Welcome to the Member Photo Album FAQ section
Below are common questions, instructions on how to use the photo albums and proper posting techniques.
Overview
How to post pictures
Photo Album Rules
Q: What's the main purpose of the photo albums?
A: The photo albums are here to give our members a chance to show off their favorite rides. Think of it as a "Cyber Car Show." What good is building it if no one can see it anyway? (it also lets me see what the competition is up to!)
If you have an old car or truck that you find special, we would love to see it! All that's needed is to register. (if you are registered on our message board, then you are already registered for the photo albums) The message board and photo albums work together using the same user name/password to login. Once registered, you'll be enjoying all the benefits and features the photo albums have to offer.
Q: What are these benefits and features?
A: Once your registered, you'll be able to create your own album(s) and upload pics to them right from your computer, instantly!
Benefits:
Each member is allowed up to 1 megabyte of storage space. If the pics are sized appropriately, that could be well over 30 pics!
Members may have more than one album. This is nice when you have more than one car.
Members can have sub catagories and sub galleries in their albums.
Private Personal albums: Private albums are assigned a unique URL so the person can share with family or friends with restricted access.
You can add photo's, delete photo's, add or delete descriptions, move or make any changes you like, whenever you like. Your in control!
Members can comment on other members pictures and also change or edit their comments at any time.
Users can rate photos on a 1 to 10 scale.
Ability to search by keyword
Image manipulation: Members can rotate pics, flip and flop and image after it's been uploaded.
Members can choose to be notified of new posts.
View recent uploads. A link to show the posts in the past 1, 7, and 14 days.
Ability to View all uploads.
Member can "tag" images for their own "My favorites" feature. Viewing "My Favorites" shows all the tagged images in a seperate gallery.
Q: What kind of cars are allowed in this cyber car show?
A: Photo's of your antique/classic cars of any make or model are welcome. Yes, any make, even Fords. Even though this is a Chevy site, old cars/trucks of all kinds are treated with respect here, we don't discriminate. Any condition is fine too! We like the "before" pics just as much as the "after" shots.
Please refrain from posting newer vehicles such as the family mini-van or SUV. We see enough of these everyday and they really don't belong here. (im not really sure where they belong!) LOL
Q: What do I need to know about posting my pictures here?
A: There are 3 main things to remember; File type, Image size and File size .
File Type-Acceptable file types are; .jpg, .jpeg and .gif Files other than these will not upload.
Image size-Image size has a limit of 800 pixels in width and 650 pixels in height. Anything larger in either or both directions will not upload. (My preference is to set the width of my pictures to around 500 pixels-this is a nice size without being too large)
File Size-There is a limit of 100kbs per picture. I recommend keeping pictures in the 30kb-40kb range for maximum pic storage. Files larger than 100kbs will not upload. (by resizing your pics as mentioned above, the file size will get lower. Lowering the resolution of the picture can also lower file size)
* Note-Pictures straight from a digital camera are huge in file size and image size! They must be edited to meet the specs above
Q: How do I make these changes?
A: You'll need some type of Photo editing program to make changes to your pictures. Every computer has some form of photo editor already on it that can be used to edit your photo's. If you have a digital camera, it probably came with some type of photo editing software so be sure to look for that.
Other than that, I suggest downloading Irfanview. It's the one I use, it's free and it works great!
Open the Photo editor of your choice and then open the picture in this editor. Clicking "File", then "open" and finding your picture on your hard drive is the general way of doing this. Double click on it.
The first thing to do is decide if your picture needs to be cropped. If you have alot of background, you may want to crop the picture. You may also make any other changed needed such as brightness, contrast, etc. Once that is done, you need to resize your pic to meet our limits. Be sure to set to "proportion" if asked. Then set the width or height so that the width is no more than 800 pixels and the height no more than 650 pixels. (with proportion set, changing one will make the other change as needed to keep the picture from being distorted) Note that this is the maximum size an is quite big. I recommend 500 pixels in width and let the height naturally go where it wants to keep the picture from being distorted. This will give a decent file size. If you find the file size is still big, try lowering the resolution of the picture.
When your happy with the results, click on "File", then click "Save As." A window will open where you can name this picture and save it's file type, as well as select a folder to put it in. Be sure to save it's file type as either; .jpg, .jpeg or .gif
Q: Ok, now what?
A: Now it's time to go to the photo albums and create an album to put your pic(s) in. (you must be logged in) Click on the "Album Admin" link, then click "Add album."
Once there, you will add a name for your album and a description. Also on that page, you have an option of making your albums private or not. In most cases, you won't make your album private so that visitors can view your pics. If you make your album private, it can only be accessed using a special URL that contains the password. Without that specific URL, no one will be able to access it. This is used if you would like to share your photos with only family or friends and not with visitors.
Now it's time to upload your photos. Click the "Upload Photo" link near the top right of the page. Now select the album from the catagory box. You may now upload up to 5 photos at a time by clicking the "browse" buttons. A new window will open showing the files on your computer. Locate the photo from this window and double click on it. Do this for 1 to 5 photos then click the submit button.
Next, add a title for your photo(s) and a description as well as some keywords. Keywords are used when someone uses the search feature. Now click the process file button. Your photo(s) should now be in your album. That's it!
Q: What rules apply here?
A:
Basically, common sense rules. Here's a list of Do's and Dont's:
Do's
Do post pictures of your older classic or antique vehicles
Do be respectful when adding comments to others albums
Do take the time to describe your picture. It makes viewing them all the better when there is a story to go along!
Dont's
Do not post pictures of newer vehicles.
Do not post offensive pictures.
Do not post negative comments or profanity.
Do not use the albums as a warehouse to store pics.
(those breaking the last three rules may have their photo album privledges suspended or revoked!)