How to: upload your photos to Gwulo (basic) | Gwulo: Old Hong Kong

How to: upload your photos to Gwulo (basic)

Primary tabs

Submitted by Admin on Mon, 2008-09-01 10:48

This page explains how to upload photos from your computer / iPad / tablet / smartphone to the Gwulo.com website, so other readers can see them.

1. Before we start

Please only upload photos that are your own, or that are public domain, or where the copyright has expired. In all other cases, please just provide a link to the photo, rather than uploading the photo and breaking copyright.

2. Log in

If you're already logged in, you can skip ahead to the next section.

If you already have an account, please click here to log in.

Or if you're new to Gwulo.com, please click here to create your account.

3. Upload a photo

Please click here to start the upload.

The first screen you'll see is:

3.1 Source

Select "Image upload", then click Continue

3.2 Add

Click the "+ Add files" and choose the photo to upload. (If you're using a PC or a Mac, you also have the option to drag your photo and drop it on top of the "Drag files here".)

Leave the Authors and Tags empty

Click Continue

3.3 Options

Please edit the Title: field, and type in a short description of the photo. It is automatically filled in with the name of the file, eg IMG_1234.JPG, but please change it to a short description to help readers know what the photo is about.

("Image" will show the photo you chose in the "Add" step above. Don't worry that it appears small, it will be shown at full size after you've saved it.)

You can leave everything else unchanged, so scroll down the page, click the "Finish" button, and your photo is uploaded to the website for all to see.

4. Insert your photo into comments, pages, etc

Now your photo is on the website, you can include it in any comments you write, pages you create, etc. Here's how: http://gwulo.com/node/1929

5. Upload another photo - advanced

The next time you upload a photo, follow the instructions for advanced uploads, http://gwulo.com/node/27014 You'll learn how to upload multiple photos at once, and how to help other readers find your photos more easily.

If you find any mistakes, or anything isn't clear, please leave a message in the comments below.

Forum: 
General
  • Log in or register to post comments

Submitted by Sophia on Tue, 2009-01-13 13:24.

I want to upload some pictures to Batgung website and later refer to them in my text. They do not, however, belong to any of the categories such as "Shop House". Should I use "Others"?  Would it mess up your classification as I am sure you dont want thousands of pictures under "Others"?

Otherwise, can I simply include pictures in my text without first uploading them to the Batgung Image Data Base? Do I just cut and paste then?

Sorry - I am not intuitive when it comes to software.

Submitted by David on Tue, 2009-01-13 16:45.

Thanks for checking - 'Others' will be fine. If you've uploaded say 10 or more that are all related and you think deserve their own gallery, just let us know and we can create a new gallery for you.

Unfortunately cut & paste won't work, but there is a shortcut you can use: Instead of uploading the photo first, you can go straight to the 'insert the photo' step. After you click the camera icon, and the new window pops up asking you for the photo, look in the grey bar at the top of the new window. You should see a button marked "Upload". You can click that to upload the new photo, and then once it is finished uploading you can insert it immediately.

Let us know if you have any other questions.

MrB

Submitted by Sophia on Tue, 2009-01-13 21:51.

I repeatedly received this error message "Places shown in this photo: found no valid post with that title"

What did I do wrong?

Submitted by David on Wed, 2009-01-14 10:57.

I had exactly the same problem yesterday, let's see if the same solution applies.

I was uploading this photo. When I got to the 'Places shown...' box, I typed in '313' and waited for it to show me the full name of the place, '#313-315 Shanghai Street, Yaumati [nid:2168]'. BUT, I forgot to click the full name, so the 'Places shown ...' still showed '313'.

When I tried to save the new photo I got the error message you mentioned. (Because of course there is no post on the website titled '313'). I went back to the 'Places shown ...' box, typed '313', clicked on the full name when it appeared, and then I could save the photo ok.

Does that work for you too?

Submitted by Sophia on Wed, 2009-01-14 11:49.

It seems my problem stems from trying to type into the "Places Shown" box. I managed to upload the picture only if I leave the box blank. Should I be typing in the same text as the title? What purpose does this label serve?

thanks, sophia

Submitted by David on Wed, 2009-01-14 20:54.

A 'Place' on this website is a single location in Hong Kong, that you, I or someone else has created an entry for. (Down under "Create content' in the left hand menu, one of the options is to create a 'Place')

eg if you look back to the first image you uploaded, you'll see the 'Places Shown' box has been filled in with '#1 Queen's Road West, Possession Street, Sheungwan', so there is now a link to that place, that T created. That does a few things:

  • When someone looks at your image, they see a link to the Place. In some cases the Place will have more information describing it, so if they want to know more about what's shown in the photo, they can check the Place.
  • On the other hand if someone views the '#1 Queen's Road West, Possession Street, Sheungwan' Place, they can see your photo.
  • And for people who like maps, they can now search for your photo via a map.

We've only just added the Places - Images link, so it may be hard to see the benefits just yet. I hope it will become clearer as we add more of each. eg last night I uploaded a bunch of photos of shophouses. T had already created the places, so it was easy for me to just upload them and link them by filling in the 'Places Shown' box. eg T had created the Place for 187 Apliu Street, if you look at it you can see all the photos listed on it, without T having to do any edits to it.

Ok, got a bit carried away! Short story: The 'Places Shown' is optional, but using it helps link related information together, making it easier for other readers to find later.

Submitted by Sophia on Wed, 2009-01-14 22:43.

I feel like I am seeking help from an IT helpdesk.. and you are most patient. Thank you. So the correct sequence is to first create PLACE (if it is not on the drop box list already), then upload the IMAGE (refering to the PLACE)  and finally write TEXT that refers to the image.

For now, I will skip creating PLACE as it requires messing with markers and I am hopelessly bad with directions and maps.

Submitted by Admin on Thu, 2009-01-15 21:13.
Yes, ideally that's the right order. Not the end of the world if it doesn't turn out that way though.

Submitted by jill on Fri, 2012-03-16 21:41.

I'm having the same uploading problem as Sophia had in 2009. I've already written and posted my text. I've also found the gallery where I would like to upload my photo, but it isn't separately listed. I'm therefore getting the same "found no valid post with that title" message as Sophia. If I've followed  the rest of the correspondence correctly, the solution is to leave "Place" blank, but I'm not sure how I would then locate my picture in order to insert it. 

Jill

Submitted by Admin on Sat, 2012-03-17 12:56.

Hi Jill,

I've rewritten the instructions above, which hopefully will make it clearer. I recommend you also take a look at the video of how to add a Place, as it's easier to show than to describe!

Also a clarification of terminology - Galleries and Places are different things.

Galleries are groups of related photos, most commonly grouped by the period they were taken. Click here to visit the Galleries.

A Place is a single landmark in Hong kong, usually a building.

Hope that helps, but let me know if you have any further questions.

Regards, David

Submitted by Klaus on Sat, 2016-04-09 17:23.

David,

a couple of days ago I uploaded an image from flickr. This one is obviously only a part of the original photo. I found the original on flickr (or at least a complete one). I tried to edit the entry to Gwulo by removing the link. But then the system wants me to upload an image, and I found no possibility to enter a link to flickr. What to do?

Regards, Klaus

Submitted by Admin on Sun, 2016-04-10 17:02.

Sorry Klaus, once you've created an image from Flickr there isn't an easy way to change it. 

So please create a new one for the original, then add a comment "Please delete" to the old one so I can remove it.

Regards, David

Submitted by Herostratus on Wed, 2016-05-25 12:48.

Wah ais the maximum file size of photos that can ber uploaded to Gwulo? I have some great 1860 panoramas but they are aprox 20MB. I don't really want to reduce them in size as they are so clear and the detail is incredible however I understand that there is a server bill to pay.

Is there a way to create new Galleries of photos?

Submitted by Admin on Thu, 2016-05-26 13:31.

The maximum size is currently 8Mb. If suggest you shrink the width by half, then upload and see how it looks. If there is a noticeable loss of detail you can email the file to me and I'll upload it. Please also add a link to the source in the notes as you upload - or just mention "Author's collection" if it's one you own.

Creating a gallery is done via the Admin function, so you'll need to let me know the name of the new gallery. Or you can use a tag to collect related photos together, eg: http://gwulo.com/taxonomy/term/82/photos-gallery

 

Submitted by Herostratus on Thu, 2016-05-26 14:38.

For whatever reason opening them in paint then saving again reduced the file size to 5MB. I will upload when i get a chance.

For the Galleries i would suggest breaking up the 19th Century into separate decades similar to the below. I would also include sub galleries of the most famous photographers so they are grouped together

Pre 1840's Hong Kong

 

1840's Hong Kong -already exists

 

1850's Hong Kong - already exists

 

1860's Hong Kong

Sub Galleries -

Felice Beato

​John Thompson (photos from 1860s and 1870s)

 

1870's Hong Kong

Sub Galleries

William Pryor Floyd

Thomas Child (photos from 1870s and 1880s)

Lai Afong (all the way up to the 1900's)  

 

1880's Hong Kong

 

1890's Hong Kong

 

 

Would that work?

Submitted by Admin on Fri, 2016-05-27 17:02.

The panoramas look good, glad they uploaded ok.

I've made galleries for 1860s / 70s / 80s / 90s.

To group by the photographer, let's use the "Author" field on a photo, as you've done with the panoramas.

Two problems:

  • Clicking an author's name doesn't show any photos! That's a bug I'll have to look into.
  • The 1890s folder contains all the photos from the previous "1860s - 1890s" folder. I'll tidy them up over time. If any readers previously added photos to that folder, please can you edit them and adjust their gallery to move them to the correct decade?

Submitted by Klaus on Tue, 2019-03-19 20:41.

What happens if a photo on Flickr is deleted that was uploaded to Gwulo?  On Gwulo, is there a file or only a link?

I'm asking because one of our best sources is eternal1966. Flickr announced that regular users (not PRO - you have to pay for it) may only post 1000 photos, others will be deleted. And eternal1966 has more than 4500!

Submitted by tkjho on Wed, 2019-03-20 03:48.

DP review - "Within a week, Flickr announced it was sparing Creative Commons and public domain images and also sparing non-profits from the 1,000 photo cap."

A lot of eternal1966's photos are available on google photos here. It may actually be his google account.

Submitted by Admin on Sat, 2019-03-23 14:38.

A copy of the photo is downloaded to Gwulo so we can show the zoom. I'm not sure if it will still be displayed if it is one that Flickr has hidden.

Fingers crossed they'll be spared as tkjho notes above, but let me know if you spot any that disappear.

Submitted by moddsey on Sun, 2019-03-24 09:16.

Hi Klaus. Another way of retaining the photo on Gwulo is to upload and save the photo from flickr. Then add a cross link to the original photo like here: https://gwulo.com/atom/32850 

Submitted by ashchoi on Sat, 2021-10-16 01:23.

Hi,

I am commenting on a post and wish to add two photos.  In the past, I could easily do that by copying & pasting the photo below my text or by pressing "Ctrl + V".  Could not do so now.  Any reason? 

Submitted by Admin on Sun, 2021-10-17 12:32.

Sorry, I don't know about the ctrl+V. I always use the approach described at https://gwulo.com/node/1929 to add a photo to a comment.