Blogger stuff ~ Uploading pictures

**Update July 2011: Blogger in Draft has changed recently, so it looks different from the images I have below. Everything should work the same, let me know if you have any problems.**

So I have had a few people ask about uploading pictures.... and how I get them to look clear on blogger. I am here to FINALLY answer your question :) When I started photography I spent a lot of time looking at my photos and editing. Then I would upload them to blogger and BLAH. They looked kinda pixelated and it bugged me. I asked my sister in-law what to do and she was able to fix my problem :) Now when I am looking around at blogs sometimes I notice the same problem. I don't know why it happens, but I can tell you what I do when I load my pictures and maybe it will help you too :)

First and foremost resize your photos. This will make loading time SO MUCH FASTER. It also helps protect your photos from people who steal images from the web. To make your pictures even safer you can watermark them or disable the right click button... which I still don't know how to do.


To resize your photos in Picasa (the easiest way for me):

• Click and highlight the pictures you want to resize.
• At the bottom of the Picasa screen there is a button that says Export with a file above it. Click it (this will export each photo you have selected into a new file).
• Then you can label the file where you want your photos saved (ex: Evan's Birthday (sized for web))
• Type in or use the slider to choose the size you want the photo to be (I resize mine to 800 pixels because it fits my blog screen perfectly). 
• Click Export.

Now when you load your picture to your blog post you can use the file you just created, and the pictures will be sized small and will load quickly :)

Now for loading pictures into blogger...

Option 1:

• Go here.
• Add Blogger in Draft to your personal blog dashboard (if you already have it then the link should take you to your dashboard).
• Then create a new post. 
• When you upload a picture things will be a little different from the regular blogger. You can choose a file and select as many photos as you like and add them all at the same time. It's wonderful!
• Now you can change the size of you picture (before you publish your post, but after you load your picture). Click on your picture and underneath it a bar will pop up with some options. Click on the size you want (I click on the Original size because I like my pictures to be BIG. My pictures are 800 pixels wide). You can also align your photo, and there are some other options you can play around with too. 

• If you choose the original size then you are done! The picture should look clear and not blurry.
• If you don't want to use the original size and choose one of the other size options then continue on and use Option 2 as well.

Option 2:

This option is for users who don't want their picture in the original size. It is also for users who don't have Blogger in Draft.

• Load your pictures and change the picture to the size that you want. Click on the Edit HTML tab above and to the right of your blog post (next to compose). You will see text like this for each individual picture:

• Change the 320 (or it may be 200, 400 or 640 depending on the size you chose) to 800 (leave the s), your picture should now look crisp and clear.
• If you want your picture to be the original size, just delete the text that I highlighted in blue. 

This can get confusing if you have a lot of text and a lot of pictures. When I used to use this option, I would load all my pictures first... before I added any text at all. I was sure to leave a space or two between each picture. Then I would go into the HTML window and change all the numbers. This made it all less confusing, and I could find each piece of code for each picture. Then I would go back to the Compose window and type in my text.

Here is a before and after for you... I left the size at Medium and simply changed the 320 to 800:

Before:

After:

To me it makes a world of difference! If you look at the faces in the top picture you can see how they look kinda blurry. In the picture below the faces look a lot clearer.

Try it all out, and let me know if it works for you. If there are anymore questions out there feel free to ask, I love to help. I don't know a ton though... I get a lot of help from youtube tutorials... and my sister in-law, Candi :)