Uploading of images

Over recent weeks there has been quite a marked increase in the number of people struggling to upload images to Gardeners Corner; I have done some research, and now have a clearer understanding of why the problems are being experienced, and with this knowledge we will be able to have a discussion in the GC office to see what we can do to resolve the problems.

At this stage, I think it is sensible to try and give some explanation (albeit a very rough explanation) of what is going on.

ALL digital images are made up of little blocks called pixels. The size (or resolution) of the image is shown as {width x height} - for the sake of demonstration, lets call each box in the grid below one pixel:



The image therefore is 10 pixels wide and 10 pixels high (so would be shown as 10 x 10)

There is a second, different kind of size that also applies to digital images and that is the amount of space (in kb [kilobytes] or mb [megabytes]) that it takes up when stored on a hard drive, memory card etc; this size is related to the resolution of the image, but is also influenced by some other factors. As a general rule of thumb, the higher the resolution of the image, the larger the file size will be.

So, an image that is 800 x 600 might be 200kb, and the same image in higher resolution of 1024 x 768 could be 700kb

However, the content of the image itself also has a bearing on things. Below is the same 10 x 10 image we had above, but this time there are more blocks of colour:



Although both images are exactly the same size (resolution) the latter one would most likely have a larger file size (kb/mb) simply because it has to record data for more than one colour.

Currently GC servers are restricted to take images no larger than 800 x 600 pixels (that is 480,000 pixels), and no larger than 1024kb (1.024mb).

Digital cameras, including those on phones and tablets, have been improving in quality very rapidly indeed and it is not uncommon now to have resolutions of 1632 x 1224 (1,997,568 pixels) and higher. In short, these images are too large to be handled by GC servers within the current parameters.

There are a few workarounds:

1 - Some members will not see any issues, as the images they are uploading are being resized automatically. Whether this is the user's PC or browser or GC software, I am unsure, but the net result is that the image sizes are automatically reduced and upload without an issue.

2 - Manually resize your images. There are a number of programs that can achieve this including Microsoft Office Picture Manager, or FastStone Image resizer - - - if you Google 'free image resizer software' you will see that there are loads available. You can also use the free photo editor that is available within GC - http://www.gardenerscorner.co.uk/forum/pages/pixlr/

3 - Change the settings on your camera or phone to a lower resolution. The way to do this is different on each individual device, so I cannot give specific instructions to follow, however I am happy to try and help you through the process if you get stuck - - reply to this thread or PM me.

4 - Use a proxy such as Photobucket; essentially, you upload your photos to your 'album' on your chosen site, and then put a link to the image you want to add into a thread/post. You can do this by clicking on the Image button (next one to the right from the smiley button), or you can put the link to your image in image tags if you know bbcode.

Manually resizing images after they have been taken is more difficult if you are working on a phone or tablet alone, so for these devices the easiest way is to reduce the resolution before you take the photos.

Why is this happening when I haven't changed my phone/tablet?
Almost all phones, tablets, laptops & PCs are updated on a regular basis, so one of two things could have happened - - - either the resolution settings on your phone or tablet has been increased/set higher as part of an update, OR your PC/browser has had an update that now prevents it from automatically resizing the images as they are uploaded (I have a suspicion that this is to do with Adobe Flash, but cannot be sure at the moment -- it is worth checking to see if Adobe Flash is up to date on your PC)

What now?
This issue is currently being looked at by the staff team to see what adjustments we can make at GCHQ to resolve this. Whenever any changes are implemented, one of the staff will post on this thread.

 

I've been trying an experiment.

Yesterday, after trying to upload a group of ten pictures it reported that the files were too big. For some years I have been able to upload up to 12 pictures at a time by just dragging and dropping (so much quicker then any other method). My photos are 2048x1536 and 1.4mb and the GC software always downsized them with no problem. No settings have been changed on my computer nor the camera.

So I tried to upload 6 photos - no good. Then 4 photos - no good and then 2 photos - no good. I'd run out of time to try just one.

This morning I tried 1 and it uploaded with no trouble. so I went to 'What's looking good...' (might as well try and upload to a thread I want to put them on) and tried 4 photos and they uploaded with no trouble. So I decided to upload 6 more to the same thread and they went OK. I'll try another post with more.

It worked with 12 as well.

So maybe it's back to working OK. Could it have been a glitch with Xenforo? Or have our GC geniuses done it again?

 

UPDATE

As some of you have already noticed, some changes have been made in the past 24hrs; initially, a lot of the changes that were made were purely experimental to allow us to test the various parameters available that relate to the uploading of images, however a specific set of changes so far have proved to be very successful and have currently been left in place.

This is by no means a 'closed book' as we will have to monitor things closely for a while to ensure that the changes do not have any detrimental effects elsewhere (server load etc).

Please note - whilst the changes made will allow for much greater flexibility for the uploading of images, some restrictions still remain.

If you try and upload an image that is more than 1.1mb, one of two things will happen;

- Your image will be automatically re-sized as it uploads
OR
- It will be rejected as being too large

It appears that the automatic resizing will only happen for some of you, and whether it does or not seems to be dependant on each individual's PC setup (possibly browser) - - more investigation would be needed to determine this for sure, and that investigation would have to be on a case by case basis. Please contact the Admin Team if you wish to have your own case investigated further.

If your image is rejected as being too large, please resize it using any suitable software on your own PC, or using the free image editor - http://www.gardenerscorner.co.uk/forum/pages/pixlr/

Finally, thank you all for your patience and support in (hopefully) resolving this.

 

Not as yet @Scrungee, as we are currently working on the understanding that it was to do with our configuration rather than a wider issue. I assure you that Webmaster is fully aware, as are the entire Admin Team, and if it does transpire that there is a wider issue, we will escalate it accordingly. As it stands at this moment, I am reasonably confident that the only images that will be rejected now are those that are larger than 1.1mb, which allows plenty of scope for images of a decent size.

 

I suspect (although admittedly I am not certain) that it is something to do with your PC - such as the OS you are running, what browser you are using and whether or not you have Flash installed and up to date.

 

The only tinkering in respect of images was done last night @Anthony Rogers, and it was done in quite a specific area completely unrelated to users or logins. You've not got any automated processes happening via the likes of CCleaner have you?