Photo FAQ
Creating Images
Preparing Images to Upload
Software to help you edit your image
Tips for editing your images
Put your image into the right format
Uploading Images
Uploading Plain Text
Return to Frequently Asked Questions
There are several methods for capturing and creating electronic images that can be used with our site.
- Obtain electronic images from your film processor
Many standard film processors can now provide electronic images to you on a computer disk at the time the film is processed. If you use this option, make sure the digital image is saved in a JPEG (.jpg) format. The following three companies have services that will process your photos and give you the option to have your photos in a digital format suitable for the Web: PhotoNet, Fujifilm.net and Seattle Filmworks.
- Pay a service or photographer to develop an electronic image.
You can bring your items to a copy or desktop publishing store (such as Kinko's or Mail Boxes, Etc.) and pay for them to be either scanned or photographed, and converted into a digital format. Again, make sure the digital image is saved in a JPEG (.jpg) file type under 20k.
- Use a digital camera
Unlike conventional cameras, digital cameras store images in their memory rather than on film like conventional cameras. This makes them an ideal tool to create images for the Internet. The pictures you capture with your digital camera may be transferred directly to your computer via cable. Some cameras allow you to save images on removable media that can be read by your computer. Ideally, a camera should store images in the JPG format, since this format provides web photos that are sharp and easily read by most imaging software.
- Use a scanner
If you have a photograph of the item, you can scan the photograph. A scanner is connected to a computer and is controlled by a software application running on the computer. Once you scan an image using a software application that controls the scanner, you can use that software to save the image onto your computer's hard drive or floppy disk. You will want to scan the image at 72 dpi (dots per inch) since it will be displayed at this resolution. Scanners are ideal for flat items like photographs.
- Video capture
If you have video images from your video camera or your VCR tapes, you can transfer this video into a digital image using a video capture device and software. Assuming you have the video equipment, this option costs less than buying a digital camera or a scanner because all you need to buy is the device. One good example of this software is Snappy.
Once you have an digital version of your image, you can view and edit it with image editing software. Editing an image allows you to crop, resize, sharpen and adjust the contrast of your photos as well as shrink the file size of the graphic so the image is small enough to download quickly when someone views your item, yet large enough to display sufficient detail. As a rule, please make your thumbnails are no larger than 100 pixels wide and your main photos are no larger than 400 pixels wide. THIS IS VERY IMPORTANT. When you resize based on these basic parameters, your image editing software will automatically adjust the height in proportion to the width.
Software to help you edit your image
Check to see if your digital camera, scanner, or video-capture software has some basic features that allow you to crop and edit the image. If you need more software to enhance your image, there are several excellent software packages for less than $100 which allow you to resize, convert, and adjust all aspects of an image file. Some of these include PictureIt!, PhotoDeluxe, Paint Shop Pro and LivePix. If you are looking for free image editors, try searching the shareware site www.shareware.com for popular image editors such as Graphics Workshop or older versions of Paint Shop Pro. You can also use Microsoft's Photo Editor, which is included in the Microsoft Office Suite.
If your image file is very large, it will take a long time to download over the Web. To help users view your item easily, reduce your image's size as directed on the submit form. The software that came with your digital camera, scanner, or video capture method will help you reduce your image files to a workable size while maintaining satisfactory image quality. You may have to experiment a bit until you're satisfied with the results. Please keep your images under 30kb so your listings will load quickly when displayed.
Put your image into the right format-
Once you have the file containing the image on your computer, you need to make sure to save it in a format that can be used on the Web. While you can usually choose to save your image in one of several different types of image files or formats, there are only two that are appropriate for the Web: JPG (.jpg) and GIF (.gif). We recommend using the JPG (.jpg) format for listing items on the site since photos and images of items appear best in this format.
In addition to choosing a format, you must also give the image file a name. The end of the name will end in a dot (.) followed by the type of file you saved it as: jpg or gif. You should not put any spaces or special characters (such as &, $, or /) in the name of your file. An example of an efficient naming convention is: myphoto.jpg for large photos displayed on the description page and myphotosm.jpg for the thumbnail image. Remember the full path in which you save the image file. You will need to include this when you are adding a new prop to the site. For example- www.yourisp.com/users/youraccount/myphoto.jpg for the full size image and www.yourisp.com/users/youraccount/myphotosm.jpg.
Since all ISP's (Internet Service Providers) have a different way of allowing users access to their own personal web site, you may need to contact your provider to learn how to upload images and access them via your own personal web site storage space.
Uploading plain text is as simple as completing a form. You may type your text directly into the form, or you may copy the text from a word processor document onto the clipboard and then paste the text from the clipboard on to the form. This method is the preferred way of formatting text for your Prop description as it gives you access to spelling and grammar checking tools included in your word processing program.