Upload Your Photo's

Adding and sharing imagery to this site / network is a relatively straight forward task. I'll take you through it here.

Before getting underway though I have to state this here. This is a private web site, copyright laws bind it with regards to the legality of what can and cannot be posted. If you are the legitimate owner of the imagery you publish then you have no worries. On the other hand, if you are not and you get caught then you will be dealt with by the copyright owner to the fullest extent of the law. On sites such as facebook people can hide behind the public domain, here it is not that easy. The site admin fully support the integrity and professionalism of all imaging intensive artists and stand by them in cases where their proven ownership of imagery is exploited for the gain of others. Please understand these points very carefully before going ahead with your uploads.

Site Integrity and Copyright Protection

So as to maintain the integrity of this site and more importantly to protect the legal copyright owners we require that all imagery submitted to the site carry either a watermark or credit to the legal owner. The above left image clearly carries no identifying marks and as such would not be admitted to the site. The above right image shows both a watermark and a name credit. The presence of either one, or both, of these elements would receive positive moderation and be authorized for the site. As imagery submissions and subsequent public display is an area that could land the site in hot water with copyright owners all imagery is manually moderated and authorized by the site admins. This, at times, may explain the delay in imagery appearing on the site.

OK, so this is an image intensive location. The creativity required to master the art of painting with light allows a scene to be portrayed in many different aesthetics. As the saying goes "A picture paints a thousand words" and as you will see this is especially the case in todays immediate access society.

To add Photo's simply look in the top right hand corner of the central module of the site and you will find the + Add Photos link. This will automatically take you to the Flash Upload option of the site indicated by the big Blue Icon with a Camera seen in the middle of the screen. Simply click on the Blue Icon to then Browse your computer to select for uploading.

Once you have made your selection you will then be brought back to the Upload Display which will show you which images you have selected and the size of each image. You will notice underneath the Display Log the restrictions on numbers and sizes of the imagery you will be allowed to upload at any one time. OK, so once you are ready to upload the images simply press the Upload indicator on the bottom right of the Upload Display Box. You will see the display showing the progress of the upload until it is completed.

Once complete your upload will then take you on to what is potentially the most important aspect of imagery uploading to this, or any image sharing site. Your presentation of your work, as an artist, is your calling card. It allows people to see how you regard your own work and allows them to make their first assessment of you as an artist. First impressions count, especially in an age where imaging is so eagerly required by a visually motivated public. Editing your imagery bridges the gap between artist and consumer, this is your time to shine. Edit your Imagery!

What should I be thinking about when I edit my photo's?
The answer is simple. As an artist you need an audience. This is the point in the uploading process where many people fail to see the significance of a strong representation through their imagery.

Start with a Title:
IMG_6520 relates to an image upload whereas Tiger Shark with Diver transitions immediately in the mind of the title viewer. Internet search engines also seek out Key words in titles in order to index search results. This is a great boost to the artist if their works are correctly titled.

Description:
This can be as elaborate or as concise as you like. Leaving the description blank is also an option but think of the younger viewers, people who aspire to your work and again, those potential commissioning entities.

Tag's or Keywords:
This is make or break. The Tags on your images are continually indexed by 'Crawls' effected by the robots of the main search engines. They are continually looking to update all information on the net for their search result compilations. Leave this blank and your imagery will be enjoyed by the members of this site, make an effort and the World is at your fingertips.

How to Keyword?
Keep the keywords to around six or seven per image. Individual keywords should be separated by a comma and will be indexed alphabetically in the Tag classifications once you have selected Done. If you want two words to stay together such as "your name" for example then place it in inverted commas and again separate that with a comma. As an example for the image above:

"Blue Shark", "South Africa", Cameraman, "Morne Hardenberg"

Creation of an Optional; Album at the time of Uploading:
If you are looking to segregate your work into specific albums you can create those as the last step in the imagery upload. This is really only an option if all of the uploaded imagery is of the same theme or genre and you are happy for it to appear in the same Album. The steps to take are relatively straight forward as shown in here.

Re-Editing your Imagery:
If for whatever reason you need to come back and edit your imagery its quite simple. Select the image you wish to edit and on the list of commands available to you for each of your own images simply select Edit Photo to access the controls.