A good forum pictures workflow?

[Spooktalker]

In early 2014 I had a good pictures workflow. I started in lightroom, published the figures in Flickr, then used a third party app that used the Flickr api to grab HTML and bbcode embed code in one go, and paste the html code into my blog and the bbcode here.

This workflow had many advantages.

• No jpgs exist on my hard drive. Goes straight from Lightroom to the web.
• No uploading using an app. I just drop in my publish folder in lightroom and press one button, and they are on the web.
• One hosting service. Pictures on the web live in Flickr and no where else. Everywhere else embeds the flickr
• Partial preservation of metadata. While Flickr is has a gaping flaw whereby smaller versions of a picture have all metadata stripped, the original version of the picture preserves metadata, so if you embed only the original version, and people download your image, your metadata is preserved
• Super simple means to grab HTML and BBCODE in one go. In the app built with the flickr api I could show my recent pictures, show pictures in a certain album, show whatever pictures I wanted, quickly drop the ones I want in a list, and grab the code.

Before I had this workflow, posting in forums was such an awful chore I was on the verge of quitting and just keeping my miniatures to myself. With this workflow, I was able to participate and get on with my life.

Then flickr broke the lightroom plugin by introducing a bug, and the app I used went away, probably because of some other bug flickr introduced. That was in 2014, and I haven't posted anything since.  

That's right, I stopped forums and blogging because searching high and low for a comparable workflow has yielded nothing. I feel like 2009 was the high point of internet technology and things have been in a backslide ever since. I am so incredibly frustrated with every media site out there.

I seem to have a stricter set of requirements than other people, but I can't afford to lessen them. This hobby is supposed to be fun and relaxing, and when I deal with crap like uploading jpgs in web interfaces and copying embed code one by one out of pictures I hate every minute of it, I just get angry and frustrated and stressed out.

I have a ton of miniatures to share and I just made a big concession and made a new workflow to upload pictures from Lightroom to Google Photos (which shares a lot of the old PicasaWeb technology) and it's really easy to go from there to my blogger blog, which it should be because they are both google. One click gets the pictures into Google and then from the blogger blog editor you can call up your album and pic the pictures to insert. I need to note here that google gets a D- grade on metadata because they strip all but a very few fields, but at least they do leave a couple, and I even worked my LR plugin to copy the keyword tags (which otherwise get stripped) to the body of the caption as hashtags with a # before each one.

So after I spend hours making this workflow I discover that google has removed the ability to embed images in forums. Used to be there. Not there anymore. Just like tags used to be there, not there any more. Is anyone else full of rage like I am over things like this?

So I tried instragram. Can embed, can even get embed code with an API (still haven't seen if anyone has built a tool like the one I used for Flickr), but it doesn't support bbcode, so that's out.

I know people use photobucket but I'm not willing to sink so low. I loathe photobucket, for many reasons but especially because, as I'm sure you know, when I go to save one of your wonderful pictures to my inspiration folder it doesn't actually save. To do it you need to start in lead-adventure, right click the photo and copy the url, open a new tab and browse there, and click through several times to get at the actual image. I refuse to put others through that crap.

The best of a list of terrible options left to me seem to be to host copies of the pictures on IMGUR, which adds a lot of time and the pictures will dissappear after awhile with disuse, leaving broken holes in the forum, or make "physical copies" of the pictures on my hard drive and attach them to threads here. I think I'm consigned to give attaching pictures directly a try.

But, all this to say, has anyone who has standards similar to mine found a good solution? I mean a solution you actually like, that works well, that doesn't leave you cursing?

Again, the ideal solution is one service that has a picker interface where you can choose multiple images and get both html and bbcode, has a lightroom plugin, and has some modicum of honor when it comes to metadata. I know I'm likely to have to bend on some things, but using a web interface to upload pictures, and/or going one by one through pictures to grab the embed code, are both nonstarters for me.

If you can't help and just want to commiserate, that's fine to. I'm so fed up I can't even begin to describe. Symantic web my %$%#$.

[zorg]

I've been thinking about opening (another) instagram account for my gaming pictures, and using that as an image source to post here. Instagram keeps the pictures around, and you get more exposure for your little soldiers (hence more incentive to build, paint and photograph).

My current workflow is so horribly ineffective I'll not describe it.

[Malebolgia]

My photoflow doesn't take very long, but isn't as "automated" as yours. My flow is:

1. Import the RAW photo into Photoshop, edit it and 'Save for web' as jpg.
2. Upload the photo through FTP to my webspace (http://paintoholic.nl/images/x.jpg). I have added my webspace as FTP folder in Explorer, making this a simple copy/paste action in Windows Explorer.
3. Go to the forum, type in the IMG tags with the link between them. Since my webspace has an easy account to remember, I can easily type this from head.
If I don't have to edit the photo, I can do this in a minute or so...okay slightly more, because I always type stuff with my images

[traveller]

I am really struggling with photos. I have tons of stuff which I would like to share but using photobucket (which is my current method) is such a pain and for some reason it degrades the quality of the pictures. I was thrilled to read about the Instagram idea. How would that work?

[Mr.J]

I'm another painter burnt out on crappy uploading software and programmes - I would certainly share much more if I could find a better way of doing so. I used photobucket until it became so user unfriendly and I tried various other programs with little success so I would welcome any insight into this.

[fred]

I feel your pain. This seems to be way harder than it should be.

My current process is
1) Take photo on iPhone
2) Crop and adjust colours on iPhone
3) Use Google Photos app on phone to upload to a Google web album that used to be Picassa
4) Switch to computer
5) Switch to a browser tab that always has my photo album open in it, refresh the last photo so I can scroll to the newly uploaded ones.
6) Right click to copy the address
7) Switch to forum add IMG tags, paste the image address.
repeat 6 and 7 for as many photos as I have uploaded.

This sounds pretty complex, but is quite slick in action.

I used to use a plugin for Aperture to upload directly to Picassa - but once I started taking photos on my phone, rather than on the DSLR I dropped Aperture.

I've tried using Apple photos sharing - but struggled to get a permanent URL.
I also can't work out how to get the Google image URL using an iOS device.

This all feels stupidly hard - I wonder if all the photo hosting services want you to visit their sites rather than just using them for linking.

[zorg]

I am really struggling with photos. I have tons of stuff which I would like to share but using photobucket (which is my current method) is such a pain and for some reason it degrades the quality of the pictures. I was thrilled to read about the Instagram idea. How would that work?

Basically, you take the photo with your phone, like many do. This makes it trivial to post the pic to Instagram, where you can add a number of filters and things. Then you can copy the image location, and embed that in your forum post.
You can also use any other digital picture (not taken with your phone), but that adds a step or two.

If you want to give the pic a serious workover, you need to do that before you post to Instagram. More importantly, this setup means you're posting all your stuff to a social media service, with all that entails (Likes! Followers! Hashtags!). Depending on your views, the added baggage might be a dealbreaker, or might not matter.

[fred]

The Instagram approach sounds interesting - I already have gaming alias email addresses - so can have a gaming Instagram account, I'm sure.

[traveller]

Basically, you take the photo with your phone, like many do. This makes it trivial to post the pic to Instagram, where you can add a number of filters and things. Then you can copy the image location, and embed that in your forum post.
You can also use any other digital picture (not taken with your phone), but that adds a step or two.

If you want to give the pic a serious workover, you need to do that before you post to Instagram. More importantly, this setup means you're posting all your stuff to a social media service, with all that entails (Likes! Followers! Hashtags!). Depending on your views, the added baggage might be a dealbreaker, or might not matter.

That sounds great but how do I copy the image location?

[gary42]

I use photobucket.  Never had the issue you speak of because we only ever use it to upload our images for placement on websites like LAF or sending examples of photographic work to clients.  If that's all your doing with it it hasn't bothered me much and I never saw all the issues that people hate Photobucket for.  Workflow-wise it seems pretty easy.  Copy address and stick it between the image brackets.

[zorg]

That sounds great but how do I copy the image location?

You click on the three dots in the top right corner, and select Copy Link. You paste that link here, and wrap it in img tags.

Testing...



Does that work?

[traveller]

Testing...


I posted this link

with [img] before and after but it does not show  

[zorg]

Weird. Should work, that's what it's for...

[Spooktalker]

Thanks for your thoughts, all!

I've been thinking about opening (another) instagram account for my gaming pictures, and using that as an image source to post here. Instagram keeps the pictures around, and you get more exposure for your little soldiers (hence more incentive to build, paint and photograph).

Ah, so I tried instagram before posting here yesterday and there is an embed button you can click when viewing your picture, but it doesn't give you bbcode. I figured they probably blocked hotlinking. I take it from your post and others' that you can grab the actual url of the image and that works, interesting. And @Fred, you mention you do the same with Google Photos, interesting. I tried it before through Google Photos interface and it didn't work because the images weren't viewable as images, the url didn't end in .jpg. Now I tried it through the other old interface (get.google.com/albumarchive) and I can get to the jpg.

I really don't think I can bring myself to view each picture to grab the url, though. It's 2016 and we're surrounded by all this technology, and to do something like that just makes me feel awful, like an idiot monkey. I might do it a few times but it wears me down over time and then I just choose to do something else with my precious free time.

@gary42 it's all the clicking "by hand" you have to do to manually get the link from each picture, while photobucket bombards you with ads and scripts that bring my browser almost to its knees. And the jerk behavior it does of not letting viewers of the your pictures in forums save the picture. Instead of saving the picture it saves a 0 byte file that is not a jpg. In order for posting in forums to be a worthwhile addition to my life I need to be able to be shown the pictures in an album, click the ones I want or draw a box around them, press a button, and get the bbcode (and html) for all of the pictures.

Also, to offset my complaining, I should mention that the one part of my pictures workflow that is brilliant is Lightroom, which, all hyperbole aside is hands down the best piece of software I have ever used for any purpose. I can't recommend it enough, especially if you use something like Photoshop. Here's me gushing on about it on my blog: http://belchedfromthedepths.blogspot.com/2013/09/hallelujah-come-to-lightroom.html. I love it every bit as much today. Lightroom takes you the part of the journey between the click of the shutter and the pic arriving at your web service of choice, and the experience this whole time is is like playing in a meadow full of clover and baby unicorns.  

[Spooktalker]

Testing...


I posted this link

with [img] before and after but it does not show  

Weird. Should work, that's what it's for...

Ah, so I went to try it and I'm reminded I DID try it the other day to get to the jpg and it didn't work. Instagram only supports an HTML scripted embed. Won't work in bbcode.

These companies don't realize that forums still exist, or intentionally forget they are there. Take Flickr again, for instance. When last they coded anything on the site years ago they added this beta "camera roll" feature that you can see your pictures and click the ones you want to share, you go to share, and are shown options for facebook and other crap social media. Glaringly absent are the TWO FIRST THINGS THAT WOULD OCCUR TO ANYONE WITH HALF A BRAIN: HTML and BBCODE. It's hard to imagine they forgot. It's some idiot in a board room killing the product with bad decision after bad decision.