Tutorial: How to attach multiple photos in a single post

lex_jenkins · January 31, 2013

Note: This tutorial is a work in progress. I'm still experimenting with various methods to find the easiest way to display multiple photos per post. And a tip o' the mouse to JDM for reminding me about the drag-and-drop trick. --Lex

<hr>

Since the Nikon forum's Wednesday photo sharing threads now allow up to three photos per participant, you may wish to keep two or three sequential photos - such as from a photo essay - together in the sequence you want to preserve a sense of continuity. I'm a big fan of documentary photography and photo essays, so I'm very supportive of the idea of posting two or three photos along with a brief description of the story behind the photos.

Note that these steps will work on most photo.net discussion forums. Keep in mind the No Words Forum works differently - please observe the etiquette for the NW Forum and don't use this technique to upload multiple photos to that forum.

Here's how to do it.

First, don't use the old familiar method of writing and submitting a text post, followed up by the prompt to attach a photo from your hard drive. That works fine for single photos per post, but not for a sequence of two or more photos combined into a single post.

The best method is to host your photos on your <a href="/photodb">photo.net portfolio space</a>, or another off-site host: Flickr, smugmug, Google Plus (formerly Google's Picasa host)... even Photobucket, although I can't promise we won't giggle at you for using Photobucket.

Important:

<ul>

<li>Be sure to set the permissions for your photos hosted off-site from photo.net to allow sharing. Otherwise nobody will see your photos and your posts will contain blank links. </li>

<li>Also, if you later re-order your off-site photos into different folders, etc., it may break the links to the Nikon forum Wednesday photo threads. This won't happen with photo.net's portfolios, which retain the same links even when photos and folders are re-ordered.</li>

</ul>

Suggested steps - these assume you've enabled the WYSIWYG toolbar via your <a href="/pvt/home">My Workspace page</a>. Some steps may vary depending on which off-site host you use. Some hosts offer a quickie one-click option to select and save the photo URL for pasting to another site or blog.

If you're not using photo.net's WYSIWYG toolbar, it's probably due to one of two reasons:

<ol>

<li>You're already proficient in HTML and prefer to do your own formatting. In which case, move along and quit hogging the front row. Let the newbies squeeze in.</li>

<li>You're paranoid about anything with the words "Java" or "Flash" or "I dunno what it is but I don't trust it." In which case... don't worry about it. Photo.net uses TinyMCE for the WYSIWYG toolbar, which is Javascript, not "Java". Not the same thing, not the same vulnerabilities you've been hearing about. TinyMCE is one of the most widely used WYSIWYG text entry/formatting toolbars online. It won't explode in your computer. And if you're paranoid about Javascript, you can selectively enable it for photo.net and block it elsewhere. That's what I do because I want sites I support, like photo.net, to benefit from full web traffic data. Also, take off that Guy Fawkes mask, you're not fooling anyone.</li>

</ol>

<ul>

<li>Write whatever prefacing text, comments or explanations you wish to accompany your photos.</li>

<li>Drag and drop up to three photos from your photo.net, Flickr or other online photo host. It may be just that simple. If this method is compatible with your photo hosting site, you'll see the photo immediately appear in the photo.net comment/photo display box. However, if this doesn't work, try the following steps...</li>

<li>Click on the green "tree" or "broccoli" icon in the middle of the WYSIWYG toolbar.</li>

</ul>

<ul>

</ul>

<hr />

<ul>

</ul>

<ul>

<li>Copy the photo URL from the source and paste it into the "Image URL" box.</li>

<li>Note: the photo URL is usually *not* the same as the URL for the web page on which the photo appears. For example, in Firefox on a PC, right-click the mouse and select the "View Image" option.</li>

</ul>

<ul>

<li>This will usually open the photo separately from the web page on which it was embedded.</li>

</ul>

<ul>

<li>Copy that URL from the browser URL box.</li>

</ul>

<ul>

<li>Insert and repeat for as many photos as you need per single post.</li>

<li>Here's what it looks like with two of my photos. If you like you can examine the HTML to see how it's formatted for photo.net. (Note: Photo.net uses fairly standard HTML, not the alternative formatting code popular on many phpBB sites, MediaWiki sites, etc. Photo.net blocks a few HTML tags to thwart spammers, otherwise it's standard HTML.) </li>

</ul>

<hr>

Here's my boring preface to these two photos, blah-blah-blah... errand to the store, noticed some interesting vapor trails against sky from nearby air base exercises, blah-blah-blah... waited for birds to dart around from perch to perch on these parking lot lights, blah-blah-blah... thought the juxtaposition of the hard geometric shapes of the lamps against the softer clouds, combined with birds and vapor trails might be an interesting challenge for my sparkly new Nikon V1 and 10-30mm VR, blah-blah-blah... I like haiku and puns, so blah-blah-blah fauxteaux titles. And now I've ruined all the mystery behind these photos.

Title: skaikublu

<hr>

Title: skaiku

<hr>

A few additional tips:

<ol>

<li>Don't overdo it with file sizes. Try to keep each photo file size well under 300 KB each. Keep in mind that not everyone has access to fast internet connections. And WiFi or other wireless connections may be considerably slower. However, I've viewed Nikon Wednesday photo threads from my low end laptop and Kindle Fire HD via public WiFi and even with upward of 100 posts, the threads loaded reasonably quickly.</li>

<li>Very seldom does anyone need to view JPEGs larger than around 800x600. Larger JPEGs may be appropriate for demonstrating techniques or problems for pixel peeping. Posting larger versions may encourage image theft or unauthorized copying and reprinting. If your <A HREF="http://www.photo.net/learn/photography-business/copyright-image-usage/one-photographers-story-the-birth-of-an-internet-meme-hurrr-im-a-hoers/">photo goes viral</A> it might as well be you who makes money from T-shirt and novelty sales.</li>

<li>Resize your photos to 700 pixels wide. This will give you the best results for embedding photos to the Nikon forum or other discussion forums.</li>

<li>The default width for our photo.net portfolio space is 680 pixels. This may produce odd artifacts when copying the URL for the 680 pixel wide version to the Nikon forum or other forums, which accommodate up to 700 pixel wide photos.</li>

<li>The maximum width for photo.net portfolios is 1500 pixels. If you attach the URL for this larger version, photo.net will automagically down-size it to 700 pixels. Usually this down-sizing works well, but if you notice ugly scaling artifacts - usually noticeable as stairstep aliasing or jaggies in diagonal lines - try resizing your photos to 700 pixels wide. This seems to be more essential with photos hosted off-site, such as on Flickr, smugmug or (*giggle*) Photobucket. But we know you're far too hip to use Photobucket.</li>

</ol>

That's about it. If you notice any errors in this tutorial or have any other tips, please let me know and I'll edit this tutorial.

bob_cook · January 31, 2013

Thanks for this. Will it work in the Classifieds section, as well?

lex_jenkins · January 31, 2013

Yup, the classifieds now have the same WYSIWYG toolbar, so it's easy to embed multiple photos. Did it myself in recent ads, worked fine.

JDMvW · January 31, 2013

Lex, I just did a test on the test forum of simply dragging files off a desktop folder to the WYSIWYG text display and it seemed to work. (see http://www.photo.net/test-posting-forum/00bIkx )

Is this a bad idea for some reason, or is it just another way?

Would it work on a non-Mac platform?

JDMvW · January 31, 2013

Also HMM...

Although an effort to use an example here done the same way generated a "double-you tee eff" denial since the embedded html had that combination in it. Didn't do that on the Test forum.

lex_jenkins · January 31, 2013

Good point, JDM, I've used that method on other sites but haven't tried it on photo.net.

Let's experiment a bit...

<a href="/photo/16750413"><img title="skaiku" src="http://d6d2h4gfvy8t8.cloudfront.net/16750413-sm.jpg" alt="skaiku" width="134" height="200" border="0" /></a> Okay, the thumbnail dragged from my photo.net portfolio okay. Let's try the larger version...

That seemed to work as well.

Hey, thanks for pointing that out! I've used that trick several times on other sites but for some reason never tried it here on photo.net. That's even easier than my labored explanation. My mind was still stuck in the old way of doing things on photo.net.

FWIW, I'm using a PC with Windows 7 and Firefox 18. I'll try this again with Chrome and IE to see if it works smoothly with those. I'll also need to repeat this with my photos hosted on Flickr and other sites to see whether it works consistently.

JDMvW · January 31, 2013

Matt Lauer had a plausible objection to the technique at the test post (<a href="/test-posting-forum/00bIkx?unified_p=1">link</a>) I did, however:

It seems like that's bound to gum up some browsers, proxies, etc. More to the point, it's asking the text field in PN's database to store what looks like some very, very long typing - which might hurt performance, slow down indexing, etc.

</blockquote>

Thoughts anyone? Lex?

JDMvW · January 31, 2013

Blah, blah, great minds..., und so weiter..... ;)

(apparently no W tee eff in this code)

lex_jenkins · January 31, 2013

Yup, I've seen examples elsewhere online of what Matt referred to. So far the dragon drop from our photo.net portfolio works exactly the same way as using the tree/broccoli icon. It just creates an "img src" tag.

Let's see if dragon drop works from my Flickr account:

This thumbnail is clickable to the Flickr page view of the larger photo.

<hr />

Yup, seems to work, though not quite as smoothly. I had to open the HTML option to add a horizontal rule to keep the thumbnail and larger version from butting together.

lex_jenkins · January 31, 2013

JDM, I just checked your photo above in this thread, and it does indeed appear as Matt described it - a looonnng string of ASCII when viewed via the HTML editor. Haven't seen that in years. Not sure why it does that. Presumably dragon drop from our computers to Facebook and the like doesn't do this - that'd be very inefficient.

JDMvW · January 31, 2013

Yeah, I'm thinking that except for little stuff, I'll lay off the drag and drop from my own desktop. It looks pretty awful and like the w tee eff thingie, it runs up against any text blockers on the various threads.

Who knows, maybe some code would have a reference to the Hypnoken by chance (infinite monkeys, that is). :)

lex_jenkins · February 1, 2013

Test...

lex_jenkins · February 1, 2013

Test...

parv · February 1, 2013

What difference does it make to plop an image as base64 encoded binary data when people write longer entries?

(Lex, I really like the "skaiku" image, as if the bird stalled & dropped, and then started again.)

blumesan · February 22, 2013

I'm damned if I can get this to work. <a href="/test-posting-forum/00bNa9">This</a> is what I get when I use the insert image link (broccoli icon).

I got the link directly from my Pnet gallery.

When I attempt to drag the image from the gallery, the entire gallery page is moved.

blumesan · February 22, 2013

OK, I'm not one to give up easily.

The following worked:

<ul>

<li>R-click on photo in gallery. </li>

<li>Select Properties.</li>

<li>Copy the url (address) that appears here.</li>

<li>Insert this address using Insert Image icon.</li>

</ul>

Note that this address is much different than address obtained by dragging image.

lex_jenkins · February 22, 2013

Mike, try the dragon drop from the individual photo page, rather than from the gallery or folder view. That should work.

With the broccoli icon, be sure to copy the <a href="http://d6d2h4gfvy8t8.cloudfront.net/16960332-md.jpg">actual image location</a>, rather than the <a href="/photo/16960332">page on which the photo is stored</a>.

blumesan · February 22, 2013

Mike, try the dragon drop from the individual photo page, rather than from the gallery or folder view. That should work.

</blockquote>

Thanks for the reply Lex. I tried with what I believe is the individual photo page. No joy. How does one arrive at that page?

lex_jenkins · February 23, 2013

For your front view of the Yashica SLR, <a href="/photo/16960977&size=md">this link</a> goes to the default view and <a href="/photo/16960977&size=lg">this link</a> goes to the larger version of the photo.

Via Firefox 19.0, and one of my own photos hosted on photo.net, <a href="/photo/10910386">here's the link</a> to the page on which the photo is hosted. If I click on the photo itself, I can cycle between the default smaller view (680 pixels wide, created by photo.net), and the larger version I uploaded directly.

If I dragon drop from the <a href="/photodb/folder?folder_id=963572">folder view</a> for the page on which one of my own photos is hosted, I'll get this smaller size:

So I'll click on the thumbnail to see the larger version. From there, I can place the cursor on the photo, click and drag it into this reply box, like this:

If instead I prefer to use the tree/broccoli icon, I'd use <a href="http://d6d2h4gfvy8t8.cloudfront.net/10910386-md.jpg">this link</a> for the actual photo location, copy and paste it into the window that opens when I click on the icon:

It should work the same with Firefox, Chrome and IE. I haven't tried any other browsers. Also, this assumes we've enabled the TinyMCE WYSIWYG toolbar on photo.net, allow at least some Javascript to run to enable this functionality, or we're familiar enough with HTML to set up the code ourselves. (Occasionally I use NoteTab Light's HTML editor because I can't remember some basic stuff from one day to the next.)

blumesan · February 23, 2013

Lex,

Thanks for your reply. I'm feeling pretty stupid; I can't get anything to work.

First, drag & drop. When I go to the first Yashica link you specify, and attempt to drag here, I get this screen:

Damnit, I can't even do a screen grab. It simply replaces my response with the entire web page containing the image.

However when I go to your folder view link and click and drag I get:

I' completely baffled.

lex_jenkins · February 24, 2013

Weird. I'm stumped. The only difference I can think of is that you're not a subscriber, but I don't see why that should matter. The same dragon drop tricks should work for anyone, including with our photos hosted on Flickr, smugmug, or elsewhere.

parv · February 24, 2013

( It's odd to see "dragon" wandering about these words.-)

justthings · March 11, 2013

don't step in the dragon drops...

when i have posted images that are hosted on flickr the method I use is to copy/past the HTML/BBCode available from the Share menu - I don't know if this is particular to flickr or if other hosting sites have this option and I don't think i've seen this method discussed here. Like this:

only it looks like this when you post it as html

I'm curious what impact this has on photo.net - the shared version is 640 pix in its maximum dimension while the original posted to flickr is something on the order of 4500 pix. In the various weekly posts the size requirement is for images with a max dimension of 700pix and size of 300kb - does this method meet those specifications or does it cause other issues?

lex_jenkins · March 11, 2013

Depends on the version of the photo embedded here on photo.net. The version you embedded is the smaller version, so it doesn't bog down page loads like a scaled-down max rez 5 megabunch JPEG would.

Besides avoiding bogging down threads, it's best to choose a smallish JPEG to embed because down-scaling tends to produce ugly results - lots of aliasing jaggies, etc.

When in doubt, you can click the "view image" option from your browser to see which size version has been embedded.

erwin_schaefer · August 19, 2015

I had 3 images to add to a post and could not totally grok the method you described. Perhaps a slight clarification here and there would have got me through. But as I only wanted to illustrate the method in my text it was not necessary to provide hi-res iomages. I combined the 3 images into one, dragged and dropped it into the post. See my post in Best storage for: Medium Format film - Photo.net Medium Format Forum I use the Avery Dennison Designpro (free download) in which one can slide, size and lock images in place…..do a screen shot and save in Paint as jpg. Erwin Schaefer

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Tutorial: How to attach multiple photos in a single post

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