How To Make a Picture For
The BBQ Forum Image Gallery

How do I change my Pictures?

You will need an image editor that allows you to change the resolution (size) of your images. There are far too many image editors (both free and for a price) to mention them all.  I use a program called PaintShop Pro and have found it is simple to use.  It allows me to quickly and easily resize and compress my images as well as correct brightness and contrast.  I'll tell you where to get PaintShop Pro and other image editors later in this FAQ.

Once you have found an image editor, you will need to adjust your images to an acceptable size.  You should make your image about 500-600 pixels wide. This size it perfectly acceptable for posting to the Image Gallery.  You should also look for a compression setting, sometimes configurable through options or when you save the image.

Tip:  Always save your original image in case the results are not what you expect and want to redo it.

Important:  The BBQ Forum Image Gallery software will create the thumbnail picture for you.  To let The BBQ Forum Image Gallery create you thumbnail just up load the picture you have re-sized and compressed and when the picture is approved we will create the thumbnail image.

Here are the steps I use to make a picture:

1. Make a temporary folder where I can work with the pictures I want to post
2. Make a copy of the images I want to post in the temporary directory
3. Open the images and resize them to about 600 x 450 pixels
4. Set the compression level and save them with an appropriate name
5. Log in to the Image Gallery and upload your picture!

Why worry about picture size?

With the addition of the Image Gallery on the BBQ Forum, BBQr's from around the globe will have a place to post pictures of themselves, their equipment, and their BBQ for others to enjoy and learn.  While this service is free, we all must make an effort to ensure the images we post are of an acceptable size, ensuring everyone will be able to view the images quickly and disk space on the server is not wasted.  Large images cause modem users problems because they take a long time to view.  While this is not a major concern for those using broadband connections, it is still a waste when you consider that compressed images of a smaller size (resolution and file size) can look just as good and use less space on the server and use less bandwidth to view.

While there are a few different picture formats that can be created and used on the internet, this FAQ will concentrate on the most popular format, the JPEG image.  Most digital cameras today save the images as JPEG files (with a file extension of .jpg), and the majority of the images you see on web pages are of JPEG format because they can be compressed with little loss of viewing quality.

What affects my picture size?

When speaking of JPEG formatted pictures, three factors will determine your picture size:

• Resolution (size in pixels of your picture)
• Compression Level
• Contents of the picture

For the most part, you should concern yourself with the first factor, and worry about the other two if you have an image editor that allows you to set the compression level.  The latter two factors go hand-in-hand because the contents of the picture dictate how much a picture can be compressed.  These two pictures demonstrate how compression can save space.  Image 1 is not compressed at all and is 295k in size, while Image 2 is compressed and is only 58k.  Notice that the two pictures look almost identical.  As you start changing the size and compression level of image files, you will notice that two JPEG files of the same resolution are different in file size.  This is simply a trait of JPG compression and beyond the scope of this FAQ.  Some images can be compressed more than others, and I'll just leave it at that.

So what about resolution?  What exactly IS resolution?

Resolution is the number of pixels (dots) that you can view on your computer screen.  Most modern computers delivered with a 17" monitor now come configured to view a resolution of 1024 x 768 which is 1024 pixels from side to side by 768 pixels top to bottom.  On a Microsoft Windows computer you can see the resolution your computer is running by right-clicking on the desktop and choosing "Properties" from the popup menu, then selecting the "Settings" tab on the dialog box that appears.  You should see an entry that says "screen resolution".  This is the number of pixels you can see on your screen.

Digital cameras now capture huge images of great detail.  While this may be of importance to those wanting to create professional-grade prints from their pictures, it is of little use for those displaying images on the internet, and only serves to waste disk space and bandwidth.  My digital camera (Nikon 4 mega pixel)  is capable of creating images of 2272 x 1704 at over 1MB a piece!  This is about 4 times larger in resolution and 10 times larger in file size than they need to be.  Figure 1 shows how big my digital camera pictures are, how big my computer screen is, and how big the picture should be for posting to the Image Gallery.

Figure 1

How do I find an image editor?

You probably already have an image editor on your computer.  The problem is that most of these image editors do not do a good job of resizing the pictures (if they even allow you to do it at all), don't allow you to compress the images, or may not allow you to save them as .jpg files.  Some application "suites" like Microsoft Office have image editors that may do a bit better, but still can be hard to work with.

I use a program called PaintShop Pro.  As I stated earlier, it is easy to use, and allows me to resize and adjust photos as I see fit.
You can find a trial version of this software here:  PaintShop Pro Trial

I have also used a program called Web Album Generator.  While this program generates web pages to display images, it is also pretty easy to use and will generate both thumbnails and reduced-size images at the same time.  It is FREE and can be downloaded here:  Web Album Generator

You can find other trial versions of software to experiment with at some of the popular shareware sites:
c|net's Download.com
Tucows