Tuesday, September 04, 2012

frequently asked questions : some answers

If you commented or emailed me in response to my frequently asked questions post - thank you. I've thoroughly enjoyed considering the questions and creating the relevant 'answers'. But, you know, time time time. 

I'm in the midst of writing a few posts including: "an insight into Che & Fidel - behind-the-scenes" and "establishing and growing a freelance writing career." There will be more posts in my Q&A series about yoga and birth too, as well as the creation of a FAQ page on my sidebar. 

However, waiting can be tedious so I thought I would answer a few FAQ here. And to all those readers who emailed asking about the big, evenly spaced photos....read on.

What did you study at university and did it influence your writing in any way?

I studied a Bachelor of Arts in Communications (Journalism) at the University of Technology, Sydney (UTS). On day one I was asked to go out and find a story - journalists are never shy. Over three years I studied a range of subjects including the mandatory theory classes, media and law, radio, television, investigative journalism and feature writing. I also delved into fiction  and loved classes on short story writing, poetry and novel writing. I think what I learnt most upon finishing my degree was that I would never be a gritty, up-all-night-to-find-the-story journalist. I was never interested in the graveyard shift (the very beginning of a cadetship) at the local paper nor did I have aspirations to be the next Kate Adie. What I did have was a love of words, the ability to write a good sentence and the desire to write stories that would inform and inspire. I started writing freelance for magazines shorty after I graduated.

What skincare products do you use?

I started using Aesop about a year ago and I absolutely love it. I have quite dry, sensitive skin so the parsley seed facial cleansing oil and parsley seed anti-oxidant facial toner has worked wonders. Once a week I use the purifying facial exfoliant paste and I always moisturise with camellia nut facial hydrating cream. Happy to say that my skin is the best it's ever been. And the lovely glass bottles look rather lovely all lined up in a row. 

What's the hardest thing about being married?

I couldn't tell you because Daniel and I aren't married, yet. We'll say 'we do' sometime soon in a very simple and personal ceremony. The only thing we've organised for our wedding day - the photographer.

How do you make your photos so big and evenly spaced?

Ok....here goes.

I'm a perfectionist so uneven spacing and photos at different widths just won't do. Hence I've spent hours figuring out the world of html. 

First things first....make sure you have the updated blogger interface. Then...
  • go to design and then 'template'. There's a button titled "Edit html" - click it. 
  • ignore the warning and press proceed
  • scroll down until you see the words header-wrapper - underneath this title is a number followed by px (pixels) - the width of your blog in pixels. Mine is 940px
  • scroll down further and you will come to main-wrapper - this is your post section. Mine is 740px wide (I recently widened it from 640px so my photos are bigger)
  • so now I know that my photos need to be 740px wide (if your main wrapper is only 350px wide, or thereabouts, your photos are never going to be that big because there's just not the space needed in your main wrapper aka post column. So, you need to widen your post column by adjusting the size of your left and right columns and adding the extra 'space' to your post column). 
Now it's time to upload your photos. 

If you re-size your photos before uploading, resize them to 740px wide (or whatever the width of your main-wrapper is) and once they are uploaded choose to make them original size by clicking on the photo while composing your post. 

If you upload your photos as full size (which means they're really big) you need to make them original size and then click HTML (it's next to the compose button in the top left-hand corner). In the HTML is the photo information. You'll see s1600  - change it to s740 or whatever your main-wrapper is. However, if you are uploading a portrait photo instead of landscape you need to do some maths. Basically you need to half the main-wrapper number and add it to the original main-wrapper. Hence I would halve 740 (370) and add 370 to 740 = 1110. If I'm resizing a portrait image I change the s1600 to s1110. 

Breathe. 

For those wanting to know more about the diptychs (two photos side-by-side) that I feature - I create them in Photoshop.

Perhaps this makes no sense whatsoever. If you have any more questions about photos and sizing I'm happy to answer them in the comments section. And I'll bring tech-savvy Daniel along for the ride.


56 COMMENTS

  1. Oh my goodness Jodi, this is awesome.
    I have a 'to answer' folder on my computer that is out of control.
    I am so going to copy this concept, if that's ok with you of course. x

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    1. My farmer boy just made my blog wider thanks to your generous instructions.
      Thanks chickie.
      Hope you and your crew have a fab weekend. xx

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  2. Love. Thanks for the little glimpse into yor world. So happy for you guys and your upcoming special day :)
    Big love
    X

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    1. ...we haven't set a date yet x

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    2. but you will...and when you do, it will be really special. I look forward to the day with the best of feelings.

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  3. jodi- I keep looking but i can't find header wrapper on my html...help!

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  4. great post and great answers! lovve the photo :_)

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  5. Hi Jodi, I can't find header wrapper on my list either. Which template did you start with before you made your adjustments? Lisa x

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    1. I started with a really simple template and the customised it along the way - changed from three columns to two columns etc. Try outer-wrapper x

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  6. Hi, thanks for the answers : ). I'm also having the header wrapper problem. xx

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  7. you are awesome, thanks lovely one

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  8. This is fantastic! Love the tip on editing the portrait photo! Thank you

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  9. Happy future wedding day, whenever it comes! And wow, that took some serious concentration to write down photo those sizing tips, how kind of you :)

    As for diptychs, you can also upload side-by side photos. I host them elsewhere (Flickr in my case, don't like using blogger uploading tool), grab 2 HTML codes for the photos (I write posts in HTML mode), paste them next to each other and calculate how wide the photos need to be to fit nicely together. Then I enter the necessary width number into the pasted HTML codes for each photo (it should say something like width="800" within the code), and where it says height, I delete the number in "", that way you don't have to calculate the height, it will adjust automatically. Of course this only works for photos that are the same height.

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  10. I'd better give an example. If your main wrapper is 800 px, and your 2 photos are the same size, you enter 400 px as width, make sure not to add space when pasting your HTML codes, just paste them one next to another. If you want a sliver of white space between the photos, it usually takes 4 px or so, so just subtract 2 px for each photo width - 398px, and add one space between HTML codes. It works the same for both landscape and portrait photos :)

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  11. I missed out on asking a question earlier, do you see blogging as something 'profitable' or is it just more of a hobby, expression of art? Do you think it's worth investing yourself into? I like visiting your blog, you seem to put a lot of effort into it so I was wondering what you have in return for it. Thx Cassie.

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    1. My blog began as an outlet for my writing and now I consider it my own little 'publication' where I have complete creative control. Yes, I do invest significant time into it and I will discuss that more in a future post. In regards to profit - I have had editors from various publications contact me through my blog and subsequently give me paid writing work. So it is 'working' as an online portfolio for my writing. Since accepting sponsors earlier this year this space has become a significant part of my business - the best part. And I'm so humbled and gracious to be given the opportunity to write and photograph from my heart....and receive a small yet worthy income in return. Knowing that I can support my family through my words - it's a really lovely feeling. x

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    2. Ok thx last question, do you think it's really worth for someone to start a blog with no industry experience, do you think it's the things you learn from being a professional writer or photographer that make you a successfull Blogger and sometimes the connections?

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    3. I think if you invest time and energy into anything then you will succeed. It's taken me five years to get to this stage of blogging - it most definitely did not happen overnight. x

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  12. Aesop, isn't it the BEST ... and you can recycle the jars, I just bought the "Fabulous Facial Oil" and I love it (but my skin is a bot older than yours !!!)

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  13. great answers! I think i missed out on the question post. just curious, which photoshop do you edit in? and do you have a standard routine for editing your photos? they look so very natural.

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    1. I rarely edit my photos. Most of them are straight out of the camera - I only use photoshop to resize them for the web. When I do edit it's usually to add a bit of contrast or colour correct x

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  14. ok, i thought of one more question! sorry ;) when you changed your size of pictures did it start from that point on? i would like to make my pictures a little larger, but it makes all my old posts look out of proportion. suggestions??

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    1. yes, I know. If you click back a few pages on my blog you'll see that the images are the old size of 640px. And if you click back a few years they're even smaller. So no, I haven't gone back to change them all - there's just no time! x

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  15. Your blog is so lovely. Beautiful photos always paired with just the right words. Thank you! I like how you describe it as your own personal publication. That's what I love about blogs... it's as though everyone's got a magazine of sorts to share. Maybe I'm just terribly nosy, but I can't get enough of snippets of life from people all over the world in all walks of life.

    I'm just out of uni with a music degree, with some music criticism experience and a magazine internship under my belt... I'm very interested in writing - but not the full-on journo thing. Do you have any tips or stories about how you started freelancing with magazines?

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    1. ...I'm currently writing a post about starting and building a freelance writing career x

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  16. hi jodi...thank you for being so generous with your advice re photos on the blog - so helpful! your space is always so beautifully curated...i have a small question about the photos on my blog. when i upload my pics (i host them in photobucket as i don't have photoshop - and then copy the html across) they always have a slight outline. i love the crisp look of your shots. any ideas on how to banish the faint outline? i've tried to do this by making the 'border' the same colour as the background but it doesn't seem to work...hmmmm.

    ps. i studied journalism too - and once i graduated, also felt uninspired by the cadetship path (bit precious!). i didn't even think about the possibility of freelance work then...so i took off overseas instead. i don't think i ever gave journalism a second thought after that....after a few years i got my grad dip in education. after teaching for a while i discovered gallery education - which i now work in (and ADORE). sometimes it's just good to know there's always other ways to apply the skills you've learnt in a degree, or that you can take a slightly different path...x

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    1. I actually just upload the photos straight from my computer....not from photoshop. As for the faint outline or shadow - a few people have asked me about it. I changed it years ago but this tutorial should help - http://helplogger.blogspot.com.au/2012/04/how-to-remove-blogger-pictureimage.html x

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    2. Thanks for the link - perfect! Miles better x

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    3. Brilliant! Thanks for the link xox

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  17. Thank you, thank you for all of this. Can't wait for your freelance writing post. By the way, all the best people ;) studied communications at UTS, including my hub, though probably years before you. And I did postgrad journalism there a few years back too x

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  18. Hi Jodi... Great post... Just a quick question. I have a couple of small videos I want to add to a post but never seem to beagle to add them. They only run for like 5mins or less but seem to be too big. Any tips on how to get them on??
    Thanks in advance xx

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    1. I only ever upload photos from vimeo (there's an embed option which you can cut and paste into the HTML section when composing a post) x

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    2. No worries thanks... I'll have another try x

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  19. It looks like everyone appreciates what you have written here about posting photos! I just upload from the computer too, I just wish it didn't take so long! Loving the question and answer theme too, you are filling all our curiosities!
    Rhi x

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    1. If you re-size them first they should only take 30 seconds or so to upload. x

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  20. Posting pictures as original size was very relevant to me. I was always making my pics full size. But I've worked it all out now. So thank you Jodi. One last thing though, I've noticed some of my pics are blurry if I upload straight from the computer. I've read online that if you host elsewhere, that sorts it. And it does, but it's such a faff. Do you ever find this?

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  21. Oh gosh, this was so helpful! I've always used flickr to upload my pictures but never really liked it much. Thank you, thank you!

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  22. Just catching up today....

    I don't think I've ever told you I studied a BA Journalism?? I deferred the last two semesters and never went back... maybe one day!

    What a huge response to the photo resizing! Everyone is loving it! xx

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  23. Hi Jodi
    Thanks so much for the advice on the photo sizing. Although I have tried looking through my html for the two headings you suggested and can't see anything, or even a number with 'px' that looks anything near what the size would be. Hmmm...not sure what else to try. I will keep looking :)

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  24. Thanks so much for this Jodi I found it really helpful the only issue that I have been having when I enlarge photos in portrait they seem to look a little blurry, not as sharp as the others in landscape do. Do you perhaps have any solutions as to why? Many many thanks again for all the effort you went to with creating this post. xx

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  25. I have a question that is really silly but is about something that's driving me crazy! Every time I post photos they automatically have a little border around them. I can't seem to figure out how to get rid of it! I notice that yours are pesky border-free. Any ideas? Thanks so much for all your great information,

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    1. Oh, I just found the link above. It WORKED! Hallelujah for no borders! Thank you, thank you.

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    2. Happy you worked it out Adrianne x

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  26. Nice post , Really.... Thank You Very Much

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  27. well for the life of me I cannot find the header wrapper or the main wrapper in my template html!

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    1. Jane, I've since discovered that some blogs have a tab that you can so easily adjust without going into html. Go to TEMPLATE - CUSTOMISE - and then on the left hand side you will see ADJUST WIDTH......see if that works for you x

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  29. Hi Jodi,
    Thank you so much for these great tips...your blog is an inspiration!
    I had an additional question, is this adjustment in the html required for every blog post and every time pictures are uploaded?
    Thank you

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    1. Hi Suzy, If you resize your image efore you upload it you won't have to change the size in the html. However, if you don't resize then you will have to - for every photo in every post x

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