HOW TO: Hi-Def pics (Old way)

[Fbu]

I made this guide because a couple people have asked how my screens come out so good looking. I know a lot of people are new to forums and the internet so I made this easy to use guide. If you don't know what I mean compare these pictures to others:

Hi-Quality



vs.

Low-Quality

[img width=800 height=450]http://www.geocities.com/state_champ2000/spawnroom.jpg[/img]

(No offense to the owner's of the pictures, they are just low quality jpegs)


THE STEPS


1. The first step, obviously, is to take a picture of your map. People ask me how I get the pictures in wide screen as opposed to standard ratio. I don't crop the images in any way I just happen to have a wide screen HDTV. Screens are taken depending on what size your TV is, so if you have a friend with a big TV, get him to take screen shots. Also when taking screen shots, remove the HUD by pressing "B". The HUD is unattractive and looks unprofessional. Also, by pressing "Y" you can fly around and take better shots of the battles at better angles. (Thanks grave)


2. Now go to your screenshot archive on Bungie ( If you don't know how to do this just quit now) I am going to use MasterChief282's Shrine Map as an example. I'll take one of his screen shots through the process. Click on the picture you want and it will open a new window.




3. Now click on the image again and a box will pop up asking you to save to disk. Click "OK".




4. Now open up MS Paint (I hope you know how to do this) and open the picture from wherever you saved it.




5. Now along the top of paint there are some options. Click "Image" then go down to "Stretch/Skew". Alternatively you could just press Ctrl+W.




6. Change the Horizontal and Vertical to 30% (if widescreen) or 35% (if normal screen)




7. DO NOT save it in paint. Paint saves terrible jpegs and it will come out grainy. You will need a free program for the next part. This saves your pictures at the highest quality possible.

The program is called Infran View which you can downloaded at http://www.irfanview.com/

After you install it, open it up.




8. Go back to paint and press Ctrl+A to select the whole picture. Then press Ctrl+C to copy it. Click on InfranView and press Ctrl+V to paste the picture in.




9. Click the little Save button at the top of InfranView. Make sure it is saving as a jpeg and that the quality is 100%. Then click Save as.




10. Now that your picture is saved you need somewhere to host it. There are many places like photobucket, imageshack, http://xs.to , and flickr. My favourite is Photobucket because I already have a big Photo Album there, and it is user friendly. (This step is for photobucket users)

Go to the upload page and press Browse, then find where you image is. Click on it and press open. Then click upload.




11. Click in the box that says IMG code and it should say "copied"




12. Go into your thread and just paste it in! *YES YOU CAN USE IMG TAGS IN FORGE HUB, IT'S A MIRACLE HALLELUJAH*







Now you have a nice looking hi-def picture everyone can enjoy. Get out there and use nice pictures, there's no excuse now!



For those who are just so lazy and you must use the terri-bad imageshack here's a quick tut by wakko.

Originally Posted by Wakko

To Post Pictures

1. Save the picture onto your computer by right clicking and pressing save as...
2. Go to http://imageshack.us/.
3. Once there click Browse.
4. Search for the saved picture. It'll be where ever you saved it.
5. Double click the picture to select it.
6. Press "host it!".
7. Scroll down once it bring you to the next screen.
8. Copy everything in the "Hotlink for forums (1)" box.
9. Paste it in your post.

Here's another great tut.

Originally Posted by MasterWizard

Someone had asked me in my map thread what I used to host my pictures with, I can explain here if it helps anybody. Basically, I take widescreen screenshots at 1080p, download them from Bungie.net, then upload them to Photobucket.com. When you're uploading pics, there's a checkbox you can click to set your file limit to 1 mb instead of setting it to a certain resolution, this way you can upload the whole 1920 x 1080 image without it automatically resizing and shrinking. Now, once I have the images uploaded, I do my resizing with image tags, set to 640 x 360 to fit on these forums. But, I also add /url tags so that when you click on the picture, it opens up the full size 1920 x 1080 picture. I think they look good enough shrunk, and those who choose to click can see everything in true high def detail. Here's how I type my tags...

[ url=http://...][ img width=640 height=360]http://...[ /img][ /url] (without the spaces)

That makes pictures like this, that you can click on to enlarge...

[img width=640 height=360]http://i123.photobucket.com/albums/o282/edlogg/16718701-Full.jpg[/img]

Seriously anything that isn't the small terrible jpg is great. =p

[Gravedigger5454]

Good guide some important tips to add though:
1.Press "y" while in theater to float around the map freely, like in forge, to get a better angle for your pic

2.Once you save the pic you put it right up to image shack and it will automatically rescale it as needed (I think you can also set how much to scale it too).

[Fbu]

I don't like saving through imageshack because eventually they delete the pictures. I've lost several old pictures this way >.<

I'll add the "Y" thing

[gskellig]

Easier way:
1. Download from bungie.net
2. upload to http://xs.to
Use thumbnail or full image.
If sizing them down is really an issue...

1. Download from bungie.net
2. Open in photoshop, size down, save as .png
3. upload to http://xs.to

Your method works too, just takes lots of opening and closing and stuff which can be annoying when you're trying to upload like 10 images...

xs.to has NEVER deleted my images, and their image upload limit is 1.5mb. Does not require registration like photobucket.

[Fbu]

Originally Posted by gskellig

Easier way:
1. Download from bungie.net
2. upload to http://xs.to
Use thumbnail or full image.
If sizing them down is really an issue...

1. Download from bungie.net
2. Open in photoshop, size down, save as .png
3. upload to http://xs.to

Your method works too, just takes lots of opening and closing and stuff which can be annoying when you're trying to upload like 10 images...

xs.to has NEVER deleted my images, and their image upload limit is 1.5mb. Does not require registration like photobucket.

Not many people have photoshop so I made a way that's completely free and legal ;)

I just like photobucket because I have my whole album in one place. Uploading is a matter of preference, I'll add that site to the list though.

[gskellig]

GIMP = 100% free photo manipulation program (photoshop).

Photobucket is great, I just don't like having to login when I want to upload one image quickly. I sometimes use photobucket when I have a lot of images because you can upload like 20 at once.
Everything is better than imageshack.us, they delete shit randomly.

i've never had a problem with grainy screens coming from b.net, or at least I haven't noticed.

[Trickmyster]

Great guide

[Fbu]

Originally Posted by gskellig

Photobucket is great, I just don't like having to login when I want to upload one image quickly. I sometimes use photobucket when I have a lot of images because you can upload like 20 at once.

They have a auto login button you know? I haven't typed the info in years... I'm not quite sure I know the password anymore :o

Thanks Trick

[gskellig]

Auto login doesn't work when you clear cookies, and firefox remembers my password but I reformat a lot so it can't really help then. I use photobucket for other things, I just like going to xs.to (short url) and uploading an image quickly, and I don't have to worry about accidentally putting it in the wrong album or any of that junk. It's just my preference I'm not saying photobucket sucks.

Just to be clear I agree with trickmyster, I think this is a superb tutorial. I probably should've just said "xs.to is another great image upload website" and "If you have photoshop that's another easy way to downsize images without losing quality"