Blab Gallery Uploads: How to Reduce and/or Rotate Your Photo Contents & Links QUICK LINK-JUMPS to information in this PDF document Photo Editors General Information Includes finding pre-installed editors on your computer Photo Size - Limits & Resizing Photo Rotation Fixing upside down, sideways (even if the photo appears to be correct on your computer) Extras Guide to using program Paint for Photo Resizing Guide to using program Paint for Photo Rotation Free Photo Editor Program Paint Blab Gallery Preparing for Uploading Many photos will be too large for Blab Gallery size limits. But they can easily and quickly be reduced in size, without cropping, using any photo editor. We ll show you how in this guide. Some photos will display on the internet as upside-down or sideways, even if you fixed them with a photo editor on your computer or device. Fortunately these have an easy Gallery fix as well. You will need a photo editor to do these fixes, but you almost certainly have a free one pre-installed on your computer, tablet or cell phone. You can also find free editors on the web. We ll tell you more about editors. If you have any questions or comments about the information in this guide, please PM Mary from Blab. It will always be a work in progress! To be added LINKS to other PDF s with more Blab Showing Information
Photo Editors General Information You ll need a photo editor program to resize the many photos that will be too large to upload to Blab Gallery. Photo editor programs adequate for these simple purposes are easily accessible, free, easy to use and almost certainly already pre-installed on your computer! If you have never used a photo editor before, this guide should help you be able to resize and reorient your photos fairly easily and quickly. We will not discuss more sophisticated photo editing that includes retouching and/or enhancing the image s appearance. These edits aren t necessary for Blab Gallery entries to shows and contests if you use simple basics and decent lighting when taking your photo. Click this link to open an ONLINE PDF with some photography tips for entering Blab contests and shows. Finding pre-installed photo editors on your computer, tablet and other devices Double-click on any photo file on your computer or tablet to open it, and it will open in a photo editor. You may even have a choice of installed photo editors. From the photo file, right click the file name and select Open With to see your choices of viewers and editors. Look at the top frame for tab links > editing functions. Keep exploring the functions on various tabs, looking for these two functions: o Resize o Rotate or Reorient Scroll down for a visual example. TIP: Make COPIES of photos FIRST, and edit ONLY THE COPIES to avoid shrinking the original image. To learn about whatever editor functions are available on your cell phone or other mobile device, open a single photo image and look for links to settings and options. You may be able to make adjustments directly on the device. Be aware, though, that this will alter your device s original image, and you may not be able to recover the original version. It may also be possible to download photo editor apps. You can decide where and how you prefer to edit your photos computer or tablet, or other device. Although you may want to explore your options, this guide will address only simple editing on a computer or tablet with editors that are almost always already installed. Moving photos from a camera or cell phone to edit on a computer or tablet Many people prefer to store their photos and do their editing on a computer or tablet. This can save space on your camera or cell phone, and it can make it a bit easier to edit copies rather than originals. It is a personal photo management preference as to where to store and edit your photos. Page 2 of 19
Example: Pre-Installed Photo Editor I double-clicked a photo file on my computer, and it sprang open with a photo editor that came with my computer. TIP: Make COPIES of photos FIRST, and edit ONLY THE COPIES to avoid shrinking the original image. Now I m going to click on the Edit, organize or share tab The tab Edit, organize and share already has a function I may need, Rotate and from here I ll click the Edit tab Page 3 of 19
And the Edit tab has all the functions I need. Good to go with the pre-installed editor. Go to the following sections for tips on using these functions in your photo editor. TIP: Make COPIES of photos FIRST, and edit ONLY THE COPIES to avoid shrinking the original image. Page 4 of 19
Photo Size Limits & Resizing HOW LARGE IS YOUR PHOTO? MAX PHOTO SIZE ALLOWED TO UPLOAD TO BLAB GALLERY: IMAGE SIZE: FILE SIZE: 1500 X 1500 PIXELS (WIDTH X HEIGHT) 2,200 KB / 2.2 MB Any photo edit program will show you the file size and image size of your photos. If the image size fits inside 1500 x 1500 pixels, the file size is usually within range as well. If so, you should be able to upload to Blab Gallery without editing the photo. If you get an error message when uploading to Gallery, it is very possible your photo is too large. This error may cause your upload function to fail for other photos as well. PM Mary for a reset. Resizing a photo means shrinking it without cropping the photo. The photo will appear the same, just smaller. Both the file size and the dimensions (the width and height pixels) will be reduced. Steps for resizing: TIP: Make COPIES of photos FIRST, and edit ONLY THE COPIES to avoid shrinking the original image. Cursor highlight the photo file name (where the photo file is stored on your computer). Right-click > Open With > [Editor Program] or just double-click to open with a default editor. Find the Resize function (in an editing tab). Open and view the Horizontal and Vertical dimensions. If there is a selection for Pixels, make that selection. If either or both of the dimensions (horizontals or vertical) is above 1500 pixels, change the largest dimension to 1500. Implement this change with OK or whatever appropriate button. Save your edits, being careful that you do not save over the original photo file name, as you may not be able to recover the original version. Many editors have an arrow button or other method of moving quickly from one photo to the next, to more efficiently edit / resize each one in turn. Oops! What if I accidentally saved the reduced file over the original? How can I recover the original photo file? No promises but while remaining calm, try these steps. If you have not yet closed the editing application / window, try using undo until you reverse all changes. Once the changes are reversed, save again, adjusting the file name appropriately. You can check both files to see what changes were made. If that doesn t work, find out if your computer has a temporary save of previous file versions, so that you can find the original file in the earlier versions. That may take some research. Or if you use an auto-backup such as Carbonite or other program, an earlier version may be available that way. Page 5 of 19
Using Paint editor program for Photo Resizing (scroll down) Page 6 of 19
Pictorial Guide to Photo Resizing with Paint 2 nd page Page 7 of 19
Pictorial Guide to Photo Resizing with Paint 3 rd page Change the file name FIRST to help avoid accidentally saving the reduced file over the original file. Page 8 of 19
Pictorial Guide to Photo Resizing with Paint 4 th page Page 9 of 19
Pictorial Guide to Photo Resizing with Paint 5 th page Page 10 of 19
Pictorial Guide to Photo Resizing with Paint 6 th page You re done! The reduced photo file will be ready for uploading to the Gallery, so long as the Gallery size limits have been achieved. Continue to the next section for information on correcting a photo that displays on the internet as sideways or upside-down. Page 11 of 19
Photo Rotation Fix (sideways, upside-down) (Correcting photos that are displaying upside down or sideways.) Many cell phones take excellent still photos sometimes better than basic cameras. But some devices can produce photos that don t display on the internet with the correct orientation. Because: iphone photos use image coding called exif to orient photos, but exif is not recognized by many web applications. In fact, even if you edit a photo to rotate to the correct orientation, and can see the photo oriented properly on your computer or device, it may still appear wonky online, because of exif. Never fear there are two methods of fixing your photo orientation for display in the Blab Gallery. 1) Blab Gallery rotation edit (link) easy to do for a show, contest or gallery display. This solution uses a basic function provided in the Blab Gallery editing options. 2) A more permanent fix to the photo itself (link) that will correct all internet displays to right-side up. This solution uses the free photo editor Paint. We ll explain both in the following pages Page 12 of 19
Blab Gallery easy rotation fix This fix is done after uploading a photo to the Blab Gallery and finding it does not display properly. Click here to open an ONLINE PDF guide to uploading and managing your photos in Blab Gallery. To start, navigate to the Gallery photo screen of the photo you want to rotate. You may already know what album or have bookmarked the photo or find it this way Find it: Gallery tab > My Photos gray bar link > scroll down and select the photo you want From the photo screen, in the lower right User Options box > select Edit Photo Page 13 of 19
A closer look at the Edit Photo link in the User Options box User Options box is found below and to the right of the image. In the image edit screen, click the option to flip the photo display to show correctly. CCW counter-clockwise CW = clockwise Message screen after clicking Rotate CW We did it! Page 14 of 19
Using Paint editor program for a permanent rotation fix The Blab Gallery fix is very convenient! But the image is only fixed in the Gallery. You can fix your online photo orientation for any internet upload using a simple free photo editor program called Paint [link to more info on acquiring Paint]. You only need to do this if your edit with your current program didn t produce the desired results after the photo was uploaded. Below is a narrative how-to. A pictorial guide is on the following pages. Open your image in Paint. To do this, from the file saved location, select with your cursor, right-click and select open with Paint. Paint > Home tab > Rotate will allow you to put the image right-side-up. Save. If, before rotating, the image is so large that it doesn t display well enough to get a good look at it, look to the bottom right frame of Paint for the % view display. Click - will shrink the view. But this DOES NOT change the actual file size only this view. You can + and - as needed without changing the file itself. The above steps may do the trick to fix the orientation even for online display. But if, after uploading, the photo is still in the wrong orientation, then go on to these steps for a permanent fix. Open a second, blank Paint window (re-open the Paint program, without closing your photo Paint window). Make sure the blank white space isn t oversized (you can use the Resize function to rein it in if necessary). Switch back to your photo Paint window with the right-way photo. Click Select All, then Copy. Go to your blank Paint window, cursor-select the window, right-mouse click and Paste the image into the blank window. Save this version of your photo. This version will not have the exif code, so it will display on the internet just as you edited it in this Paint window. Before saving, consider if you prefer to save as a new file name to preserve the original photo file. Adjusting the file size in Paint If you plan to use this version for the Blab Photo Show, this is a good time to proceed to changing the file size, if you need to reduce it for uploading. First, save the photo as a new file name, so you don t lose the original photo in its original size. Select the Resize button. Then click the Pixels radio button. Look at the Horizontal and Vertical boxes. If either or both has a number above 1500, you need to shrink your photo. Change just the box with the largest number to 1500, and click OK. Save as the new file name to preserve the original photo file. Check the bottom frame for the new file size maximum 1500 x 1500 pixels, 2,500kb (2.5mb) photo size. If necessary, make another adjustment and remember to save it before closing the window. Page 15 of 19
Pictorial Guide to Paint editor fixing rotation Page 16 of 19
Pictorial Guide of Photo Orientation Correction with Paint 2 nd page Page 17 of 19
Pictorial Guide of Photo Orientation Correction with Paint 3 rd page Page 18 of 19
Free Photo Editor Program Paint If you already have a photo editor program that will do all you need to do, you may not need Paint. However, you can use Paint to accomplish something that you may not be able to do with other editors, and that is *permanently* rotating wrong-way-up internet display of a photo. Although every photo editor can rotate the photo on your own computer or device, many fixes don t translate to the internet. Paint is pre-installed on many computers. Go to your access path to all programs to find it. Paint is available free for download from the web just search for it. (Don t download any other programs that try to piggy-back with it.) This guide does not encourage or recommend the use of the Paint program, but merely offers this information in case it is of use to members. This guide accepts no responsibility for outcomes while using Paint, or any permanent loss or damage to an image. <<<< End of Photo Resizing and Orientation Guide >>>> Page 19 of 19