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How to Create a Videoblog

How to Create a Photoblog

Photoblogging, or creating a blog that consists mainly of photos, is a great way to:

Share and solicit feedback on your photography
Show off family photos or vacation pictures
Document your daily life visually

Getting Started Photoblogging

To start a photoblog, you need some standard equipment.

Digital camera: A digital camera lets you post your photos on the web quickly, though you can also use a film camera and a scanner to scan prints from film or negatives (for more information, see the Quamut guide to Buying a Digital Camera in Barnes & Noble bookstores and online at www.quamut.com).
Image editing software: Software applications, such as Photoshop®, Paint Shop Pro®, and GIMP®, are essential for resizing and editing your photos.
Web storage space: Establish a place to upload and store photos, such as your own website or a photo sharing service, such as Flickr® (www.flickr.com).
Blogging software: Many photobloggers prefer Movable Type or TypePad software because of their extensive support of photo-based blog entries.
FTP software: Depending on where you store your photos online, you may need basic FTP (file transfer protocol) software to upload photos.

Creating Your Photoblog

Maintaining a photoblog is a rewarding way to learn about digital photography while being a part of a worldwide community of photographers. Creating a photoblog entails taking photographs, editing your photographs, and posting your photographs online.

Taking Photographs

Some photoblogs have a unifying theme, such as fashion, portraiture, or the landscape of a blogger’s city. Others are simply a daily visual record of a person’s experiences, with no central theme. Whether you choose to create a themed photoblog or not, start bringing your camera everywhere you go and be prepared to use it at any moment. One major advantage of photoblogging with a digital camera is that you can take dozens of photos of the same scene or subject, then select and edit only your favorite shots later.

Editing Photographs

Editing your photos is the process of selecting the photographs you deem worthy of publication on your blog. As a photoblogger, you must choose selectively which photographs to post. Some photobloggers choose to post one photo per day, while others post a series every week or so. Whichever method you prefer, follow these steps to edit and prepare photos for your photoblog:

Download photos: Connect your camera (or your camera’s memory card) to your computer and transfer the photos to your computer.
View your photos: Use a photo-editing program, such as Photoshop or Paint Shop Pro, to choose and edit the photos you’d like to include in your photoblog.
Resize your photos: Resizing your photos means changing their height and width (measured in pixels), as well as their resolution (known as dpi). To resize, select “Edit,” then “Image Size” or “Resize Image” from the top menu bar of your photo editing program. Use these settings to resize a standard horizontal photo:
1. Width: 800 pixels
2. Height: 600 pixels
3. Resolution: 100 dpi
Save your edited photos: Don’t save over your original photo. Instead, save the resized photo under a new name. This way, you can still edit the original.

Most photoblogs contain 800×600 images. If this size is too large for your photoblog, switch to 640×480 or to any pair of numbers in that aspect ratio—the ratio of image width to height—such as 320×240. Always keep the resolution of photos you post online at 100 dpi.

Posting Photographs Online

You can add photos to your blog whether you’re using a blogging service or a blog you created from scratch.

If you’re using a blogging service: Services such as Blogger and TypePad offer a limited amount of space for storing photos and other images. You can post photos to your blog from the new entry composition interface by using the photo button above the window where you would type an entry.
If you’re using a blog you created: Software packages such as WordPress and Movable Type offer quick photo posting using a photo button. The photo button is located on the screen from which you create and manage your posts. To post a photo directly into your blog, create a new entry and click the photo button. A small window will appear that allows you to select photos from wherever they’re stored on your hard drive. Once you’ve selected a photo, the software will upload it and embed it in the body of your post.

Using FTP and HTML to Post Photos

You can also upload photos to a separate photo directory on your website using an FTP program. You’ll then include within the text of your blog entries an HTML link to your photos that specifies which photo to display. The HTML link looks like this: <img src="/locationofimage/nameofimage.jpg"/>. The advantage of using this method is that you can specify precisely where to place your images within your posts. To take full advantage of this approach, it helps to know basic HTML.

Photo Sharing Sites

As the popularity of photoblogging grows, several free or low-cost sites that enable you to publish your photos online have arisen. You can use these sites as a stand-alone avenue for sharing photos, or as a means of storing photos to which you then link from your own blog or photoblog.

Flickr: www.flickr.com. This fun, easy-to-use online photo-sharing and storage website offers free accounts and inexpensive paid accounts with unlimited storage space and generous transfer (bandwidth) limits. Flickr also offers bloggers an option to add a permanent link to their Flickr photo collections in the right or left columns of their blogs.
Fotolog: www.fotolog.com. This free photoblogging community allows users to post photos and comments and meet others with similar interests.