Photo preparation for your blog

1. Save a copy of your original. Never tinker with your backup.
2. Reduce the size of your image to a max of 1,200 pixels across.
3. Convert to a web-friendly format: JPG (photos), GIF or PNG (line art, graphics). Confused? Check out Tips & Tricks for image-compression and troubleshooting it.
4. Compress 70–85% (if that didn't already occur in step 3).
5. The file size (not image size: file) should be 12-50k for graphics, less than 100k for photos, unless they are extremely large and detailed (full-post beauties on, say, a pro-photog's site). In that case, 500k is an acceptable cap.
6. Either upload directly or via a sharing site. All these services allow you to select small, medium or large options and align the image. Cut and paste it to the appropriate place in your post.
   

Photo captions get complicated quickly. For now, just include credits in italics at the bottom of the relevant post. As the course grows nerdier, we'll explore options from Flickr imports to Blogger’s built-in tools.