Singletracks Mountain Bike News, Reviews, MTB Trails and Community › Protected: Forums › Mountain Bike Forum › Photo posting issues
Tagged: Trails
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August 23, 2009 at 15:06 #82788
I’m trying to post photos to my "Photo Album" in my profile and also to certain trails and I frequently get a failure.
It takes a while for the page to load and then it ALWAYS takes me to this page…
[url:8tqsgwua]http://www.singletracks.com/mountain-bike/photo.php?photoID=&album=&tag=[/url:8tqsgwua]
Sometimes it loads the picture up, no problem. The rest of the time this page pops up.
Any suggestions?
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August 25, 2009 at 21:19 #82789
Have occasionaly experienced timeouts myself – and as a programmer (including web) I habitually reduce the size of photos before uploading for just this sort of reason. (I should ask now, are you uploading full resolution pics?) In some cases, either the browser, or the server will timeout (get bored…) and in fact, the browser can sometimes choke before the upload has even commenced for real, as it has to scan the entire data file, sometimes numerous times to find some unique strings to use as delimiters before it converts the file to text and begins the upload.
Just this sort of issue has been a support nightmare for me in the past, since users (very reasonably) want it to "just work" without them having to go through any extra steps. But I digress…
Since the site resamples the photo-album pages anyhow, there’s not much point in uploading full-size shots. The whole process will go faster, and I’ve yet to have an upload fail when sending the reduced size since they go so quickly.
I believe this site uses 580 pixels wide for the albums, but I tend to use 800X600 when I reduce images since I also use that for emails and my wife’s facebook posts. 8X6 is just a nice round number that fits on even the oldest displays (these days) without distorting the aspect ratio.
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August 26, 2009 at 04:39 #82790
I had a feeling that was the root of my issue. I’ll give it a try when I get home and let you know if it worked. Thanks!
P.S.- check your messages, sent you something unrelated to this topic.
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August 26, 2009 at 05:14 #82791
Yeah, the file upload size limit is about 4Mb. Let me know if photo size seems to be the issue or if it’s something else we should look into… Could also be a problem with file names having strange characters in them (like ‘, ", &) but that’s rarely an issue.
Also, Xerien is correct to point out that photos are [i:19zd4mz5]displayed[/i:19zd4mz5] at 580px width but if you right click and choose "view image" you can see the full res shot.
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August 26, 2009 at 14:56 #82792"Xerien" wrote
In some cases, either the browser, or the server will timeout (get bored…) and in fact, the browser can sometimes choke before the upload has even commenced for real, as it has to scan the entire data file, sometimes numerous times to find some unique strings to use as delimiters before it converts the file to text and begins the upload.
Also, most webservers have a php memory limit, and uploading photos can exceed that, either multiple reduced-size ones or one really large one used to do it to mine before I got my provider to up it for me.
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August 26, 2009 at 15:02 #82793"maddslacker" wrote
Also, most webservers have a php memory limit, and uploading photos can exceed that, either multiple reduced-size ones or one really large one used to do it to mine before I got my provider to up it for me.
Exactly. We’ve set the php memory limit to allow files up to 4Mb. I just got an email from another member complaining of the same issue as GoldenGoose so I’ll see what’s up. Strange… test photos worked fine for me today.
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August 26, 2009 at 15:06 #82794
There should be absolutely no reason to upload a full-rez pic to a website.
Trek7k, is that 4MB aggregate across all users at a given time, or per session?
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August 26, 2009 at 15:10 #82795
That’s per file and yes, it’s a generous amount. I know pics from my 10 megapixel camera are only about 2Mb at full rez, jpeg compressed. Also keep in mind that we process GPS data which can easily exceed the 4Mb limit.
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August 26, 2009 at 15:13 #82796
Wow, I just looked and my biggest gpx file ever is 640K
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August 26, 2009 at 16:55 #82797"maddslacker" wrote
Wow, I just looked and my biggest gpx file ever is 640K
Is that compressed into let’s say a .zip file? I have a few that are well over 1Mb
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August 26, 2009 at 18:44 #82798
Those are pretty tiny files compared to some pics we’ve seen lately. Just today I looked at a 5.9Mb photo someone was trying to upload…
Like Xerien said, most members don’t really understand or even care how large their photos are – they just want it to work. We’ll see what we can do to make that happen!
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August 26, 2009 at 18:55 #82799
Is there a way to reduce the file on the fly like Shutterfly and some blog plugins do?
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August 26, 2009 at 19:03 #82800
And here I am shrinking and geotagging mine before I upload. I’m not a computer nerd or anything, I swear! 😆
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August 26, 2009 at 19:03 #82801
Yes – our current system does just that. Photo uploads are automatically resized into thumbnail and web appropriate sizes but the problem is when photos are MUCH too large (as in more than 4Mb). That seems to be the common thread so far – extra large photos are making the form choke. Testing different file sizes as we speak…
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August 26, 2009 at 19:25 #82802
Yeah, it almost has to be a php memory issue on the host side.
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August 26, 2009 at 19:33 #82803
Ok, I upped the maximum file upload size which should resolve the issue. I just uploaded an actual 5.9Mb photo and it worked fine – though it took more than 2 minutes over DSL! If you want to save yourself some time, you may want to learn to reduce your photo sizes 😀
We also added error messages to let members know when pics are too big, something that was missing before. If anyone was having trouble before, try again and let me know if there is still an issue.
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August 26, 2009 at 19:46 #82804
‘Most people don’t realize just how big there photos are’ – yea, this has been a pet peeve of mine since public file sharing started. Its not just a problem with this website, its web-wide. Im glad ST does resize the pics to fit, it really just makes for a cleaner, more professional looking website which makes it easier to navigate.
Most peoples computers are set to automatically display their photos in a size that fits their screen, paying no attention to what the real size it is. They then try and post these to forums, add them to web pages or even email you a few of these behemoth monstrosities all at once (oh, joy!).
Personally I feel it is just plain rude to NOT properly crop and resize a photo before sharing it across the web. ANY simple photo viewer program will allow you to resize and save the new file with just about any name you want, making it an appropriate file to post or share any way or with whomever you choose. -
August 26, 2009 at 19:50 #82805
The new Windows Live Photo Editor even has a one-click button for just that type of thing.
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August 26, 2009 at 20:53 #82806
I’m willing to be that I was just trying to upload a huge pic. I’m that guy AK hates who doesn’t pay any attention to file size. 😳 I’ll be better about it in the future. That brings up another related question though. When I link an image from my photobucket account, does it shrink it for me or does it have the full size image there too?
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August 26, 2009 at 20:56 #82807
Files I have linked from my webhost get shrunk for the display size, but like an earlier post said, if you "view photo" you will see the full size version.
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August 26, 2009 at 20:56 #82808"GoldenGoose" wrote
When I link an image from my photobucket account, does it shrink it for me or does it have the full size image there too?
On the forums we use javascript to resize pics to fit the page. You may have noticed the layout shifts and pics get smaller after the page loads.
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August 26, 2009 at 21:00 #82809
Duh, just needed to read the entire post and All the replies. 😳
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August 27, 2009 at 08:22 #82810"trek7k" wrote
[quote="GoldenGoose":1nbm1obd]When I link an image from my photobucket account, does it shrink it for me or does it have the full size image there too?
On the forums we use javascript to resize pics to fit the page. You may have noticed the layout shifts and pics get smaller after the page loads.[/quote:1nbm1obd]
Key is ‘after the page loads.’ 😀
Those "monster files" linked from an external site can really dramatically increase the time a forum thread takes to load. It’s not a huge deal with good broadband (stress on good,) but with a spotty connection; well…If the software you’re using is cumbersome, there are some free resizers. I just checked out picturetray and after a test drive, I may actually keep it for quick resizes for places like this, as it consolidates the outputs into one folder (defaults to the installation location) while accepting ins from all over the place. Much quicker than my current software and does it all in a single shot rather than the multiple converts I currently have to do if I’m going from more than one location (we store pics by date.)
Can’t vouch for the safety of the file, but norton 360 didn’t gripe about the site or the software, so… 😎
And finally, as to the question of a plugin to automatically resize (on the client browser side) on the fly; No luck so far searching for that. Found a bunch of photoshop plugins, but nothing for browsers.
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August 27, 2009 at 08:30 #82811
Here’s a link to a blog post with a list of online apps that can quickly resize photos:
http://www.universefirefox.com/web-base … ng-firefoxAs for online storage and display, my wife uses Shutterfly and she really likes it.
http://www.shutterfly.com/And since we all have spent our wad on our bikes and therefore can’t afford Photoshop, here is a free alternative that includes a lot of the same high-end features for photo post-processing:
http://www.getpaint.net/Hope this helps!
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August 27, 2009 at 08:43 #82812
Those web-based resizers are great, if you don’t have any software on your computer to do the trick. The thing I don’t like about them is you still have to wait for your file(s) to upload to their server to be converted. 😢
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August 27, 2009 at 08:46 #82813
Well yeah, that sort of goes without saying with an online service 😉
And that’s also why I included paint.net for local processing.
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August 27, 2009 at 08:57 #82814
Yeah yeah, thanks for the input Captain Obvious… 😳
(me, not you)
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August 27, 2009 at 09:03 #82815"Xerien" wrote
Yeah yeah, thanks for the input Captain Obvious… 😳
(me, not you)
😆
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August 27, 2009 at 10:08 #82816
Thanks for the links Maddslacker, that Paint.net look very intriguing, do you use this one yourself?
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August 28, 2009 at 19:23 #82817
Got another related question for you guys who seem to already know…what’s the best file format to post my pics in so that I don’t lose too much visual quality but also don’t hog a ton of space? RAW format is definitely not the way to go. Even JPEG can get pretty big. What do you guys use?
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August 28, 2009 at 20:25 #82818
JPEG is pretty much the web wide standard and it really takes a lot of re-saving and copying to diminish the quality of a good shot to the point you are going to notice it with the human eye.
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September 15, 2009 at 08:51 #82819"trek7k" wrote
Also, Xerien is correct to point out that photos are [i:1vcfp7yg]displayed[/i:1vcfp7yg] at 580px width but if you right click and choose "view image" you can see the full res shot.
Never knew that before
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February 10, 2011 at 18:15 #82820
I’m trying to upload an image to My Bikes and get an error that says the image may be too large and to reduce the file size to less than 8mb.
My image is 2160 x1440 and is only 2.51mb. If I need to reduce the resolution to a set size, please let me know and put it on all pages where images are allowed to be uploaded.
Thanks,
Motomoose -
February 10, 2011 at 18:21 #82821
I usually reduce mine to 800×600 for web or email use.
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February 11, 2011 at 07:33 #82822
Sorry about that – I re-upped the max file size to 8M (it had been 2). Let me know if you still have a problem uploading.
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March 16, 2014 at 19:28 #82823
I have issues with pics needing rotated left or right, but that function has worked only once??
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March 17, 2014 at 10:53 #82824
Thanks for the note JBX. This is a known issue that affects photos from certain phones/software programs. Where did the photos you’re uploading come from? (brand of camera/phone and/or software used to edit the photo). We’re working on a fix!
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