How to post a photo in the forums

Wed 20 Jan 10 15:11

How to post a photo in the forums

Lots of people ask how they can display photos in their posts but we don't have a really handy guide available. So I thought I'd write one.

First, some basics. You've got a photo on your computer and you want to show it in the forums. Because it's on your computer at the moment, nobody else can see it.

You need to put it somewhere on the Internet. Once it's on the Internet it will have a unique address (technically the address is called a URL) that begins with http://
The URL of the logo at the top of this page is http://www.corvetteclub.org.uk/templates/albon/images/head_l... (You can click that link to see the logo in your browser and you'll see the URL in your browser's address bar.)

You can show the photo to other people by giving them the URL once the photo is on the Internet.

So how do you get the photo on the Internet?
When an image is available to other people on the Internet it is hosted. You upload your photo to a website that offers image hosting and that website will give you the photo's URL.

Example photo hosting websites
www.photobucket.com
www.tinypic.com
www.flickr.com
http://www.google.co.uk/search?q=photo+hosting

Each of those works differently so try them all until you find the one that's easiest to use (Tinypic is good), but ultimately all you need is the URL of the image you've uploaded.

To display your photo in this forum (or any other forum) you put the URL between special tags like this: (instead of the dots)
Those tags tell this website that you're providing the address of an image on the Internet and when people view your post the website will translate what you've typed into the photo.

To display the CCCUK logo I paste the above URL in here with a tag after it (with no spaces) and I get this:


It's easiest to copy the URL from your photo hosting website and paste it into your post, and in fact most photo hosting sites will even give you the URL already wrapped with the tags to make it even easier to do.

Use this thread to practice as much as you want and ask any questions if you get stuck.

Last edited by Ben on Sun 26 Sep 10 07:33; edited 2 times in total. [9 %]

Wed 20 Jan 10 16:15

Re: How to post a photo in the forums

Do you use the same method to put an avatar up ? (pic above users name for the Luddites out there!) Thanks for the tutorial Ben, will endeavour to post pics up during the show season -especially of me!

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Johnny99

Wed 20 Jan 10 17:53

It's a different method for avatars. They're uploaded directly to this website so you don't use the [img]....[/img] tags. Instead you need to resize your image to no bigger than 100x100 pixels and click the 'Edit your profile' link in the menu.

Wed 20 Jan 10 21:01

Re: How to post a photo in the forums

Resize my image? I thought the computer age was supposed to make our lives easier! Time to sit in the corner with my white pointy hat with the giant 'D' on it!

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Johnny99

Wed 20 Jan 10 22:14

Google is your friend, Johnny: http://www.shrinkpictures.com/create-avatar/

Or, if that doesn't work: http://www.google.co.uk/search?q=online+image+resize+avatar

Thu 21 Jan 10 08:54

Re: How to post a photo in the forums

johnny99 wrote (View Post):Resize my image? I thought the computer age was supposed to make our lives easier! Time to sit in the corner with my white pointy hat with the giant 'D' on it!

Even with the computerisation of our lives, some things don't change.

For example size still does matter!!!! (In this case yours needs to be smaller)

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Rich Rogers
CCCUK Lifetime Member
2017 Yellow SS Camaro

Thu 21 Jan 10 09:11

Re: How to post a photo in the forums

Done it! Thanks Ben and Rich. The only stumbling block I hit was once I'd resized my pic, I couldn't work out how to transfer it to 'my details/avatar' page. After 20 minutes, I found the 'submit' button in the 'upload pics' section below! So it wasn't immediately apparent that that was the one I needed to hit. That's the problem with me having an IQ in single figures i guess, next on the agenda is learning how to tie my own shoelaces....

Last edited by johnny99 on Thu 21 Jan 10 09:14; edited 1 time in total. [8 %]
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Johnny99

Thu 21 Jan 10 10:14

Well done Johnny. Nice-looking avatar!
I've added some more Submit buttons to that form - I agree the single button was a bit lost at the bottom.

Thu 21 Jan 10 16:01

Re: How to post a photo in the forums

Well done Ben, a bit of snagging never goes amiss!

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Johnny99

Tue 29 May 12 08:51

Re: How to post a photo in the forums

I still use Paint to modify any images of mine as its so easy..

Just right click on a saved image, open with Paint and you have fast and easy access to size, rotation and any other attribute you wish to use or change.