You asked for it and we’re giving it to you! Even though our words should be the most important part of blogging, often it’s our photos that make or break our blogs. Let’s just face it blogging is visual. This fact is something every blogger learns eventually. But what if photography just isn’t your “cup of tea”, or you’ve never really learned to use a camera, or you don’t own a fancy DSLR with 10 different lens and a tripod. Can you still have decent pictures? Of course you can!
In this Blogging 101 segment I am going to show you how to size your photos properly. In Part 2 of Photo Tips for Bloggers I will teach you how to use Picasa to make the photos you’ve taken look even better. And last but certainly not least in Part 3, I will give you some easy to follow hints on how to take full advantage of the camera you currently own and how to stage your photos to get the best shot possible. A little disclaimer before I begin. I do not claim to be a professional photographer. I am just sharing what I have learned over the past year and half of blogging and how I went from taking photos like this (which I also put on my blog at just about this size):
to this:
But first let’s learn how to use Blogger and Picasa (the free photo storage and software that Google provides) to make our current pictures better!
Blogging 101: Photo Tips for New (and not so new) Bloggers Part 1
Tip 1: Why it’s good to give your photo a new file name. When you upload a photograph to your computer from your camera, it is assigned a file name. It’s usually a series of numbers related to the chronological number of where that photograph is on your camera card. When you save that photo to your computer you can give that photograph a “new file name”. Why is this important? Well, it depends on how much you care about Google love. When you give your photograph a name related to what the photo is about or what your post is about it helps Google locate your photograph in relation to the key words someone might type in for a search. It also helps you keep your photographs organized. It‘s so much easier to locate a file you need off of your computer when they are renamed something that is descriptive of the photograph. This will become important to you when you have thousand of photographs on your computer because of your blog. If you are concerned about security be careful to not name your photographs with the names of your children, etc. The file name associated with a photograph is public information once it’s online. For example: If I name a photograph of myself. heatherprofilepicture.jpg. That is public name of photograph until it is ‘saved as’ another name buy someone else who might download it.
Tip 2: How to upload your photos and where do they go anyway? So hopefully if you have been blogging for any length of time you’ve figured out how to upload photographs from your computer to your blog post. But let’s give a quick overview for those who might be brand spankin’ new to blogging. When you select to begin a new post you will open up your editing window. You can begin typing immediately, choosing what font, etc you want to use. But now you are ready to insert a photograph. You need to move your cursor up to the small icon of a “photo” located on your editing dashboard. In Blogger it’s located between the word “link” and the picture of a movie clap board (which is how you insert videos) Click on the photo icon and you will pull up a window that looks like this:
This is the Add Images window in Blogger. If you are choosing your photo from your computer make sure that the word Upload is highlighted as you see in the photo to the right ands then click on Choose Files Blogger will access your computer photo files. Make sure that you are accessing the photo folder on your computer that the pictures you want to upload are located. It helps to keep your blog photographs all in one specific folder on your computer. I have a folder titled Download. This is where I place all of the photographs that I download off of the computer. This is where I place all of the stock photography I purchase and also where all of our Inspiration Friday Feature Photos go. Here is a snapshot of my download folder:
Once you have your computer folder open where the photos are located you can select the individual photographs you want to upload to your blog post. You can select more than one photograph if there are several you will want to place in your blog. Just select the first one you want, making sure that it is highlighted in blue. Then while holding down your Control (ctrl) button select any other photos you want to upload. They should all be highlighted in blue. After choosing all of the photos you want for this blog post. Select Open located at the bottom of the window. At this time your photos will begin to upload into the Blogger window.
Here you can see that I have uploaded the photo of my Lava Cake into the Add Images Window. It is outlined in blue. If you upload multiple pictures they will all be outlined in blue. Make sure that the photo you currently want to place in the blog post is outlined as shown and then click the Add selected button. You will need to “deselect” any pictures that are outlined in blue that you do not want to place in your blog at that time. Now you picture should be located in your blog post.
Have you ever wondered where all your photographs go after you upload them into your post? Well they reside in a new home set up for them by Blogger and you might not even know it exists! When you create an account with Google or Blogger you are given access to
Picasa Web Albums. Picasa Web Albums are free online photo albums provided by Google and where Blogger stores your pictures for you. Once a photo is uploaded onto a Blogger blog, it is given a new home in a web album. This is where the picture in your blog post lives. If you were to remove this picture from that album that picture would disappear from your blog post! You can see all of the pictures in your blog album by going to your Blogger Dashboard. On your Dashboard scroll to the bottom and under Tools and Resources you will see an option to select Picasa Web Albums. Here you will find albums set up for your blog that contain your pictures. Once pictures are uploaded to your blog you can return to these albums and select pictures from there. This is where you will find your blog headers, blog graphics you use regularly, etc. 
To select a picture from a Picasa Web Album, follow the instructions above except instead of choosing Upload, choose the From Picasa Web Albums option. This will show you all of the albums located in your Picasa account. Following the instructions above choose the picture you want from your Picasa album and place in your post. You can also choose the option From this blog which will let you choose from any pictures that you have ever loaded into posts. Is there a difference? Yes. Because you can upload any pictures you want into your Picasa Album straight from your computer. You can also edit photos in Picasa using their editing program called Picnik. These photos can stay there until you need them for a post or for your blog. This is where we place all of our pictures for sidebars, advertisement, sponsors etc. As well as our generic graphics (such as my Blogging 101 graphic) and we then edit them as we need them for the blog. From this blog is strictly pictures that currently are in blog posts, this is handy if there is a picture from a former post you want to use in your current post. Usually, we just select pictures from our web album. Now that you know more about your Picasa account, your homework assignment for next week is to play around in it a little and become familiar with it.
After we’ve learned how to insert pictures from various different places we can talk about sizing them. Blogger loves to play a mean little “trick” on us. When we place a picture into our posts, Blogger loves to resize our pictures to this:
Mean ole’ Blogger! Why does it do this when we want a nice large picture for our blog?! Because the larger the pictures are on your blog the more server space is taken up by your blog on Blogger. You don’t have to take this from Blogger though…you can resize your pictures yourself…because BIGGER is always BETTER when it comes to blog photos!
Tip 4: Bigger is better…ALWAYS! Think about what draws you to a blog. We would all love to believe that people read our blogs because of our eloquent, witty words. And hopefully there is truth to this, but blogs are about more than just words. They are a visual medium. People want to “see” what you are talking about as much as “read” what you have to share. I can write pages about my beautiful delicious Chocolate Nutella Molten Lava Cakes but nothing will quite do them justice like a scrumptious picture of them. What blogs do you love to visit most? Consider which blogs are the most popular. Do they have itty bitty teeny tiny pictures? Or do they have huge visually stimulating pictures? Yep the latter. In fact, even photos are being shoved slightly to the side by the now popular concept of “vlogging” or video blogging. Why is this? Because people are visual. We want to immerse ourselves in what we are reading/seeing/experiencing. Nothing is more visual than video. So, how do we take our pictures from the little wimpy default that Blogger loves to force us in to; to the large, lovely photographs that will make our blogs more visually appealing? I’m glad you asked…
Tip 5: How to Resize your photographs. So how DO you resize your photographs? You have several options:
One- You can use Bloggers automated settings. Blogger gives you the choice of four settings to size your photographs at. Often this will be the best option for you to use.
Once you have placed your photograph in your blog post. Right click on the photo you want to resize. You will see a small tool bar below the photo.
You can see in my screen shot that Blogger has auto formatted this picture to ‘medium’.
You can change this to small (don’t) large, x-large, or original. The best option is x-large. If your photo file was saved as a very large file, then you can select x-large and your photo will still maintain it’s integrity without becoming pixelated and grainy. If you know your photo file is a nice size to place in your blog you can select original.
Because I always resize my photos to the size I like for our blog, I often select the “original” option. Especially when it comes to my ‘square’ photographs.
The key here, is to select anything besides small or medium BUT still maintain a size that doesn’t compromise the quality of your photo.
While you are in this tool bar you can also select to left justify, center or right justify your photo as well as to remove it if you decide it no longer belongs in your post. Most of my photos for this post are left or right justified. This is nice for a post where you want text to run along side of your photograph. Otherwise, you will usually select ‘center’. This is an easy way to resize your photographs BUT what happens if you don’t like any of the automatic settings. Maybe large is not quite large enough but x-large is just a little too big…
Two- You can manually change your photo sizes. There is a way to manually change the size of your photographs using the Edit HTML function of your post editor. I suggest you practice this before you try it in a post you are working on. Here’s how it works:
Select Edit HTML which is where all of the coding for your post is located. Here is the coding for my Nutella photograph:
height=”320″ src=”http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-Hb4n8E45UG4/TZzFIq3PEII/AAAAAAAABBg/AKj5neRk0oM/s320/lava+cakes.jpg” width=”320″ />See the highlighted coding? Those are the dimensions of the photograph as it currently appears in my post. This is the size “medium” that Blogger defaulted to. When I select x-large Blogger changes my picture to 640X640 but when I select large it sets the size at 400X400, which is smaller than I want. So I am going to change it manually to 500X500 which a nice size.
All I need to do is change the 320 after height and the 320 after width to 500 and 500. Than move back into the Compose window of my post and I should see the size of my picture change.
You can change your to whatever size you like and even play around with it as long as you don’t mess with the ratio of height to width. For example, I know that my picture is a square so I need to keep the pictures ratios equal. If you have ever ended up with your pictures looking “stretched” it is because your photo ratios became skewed from their original settings. If you increase your height by 100 pixels, you need to increase your width by 100 pixels. This will maintain your photos integrity. You can play around with your numbers until you have the photo the size that you like. View your photo in Preview to make sure your photograph is sized nicely for your post and never size your photograph larger than your post column or it will bleed over into your sidebar.
You can do this for every photograph you have placed in your blog. You will just need to locate the code for each photo and change it manually. Just remember: Do not change the ratio of your photo or you won’t be happy with how it looks. If you completely mess your photograph within post. Just remove it, re-add it and then resize.
Your Questions Answered! Label List Header
I want to take one additional moment to answer a question that was asked by several readers last week. How did we get the Label List at the top of our blog under our header. This is a super easy quick tip for you! Go to your Dashboard. Select Design. Select Add and Arrange Page Elements. If you already have a label gadget located in your sidebar, just grab it and drag it up under your Header. Our is located under our Header and under our Pages gadget. If you don’t have the Labels gadget already located on your blog, Choose Add A Gadget. Choose the Label Gadget. It will then give you the option of choosing to have all labels displayed or selected labels. We only display our most relevant ones. If you have tons of labels (and you shouldn’t) then make sure to choose no more than will fit on one row along the top. Once you select Save, it automatically appears at the top of your sidebar.
Grab it and drag it to the top. It should look like this:
You can then Preview your blog and make sure you like how it looks! And that’s it! Every time you add a new label, you will need to decide if it is one that should be added to your Label Header. This is a great way to create clickable links on your blog to popular topics. You can also place an label list in your sidebar that includes all of your labels. We have this as a Label Cloud but have titled it Categories. Label Lists, are one of the gadgets that you can have several of on your blog. I wouldn’t recommend having more than one in your header and one on your sidebar though.
I know this is quite a bit of information to digest. The technical side of blogging isn’t always as fun as the creative side (except if you’re a blog geek like me..grin) but it is often what makes our blogs great blogs instead of ho-hum blogs! If you are new to our Blogging 101 Series you can visit the other installments by clicking on the Blogging 101 link in our sidebar. Stay tuned next week to Part 2 of our Photo Series!
I want to take one additional moment to answer a question that was asked by several readers last week. How did we get the Label List at the top of our blog under our header. This is a super easy quick tip for you! Go to your Dashboard. Select Design. Select Add and Arrange Page Elements. If you already have a label gadget located in your sidebar, just grab it and drag it up under your Header. Our is located under our Header and under our Pages gadget. If you don’t have the Labels gadget already located on your blog, Choose Add A Gadget. Choose the Label Gadget. It will then give you the option of choosing to have all labels displayed or selected labels. We only display our most relevant ones. If you have tons of labels (and you shouldn’t) then make sure to choose no more than will fit on one row along the top. Once you select Save, it automatically appears at the top of your sidebar.
Grab it and drag it to the top. It should look like this:
You can then Preview your blog and make sure you like how it looks! And that’s it! Every time you add a new label, you will need to decide if it is one that should be added to your Label Header. This is a great way to create clickable links on your blog to popular topics. You can also place an label list in your sidebar that includes all of your labels. We have this as a Label Cloud but have titled it Categories. Label Lists, are one of the gadgets that you can have several of on your blog. I wouldn’t recommend having more than one in your header and one on your sidebar though.
I know this is quite a bit of information to digest. The technical side of blogging isn’t always as fun as the creative side (except if you’re a blog geek like me..grin) but it is often what makes our blogs great blogs instead of ho-hum blogs! If you are new to our Blogging 101 Series you can visit the other installments by clicking on the Blogging 101 link in our sidebar. Stay tuned next week to Part 2 of our Photo Series!
Don’t forget to enter our Etsy Store Giveaway sponsored by Kim of Larkspur Interiors going on right now! There is still plenty of time to enter! And be sure to come back and join us tomorrow evening for Inspiration Friday!
As always thanks for meeting me at the fence!
Sharing this post at:
Greetings from Southern California
I believe God put me on earth to accomplish a certain number of things and I will live until my work is done. Visiting blogs is high on my list of things to do. Right now I am so far behind I don’t think I will ever die! 🙂
God bless you and have a nice day 🙂
I came.
I saw.
I read.
Now, I’m going to study the label part a bit more and practice.
Thanks!
This is a great tip, and one bloggers really need to keep in mind. You never know who is looking at your photos. I love large photos for the simple reason I feel like I am paging a magazine and reading when blogs have them.
Listen, thank you SOOO much for posting this. I am running on about 4 hours of sleep and have to get to bed to be at work by 5:30am…but I am saving this to come back and read it word for word when I have time to play. I desperately need this tutorial! Thanks again~ xxoo Diana
You are one mean picture taker!
I totally agree with tip #4, and had to learn all your other tips on my own 🙂
Wish I’d known then what I know now!
This is a most excellent post!
Great advice. Thanks. Following you,
This is all such great advice! I always struggle with my pictures and hopefully now they will turn out a bit better.
thank you!!!
-emily
nestnestingnested.blogspot
Heather,
Thanks so much for all the tips…you gal’s are GREAT!
Blessings,
Cindy
Wonderful tutorial! I am looking forward to reading all of them. You take beautiful pictures and it is so nice that you would share your tips!!
Great post. I think you tried to answer my question…but I now realize I need to ask you how you got your pages gadget (the one that says Home…About Us…Featured etc). I want to try to “neaten” up my blog and have a line like that instead. Thanks.
Thanks for posting this info Heather! I’m looking forward to your photo editing tips. Your photos always look so gorgeous!
@Jo (I emailed you but will answer here too for everyone else) This is what we do. We have all of our comment sent automatically to our gmail account. We set one up as At The Picket Fence@gmail.com. There is a setting on your dashboard to choose to have comments forwarded to an email account. Then we respond to the comment from our email, just like I’m doing right now with you! 🙂 It is the same as clicking on their comment while in your blog but it won’t take you away from your blog page. Also, if you have selected the option for comments to open up in a new window, then if you respond to someone’s comment from your blog it should only take you away from the comment window and not your whole blog. Which would be another way to reply. I think the best thing though, is to have your comments go to an email account and check it regularly. I just bookmark my gmail and keep it up when I’m on my blog. For instance just while I was writing this it notified me I had two new comments, it’s a nice feature!
Heather
Thanks so much for such an informative and helpful post! I have a little point and shoot camera and I’m frustrated with it when it comes to pics for my blog. I would love a DSLR camera. But editing the photos I know nothing about. Can’t wait for more photo tips.
great post and awesome information – i hate the automatic settings in blogger and this will help with my pictures! 🙂 yay!! thanks again! 🙂
I really needed this post! The poor quality of my photos is a constant source of shame. It may help if I would actually buy a camera and stop using my daughter’s.Thanks for all the helpful tips!
Ann-Marie
Thanks so much, Heather! I knew some of this, but much of it was new information. It’s nice to have it explained:) I’m going to bookmark this page. I sure appreciate your time in helping us out!
Hey Heather, I have a question, could yall tell me the best and quickest way to reply to comments on my post, I like to visit the blogs that have commented on a post, but I’m having difficulty, when I go to reply, I lose my blog and have to go back and sign in to read my next comment,help!
~Jo
Lazy on Loblolly
This is a great post. I struggle with the whole photography aspect of blogging, and I completely understand the importance of having good pictures on your blog. I have bookmarked this page and I’m looking forward to more photography tips. Thanks!
Heather you are the BEST!!!! Finally took the time to figure out this picture business stuff. . . thanks to you!
Great post, thanks. I often upload 20 or so pictures to each post and I have to manually resize them to X-Large.
Is there a way to do the resizing automatically during the importing process? So that I don’t have to resize them later on. Thanks.
I like all your posts about photography and the tips so I linked this one to my post today on blogging & photography, thanks!
I’m a new blogger and am so thankful that you have taken the time to help others like me through this series. I’ve already changed my photo sizes to be bigger, changed the width of my columns, added labels as tabs, purchased my domain name, and taken off the verification for comments (didn’t know that was turned on!) Thank you so much for your help!
Kelly
http://www.NotableNest.blogspot.com
Heather, Thank you so much for a very informative artice. I didn’t know you could do so much with Picasa. I’m new to blogging and have been trying to learn all I can about food photography. I also posted a photography article but mine is mainly about where to go to learn more. I don’t really have my own tips yet. I love your before and after photos, it gives me hope I will improve. I will pin this to save and re-read later and I will also link to this in my post on food photography. I think it will definitely help a lot of bloggers out there, myself included! Thank you so much!
Thanks, This was very helpful. Headed back to read again.