos on here that are only 175 KB maximum size and I've showed in my examples above that this is possible and the photos are pleasant to view.

I don't own PhotoShop as I've always found it to be far too expensive to purchase but all of the resizing above and compressing was done with Paint Shop Pro and the resizing took only a few seconds and clicks of the software and then I renamed the file so as not to overwrite my original huge massive file and thus lose it.


Since this is becoming a big problem on this site (posting of large files), we are going to start to change the photos that are large into links.  We aren't deleting the files but just changing them to links.  These aren't as pleasant to view as it involves the members wishing to see your photos, clicking on the link to view them.  So, if you post only photos that are 175 KB and 640 pixels on the longest side, this won't need to be done.

This has needed to be initiated due to the many large files being posted and we're sure that this is because the members posting them didn't realize exactly what was happening to this website by posting these large files.  As a Christian site and a site that we are trying to supply to members as a place where there is no nudity or anything indecent being posted and our webhosting being a very good deal, we are sure that you will try to help out in this regard and for this we thank you so very, very much.


Title: Re: Posting Photos on Christian Photographers
Post by: Fotobirder on May 04, 2009, 08:33:21 PM
I agree Pat. I'm trying to keep mine at about 600 x 400. That size fits great when you are Uploading to a Challenge. If it's too large, I keep modifying it until it fits almost perfectly in the Box without the arrows showing up. It take a little longer but the Photos look better and it saves the extra space. Hope everyone will do what it takes to keep the website running efficiently.

Have a blessed day
Steve
Title: Re: Posting Photos on Christian Photographers
Post by: Pat on May 04, 2009, 09:34:42 PM
Thanks Steve.

It's not only the pixel size though.  It's the KBs and many have been posting massive files so this is what we have to change too and if anyone doesn't know how to check the sizes of their files, here's how to do it with a PC:

RIGHT click on top of the image and then choose Properties.  There you will see how many Kilobytes the image is but even before uploading, you can see on your computer how large it is.

Title: Re: Posting Photos on Christian Photographers
Post by: Pat on May 04, 2009, 10:12:38 PM
I really hope that if anyone doesn't know how to resize their photos that they will please either post here or get in touch with either Jeanne Lee or myself.

We will try to help you.