Chapter 17

Photography For Your Online Needs



How to Put Your Digital Pictures on the Web

This section requires that some terms be talked about and defined before we get into how to create a simple Web site for your digital photography. You will also find a short and simple file that you can copy and rearrange to suit your needs. Then you can upload the file and your digital pictures to the Web and have them online in no time.

Some Web Related Terms

  • Browser. Software like Microsoft Explorer, Netscape, and Opera are Web browsers they take the information that comes to your computer and make it look the way it does. They also allow you to see graphics, interface with your e-mail software and other perform other activities as well.

  • Download. To take files from a remote computer onto your computer.

  • Editor. Software that you can use to create or edit a Web site. Two editors that will be discussed here are 1stPage, http://www.evrsoft.com/, and EditPlus, http://www.editplus.com/. These editors can be downloaded from the Web. There are many others just do a search on ‘web editors.'
    The editor 1stPage is totally free and without charge of any kind. EditPlus can be downloaded free for a trial period. If you are a novice to this sort of thing 1stPage will be easier to use.

  • File Transfer Protocol or FTP. This is the suite of programs that you will be using when you upload or download files. Much of this activity happens behind the scenes, so to speak, and you will not likely even be aware that FTP is doing its job. Many Web editors have FTP capability built into them and are very easy to use. One program that we like is cuteFTP. We have used it for years. It is very capable. These folks also make a Web editor, cuteHTML.

  • Hyper Text Transfer Protocol, HTTP This is the software that runs behind you Web browser. It makes the Web possible allowing the information that creates the Web pages you see to be understood by your computer.

  • Internet Service Provider or ISP This is the person or company that will sell you Web space on a computer. It is here that you will upload, via FTP, your Web files.

  • Upload To send files to a remote computer.

  • World Wide Web or WWW the World Wide Web or The Web as it is more commonly known is relatively new only being invented in about 1990 or do by Tim Verniers Lee of the European Organization for Nuclear Research, CERN.

  • Hypertext Markup Language, HTML HTML tages are placed between < the less-than character and > the greater-than character.
File Names

We strongly suggest that you name all files in lowercase characters only.

Like this: flower.gif. And not like this: FLOWER.GIF.

Why?

We learned this the hard way. Just because you can use upper and lower case letters interchangeably on your Windows computer does not mean that you can do that on a UNIX or Linux server.

A Simple Web Site

Here is a simple file named index.html. It contains all that is needed to place the file flower.gif on the Web. You will find that flower.gif is used several times. Each time additional material is added and explained. The first time <img src=flower.gif> is used, in Line 6, it contains no additional information. In subsequent lines additional material is added. This was done to present what can be added in a way that is easy for your to see. The additional material is not needed to get the image on screen, it provided additional benefits only.

index.html This is the file that your Web server opens first when you access the site via the Web. There are others as well like: default.html and more depending on the technology you're using for your website. <TITLE> This is the information that appears at the top of the browser window when your site is accessed. The title should clearly describe the content of your site as it is very important to search engines. <HTML> This appears at the top of your files to tell the browser that this is an HTML file. Universal Resource Locator, URL. This is a Web address or the name of a file or other resource that you want to access online.

  • <HTML>
  • <HEAD>
  • <TITLE>
    This is my Web site</TITLE>
  • </HEAD>
  • <BODY bgcolor=yellow>
  • <img src=flower.gif>
    This command will cause the file flower.gif to appear on your monitor. This text will be onscreen as you see it here. In fact, all the explanatory text below would be seen on-screen as well. All the information between a < and a > is considered an HTML tab, and your browser will take action on any tag. Tags do not appear on your monitor, unless there's a problem.
  • <img src=flower.gif border=5>
    The border=5 command will create a border 5 pixels thick around flower.gif.
  • <img src=flower.gif border=5 alt=‘This is a picture of a flower.">
    The alt= command will display the text between the " and " when the mouse is placed on the image.
  • <img src=flower.gif border=5 alt=‘This is a picture of a flower." height=100 width=150>
    The height and width commands will make the picture 100 pixels high and 150 pixels wide. There are other ways to measure images see the URL in the section on getting help.
  • </BODY>
    This command ends the file.
  • </HTML>
    This HTML command tells the browser that the HTML file is ended. Note, these commands can be omitted, but we do not suggest that you do that for a file you are going to upload. For working on your PC or Mac at home that's fine, but don't send your HTML files to the net that way.
Stop reading this. Go take pictures. Put them on your computer as Wallpaper. Put them on the Web. Use your photography!