Friday, September 11, 2009

FAQ: Preparing Images for the Blog

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During our last FAQ Friday, I (Jeff) talked about how we made our blog using WordPress, and I mentioned that this time we’d be talking about how we actually prepare our images that go on our daily blog posts. This is something that we get asked about frequently, and I’m surprised how many photographers I’ve spoken with that have a hard time getting images on their blogs in an easy and efficient fashion.

Instead of writing the process out step by step, I figured that a screen cast of what we do would be much more helpful! This is my first EVER screencast so my apologies that the color in the video is a little off! I also had a hard time figuring out the compression so the text isn’t super clear, but you should be able to get the idea.

As always, any questions you have about this topic (or any other topic) please post in the comments, and we’ll do our best to answer your question in a future FAQ Friday post. On to the video!

FAQ: Preparing Blog Images from The Youngrens on Vimeo.

 

Click here to download the Excel template for creating your HTML code.

Tonhya asked if I could expand a little bit on the Excel portion, so I recored a quick video on what Excel is doing and how to customize it for your use. I also figured out how to make the video a lot clearer and easier to see, so I think I’ll go back and re-record the first video again. Leave a comment below and you’ll be automatically notified when I update this post.

View More: FAQ, photographers

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Ipp - 09.11.09 - 10:04 am

Great post with solid insight. I’ve always been the Photoshop user who sifted through every image, making small, repetitive edits. It was really cool to see the automator in action. And very entertaining Jeff, please do more screencasts. Thanks!

Danielle & James - 09.11.09 - 10:05 am

super awesome video, i wish i had seen it months ago, i probably would have had tons more free time!

Barb Mastro - 09.11.09 - 10:11 am

Jeff- thanks for sharing such good info :) you guys rock!

Jeff - 09.11.09 - 10:22 am

Thanks for the feedback, guys! Glad you like the video! I just figured out how to make the video look clearer so I may re-record this one shortly. Looking forward to doing more screencasts!

Linea - 09.11.09 - 11:15 am

Very informative! Thanks for taking the time to make this video! :)

Tonhya - 09.11.09 - 12:46 pm

Hey Jeff! Love the post, so helpful! I was wondering if you could go into more detail about what you did in excel. That seems like a HUGE time saver, but I don’t quite understand it! Thanks so much! :)

Jen Disney - 09.11.09 - 1:43 pm

Seriously awesome!

Denise - 09.11.09 - 9:37 pm

That was SOOOOO helpful! Thank you guys so much for your willingness to share! You ROCK!

kilipohi - 09.12.09 - 10:00 am

thanks so much for sharing this information! It really confirms the fact to me that I need to upgrade my editing programs as well as my webpage. It takes me forever to upload and makes me not want to post to my blog…not a good thing. I, too, would have tons of free time if I saw this earlier.

gabriel.ryan. - 09.13.09 - 9:20 am

you guys are freaking incredible!! and now i’m re-thinking my whole pre-blog workflow ;)

carlie & i have been using flickr and it takes at least a dozen clicks, per image, to embed each photo on our blog. wow, was i doing way too much work.

rock.on.

Jonathan - 09.13.09 - 2:14 pm

dude that’s a great tutorial. I’m really diggin these FAQ Fridays! :)

anjuli paschall - 09.13.09 - 3:03 pm

hi jeff,
I have a question for you guys…
I noticed that you are using the shootsac (right?). i was wondering how it worked for you? i was interested in getting it, but i like to move a lot when taking pictures (on the ground and on a step stool). I was wondering if this would be a good bag for me. What are your thoughts about it? do you love it? like it? trying to find another better one? thanks!

Gareth Robins - 09.19.09 - 7:17 pm

Thanks guys, this was so helpful. I didn’t actually know how to place my logo with the Place option, I was opening, copying and pasting!! It’s videos like this that empowers others to be great, sharing your knowledge to help others get ahead is a special thing.

Gareth Robins - 09.20.09 - 2:18 am

Hey Jeff,

I just uploaded my latest sneak peek using all of the workflow above, super easy. I made a wee tweak to the Excel file too. I want to have unique filenames for the images to aid in SEO and my wordpress uploads stuff into a year/month folder, which I like. So basically I uploaded the complete files to the appropriate month folder on my server, then in Filezilla, selected the files and selected copy URL. I edited the Excel file to accept this pasted URL and turn it into the code. Now I have have any filename I want. I also added ALT and TITLE tags to the HTML. The updated file is located here http://www.garethrobins.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/09/Blog%20Upload%20Template.xls Hope someone finds it useful.

Regards

Gareth

annabella brandon - 10.04.09 - 5:06 pm

Thanks so much for the info.I did have one question. How do you create an action that has two vertical images and the logo at the bottom. thanks so much.

chad - 10.14.09 - 8:35 am

awesome! so psyched you are willing to share. y’all rock!

Kerry & Taylor Struble - 10.19.09 - 2:00 pm

Jeff, thanks man, great stuff! Question: I typically combine two vertical photos as one image with our logo below as you do. Any suggestions on incorporating this into an action? Can Photoshop combine 2 seperate images into one with an action? Thanks!

melissa oholendt - 10.19.09 - 9:06 pm

I want to cry I love this post so much. THANK YOU. I am totally in awe of your generosity!!

Sherry - 10.24.09 - 5:21 pm

WOW! This is amazing! Thank you!! It just sped up my workflow like a JILLION percent. That excel spreadsheet is fantastical… I’m so amazed.

Heather Moreau - 10.30.09 - 11:06 am

hmmm… I have no image processor in Bridge CS4… nothing to link to Photoshop. Is this a plug-in?

Heather Moreau - 11.01.09 - 1:09 pm

Ok, that is a super amazing trick and I LOVE how techy you are Jeff:) I figured out a work-around for my one issue and this will save me a ton of time, thanks SO much!

RTW Photography - 01.01.10 - 6:56 am

Just like to thank you for this tutorial! It’s totally revolutionized my blogging experience!! :D

Many thanks!!
Ryan!!

Miles Hughes - 02.23.10 - 12:50 pm

I’m excited to set up a blog using your techniques…even though it looks so simple on your video hopefully a clear version will help a bit. Thanks!

Kristina - 04.02.10 - 5:23 pm

Thank you for posting this video tutorial! As a beginner to the professional photog world, I’m always looking for new tips and tricks for ways to be efficient, and the proper ways to do things. I loved the video and hope you make more in the near future! You guys are amazing!

Brett - 04.05.10 - 12:20 pm

Jeff – thanks for sharing. That excel trick is genius and will save us a ton of time! You rock!

Mike Paterson - 04.29.10 - 2:02 pm

Thanks so much for the info! I was curious if you do use “6″ as the quality setting when saving out a jpg from PS? What do you use/do for sharpening for print, or on “all” the images included on a DVD? Do you use Lightroom at all for output sharpening? Lastly, what are your thoughts on letting people “right-click” your images on your blog? I know that ProPhoto let’s you turn that ability off, so just curious what your thoughts are behind that.

Thanks again for all that you guys share and contribute! Deeply, deeply appreciated!

Feuza - 05.23.10 - 5:44 pm

amazing indeed. so as far as SEO is concerned, does the excel file mess that up or I guess I can rename it in a way that it wont

Aliy - 07.16.10 - 9:41 am

Jeff (&Erin)

Thanks for this! I never would have thought to extend the canvas on vertical images to the blog with. This would explain why I couldn’t manage to get my images to line up well! You are life saving.

-Aliy

enna - 07.18.10 - 10:01 am

hi guys! i’d love to see your updated video. :)

Janet Klinger Photography - 07.28.10 - 1:54 pm

Thank you SO much for this post helping with this dubious task. I wonder if you’ve developed a way to have the individual images named something other than numbers so image searches can find these images. Folders can be named and show up, but obviously this limits searching on unique qualities in images. (not that I’ll actually label individually more than 6 each event!)
You two are so generous. Thank you for so much time spent.

Davey’s Headshots! | Sherry Lu Photography - 11.06.09 - 8:33 pm

[...] PS. Notice the new logo/watermark going on? I’d like to thank The Youngrens for their super helpful action tutorial… [...]

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