The following is a long rant which should explain my recent lack of posts. It really only relates to people who use Blogger so read on only if you wish. I was going to title this post: "I Hate Blogger" but I thought that somehow Blogger would know and then do more evil things just to spite me. I have long been frustrated by Blogger and am always trying to figure out their ever-changing ways. I cut them some slack because, hey, it is a free service after all, but as soon as I feel like I figure things out, they change on me. Sometimes the change is good and I do feel like I am learning a semi-important computer skill, but sometimes it seems like a hassle. I was mortified about a month ago when I was trying to finish a post (during my limited window of naptime, mind you) and while downloading my pictures I was informed that I had filled my 1 GB quota of pictures that Blogger gives you for free. How could this be true? I know I get a little picture happy sometimes, but I have never heard of anybody paying for their family blog. I immediately asked my sister seeing as she has had her blog longer than me, posts more often, and does just as many pictures as me. She had no idea and started to worry herself that she was going to fill her quota. Granted it is only $5 for 20 GB of storage per year (I don't know if that is a one time charge or you have to continue paying it even if you haven't used the space) but I just didn't think my little blog could actually be that full, but I was wrong...mostly.
After some research, I learned a few things that I really thought I should share. First, all the pictures you put on your blog are saved in a public Picassa web account. I only kind of knew this and had never looked at my Picassa account. You should be able to view your own here: http://picasaweb.google.com/home. I learned from another blog that if you delete a post (or individual pictures) that the pictures don't always get deleted so you may have multiples of the same picture taking up space. I had TONS of multiples. I attribute this to the times I would cut and paste an entire post so that it would appear on the current day and not the day I started it. Blogger has fixed that problem now, but whenever I had multiple posts in the works I would always do this. I didn't even know which doubles I should delete nor did I want to spend the time to do it, but after some trial and error it seemed that the last multiple was always the one that actually appears on the blog, which makes sense. Also, if you just delete a picture from your post chances are you are still storing it. So I spent a lot of time deleting pictures from Picassa sure that this was my problem, however I wasn't completely right. First I deleted at least 30 some pictures and then went to finish the post I was working on and it let me upload 4 pictures before it told me I was full again. What the heck?! I was getting really mad. Honestly I still haven't completely solved the problem, but the only thing I can figure is that my image sizes are way too big and take up more space than most other people's. I think my camera is set on a really high resolution setting which I want on one hand, but not if it is going to be a problem for the blog. I wish there was an easy way to change all the resolutions before I put them on the blog, but that would take forever in Photoshop which is the only way I know how to do it. When I put my photos into Photoshop they do seem really large in size. The verticals are usually 38x50 with 72 resolution and the horizontals are usually 20x15 with 180 res, but this varies from picture to picture. When I lower the size they upload so much faster. Picture resolutions in Photoshop has always given me a headache anyway and I still don't understand it. I want someone to explain everything there is to know about resolution to me. Is there really even a reason I would need really high resolutions for printing purposes? Is there a good balance somewhere? My sister-in-law has a camera similar in quality to mine, but she has had it on a lower setting. Her images vary from around 70 to 200 KB (about 3.5x2.6 in at 180 res) about while mine vary from around 3 to 8 MB (which is 3,000 to 8,000 KB). That means on average one of my photos takes up as much as 50 of hers. However, I can zoom in really far on my pictures before they get pixilated and hers get pixilated after about two zooms due to the smaller size. But my pictures just take up so much space on my computer and therefore also on my blog. My iPhoto which only goes back to about May of this year has 11 GB of pictures so I guess that is some indication of how much storage I use up. I think I used to have it on a lower setting because my old pictures from the same camera are much smaller in size. The thing I don't get is that my sisters pictures are easily as big as mine and she hasn't had this problem yet. I think my solution for now is to put my camera on at least a little lower setting and sadly pay the $5 fee. To view how much of your storage you are using go here:
https://www.google.com/accounts/ManageStorage
I am now at 0.87% after deleting most of my doubles so I don't have much space left. The 1 GB also includes all blogs that I belong to which is now about 5 so that is also a problem. I am very curious to get some more answers or advice here so if any of you out there have experienced this or think you can help please leave me comments! Any photo/camera experts that want to give me their expertise, it would also be appreciated. As for everyone else, I just wanted to inform you before you were in the same boat as me.
So the moral of the story is: Don't upload huge files like me.
::July 2021::
2 years ago
Oi! That stupid blogger!
ReplyDeleteBut I think I can help.
First, I really wouldn't recommend putting your camera on a lower setting! You want to capture all the detailed goodness for times when, say, you want to print something out and embarrass Jimmy and Gus when they're older. Computer storage is cheap, and memories are priceless. :)
But you definitely don't need all that detail for a blog. What I do is just make a copy of the image I want to upload to my blog, then scale it down so the longest edge is 1000 px (about as large as I can really enjoy on my computer, but in the couple hundred KB range), then save as a separate file and then upload. I use a open-source alternative to Photoshop (it's called GIMP), but it should be somewhere in the Photoshop menus. Is there one called "image"? The process takes a bit more work (I'm actually quite sure there are shortcuts), but it let's you keep the high res version for you, while not taking up all your online storage. Besides do you really want the weirdos of the world zooming super close on pics from your family blog? Just saying, Ricardo might read this thing every once in a while. :)
Anyway, I share your beef with the photo-hosting sites - the problem with many of them (I use flickr) is that they'll let you upload huge huge files, but then only let you access them up to a certain (much lower) resolution. So it takes up a lot of the allotted space, but you get no benefit.
Anyway, because I'm not actually just writing to give tech advice - Hey! I miss you guys!!!!! Give the boys my hugs and Zach my kisses. :)
Thanks Devin! I will take your advice and keep my camera on the high setting. I do know how to lower the image size in Photoshop, I just wish I didn't have to do it for every picture I upload. I am probably going to have to start paying But I do sometimes worry about creepy people like Ricardo looking too closely at my pictures. I do have one random follower who I don't know and I don't know how to feel about that.
ReplyDeleteWe miss you too! Come and meet Gus!