May 21, 2008
Vol.1 Issue 4

Hi to all our Dolly Friends! 

This week everybody is having problems with their photos! And not just on Horsengoggle, it seems that everywhere I turn people are asking me how to handle photos.

This newsletter is a QUICK Photo Tutorial. You can do it!! Just take a few minutes to check out our instructions and you will LOVE the fact that you are in control of your photos. STICK WITH ME NOW. Here we go....

HORSENGOGGLE LIMITS FOR PHOTOS

If your photos are really large then the Horsengoggle system can't accept them. The file limitation is 400k, which is quite a large photo. Huge. It's a limitation, but it's a generous limitation.

The problem is this: the photos that come directly off the camera are like 4000kb or 6000kb or even 10,000kb which is incredibly enormous. You can print an entire poster with a digital photo that big.

The only time you actually need such huge photos is if you're going to print them in books or flyers. THEN you need high resolution photos, but you don't need high-res for pictures that are posted online.

BANDWIDTH IS WHAT THE INTERNET PAYS FOR

There's another problem with such huge photos: they use up a lot of bandwidth during transfer and every time the photo is viewed by users it uses MORE bandwidth... and bandwidth is what we have to pay for on the Server. In fact, there's a problem with bandwidth shortage and geeks are talking about it alot.

So... you need to resize your photos before uploading them. This is a very good thing to learn, or else you're going to have problems with photo sizes many times (such as sending them on emails.)

HOW DO YOU ADJUST THE PHOTO SIZE?

You need to adjust your photos using a graphics editor software program. We'll tell you more about that in just a bit.

WHAT SIZE SHOULD PHOTOS BE?

So what size do your photos need to be? It's a good idea to resize your photos to less than 700 pixels height or width. Actually 600 pixels is probably better. But I like to use big photos so I keep it under 700 pixels.

ADJUST THE QUALITY, TOO!

QUALITY is another thing to consider, when adjusting your JPG photos. The quality setting should be somewhere between 80-90% quality for JPG's. The photo starts to degrade a lot if you set the quality under 75% Your software will help you adjust quality.

AVOID "FAT" PHOTOS....

If you adjust the pixel size and the quality setting: those two adjustments will directly affect your kb size. What is the kb size? KB is the amount of space that the photo uses on the hard drive. It's an actual physical size: a measurement. If 200 pounds is a big man, then 400 pounds is a really fat man... think of it like that. Maybe.

Anyway... if your photo is less than 600 pixels and 85% quality, your actual file size will end up less than 200kb most of the time, which is well within the 400kb limit. So the Horsengoggle limitations are generous: you can upload big photos.

PIXELS: DO I DEFINE LENGTH, WIDTH... OR BOTH?

PIXELS... You only want to define pixels for ONE side. The other side will be adjusted automatically. Which side you choose depends on the photo and the shape of it. Generally, the longest side should be 600 pixels and the "other" side will automatically be adjusted proportionately. You don't want to define BOTH sides or it will get distorted.

So if it's a LANDSCAPE photo, where the width is the longest measurement, then revise the width to 600 pixels and the software will automatically adjust the other side proportionately.

Or, if it's a PORTRAIT photo where the height is the longest measurement, then revise the height to 600 pixels and the software will automatically adjust the other side proportionately.

If you learn how to CROP with your photo software, that's a good thing to know too. That way you remove excess unimportant stuff from the photo and there's more pixel space available for what matters.

DO YOU NEED SOME GOOD GRAPHICS SOFTWARE?

Here's an easy ONLINE utility to help you convert a picture size, maybe you will like this utility, and it's all online:

http://www.fixpicture.org/index2.php?LANG=en

Photobucket.com is a popular site, and they have tools to help you manipulate your photos. So that's another option.

Or, maybe you should get a good graphics program for your computer. I have a favorite graphics program that I use, but if I did not already have my fav, I would choose this one instead:

http://pagesperso-orange.fr/pierre.g/xnview/enxnview.html

XNView works very much like my fav program, and it is FREE for noncommercial use. Yes, Free is good. It's a very nice and easy program and has been around for a long time.

LINKED PHOTOS ARE OK, TOO

Or, if you don't want to resize your photos you can link directly to your Photobucket.com pictures if you would rather do it that way. Just use HTML code in the auction description and you can link to anything you want. Linked photos are not subject to the Horsengoggle system limitations.

I've been doing some of BOTH... I link to my own photos at my web site because I like to do it that way, and I also upload at least one picture onto the Horsengoggle server, so my listings will have a Thumb photo.

If you want to learn a little bit of HTML, you can visit my HTML guide at this link. There are terrific resources here: http://www.prillycharmin.net/tutorial/index.htm

So... Let's do it!!

If you can edit, resize and even crop your photos, then you're ready to learn a little HTML. With just a little bit of HTML, you'll get around the internet like a Pro.

Here's our cute little shortcut that will
get you to Horsengoggle even faster:
LOVE2H.COM

Have a good week!

Cyndy Ann
at Horsengoggle.com