PhotoWalkPro

photo by chego101

You may have noticed that my blog has been the target of MalWare (Malicious Software) hacks as of late. The thing is that it’s not just my blog that has been attacked, but numerous blogs and websites spread out across different genres. The hacks have not actually added any spam or malware to the sites, rather they redirect your browser to another site that is hosting the malware.

Often times, your browser will alert you to the presence of a re-direct and put up a warning screen that won’t let you proceed without first agreeing.  Sometimes though, it will slip by and you will end up visiting the “bad” site.  So here’s what you should be doing to protect yourself.

First, make sure that you are running up to date virus software.  Even though these are not technically viruses, they can sometimes be stopped by a good virus software.  Run a malware/spyware checker on your computer and have it monitor every now and then.  I use Spybot Search and Destroy on my Windows machine and it does a fantastic job.  It’s also free so the price is right (although they do accept donations).

If you visit a site and see that it is trying to re-direct you to a different site, close your browser window and don’t wait for it to finish.  Here’s the deal though, I have several domain names that all point to this blog. There’s photowalkpro.com, jeffrevell.com, revellphotography.com/blog, all ending up here at this very spot so if you type in www.photowalkpro.com and notice that your browser is pointing to revellphotography/blog, don’t be alarmed.  It’s supposed to do that.  But, if you see my blog page come up and then it goes away and some other site is starting to load, that’s when it’s time to pull the plug.

Finally, if you do get a re-direct, you should run your virus and malware software first, just to make sure nothing bad has happened.  After that, you should try and contact the site owner, me in this case, and let them know that there is a problem.  Many times the owner of the site won’t know they have been hacked for several days, especially if they don’t update their content on a daily basis. If you don’t know the email address to report the problem you can often times contact via Twitter or Facebook.

You can get ahold of me be emailing admin(@)photowalkpro.com (remove the parenthesis around the @ symbol first) or send a message to @photowalkpro on Twitter, or leave a message on my Facebook fanpage

I want you to know that I try very hard to keep this site clean so that you are protected. Hopefully my hosting provider (GoDaddy) will be able to fix the security problems and this type of thing will just be an unpleasant memory from the past.

For most people that start a photo blog, it starts off as a simple project to share their work, their perspective, or their knowledge.  Over time the blog evolves into something quite different.  My blog is the perfect example of this.  When I first started blogging, it was an outlet to share my photography with a small group of people, mainly my family and friends.  As time went on, I started posting more frequently and not just to show off my images.  I started sharing techniques, news, opinions, and reviews.  Probably the largest driving force behind this was a hit counter that I installed.  As I began posting with more frequency, I noticed that I was accumulating more and more hits on my blog.  I won’t kid you by saying that this didn’t excite me because it did.  I was actually reaching a much wider audience than I had anticipated.  I’m not talking monster numbers, but modest growth.  What started as 10 to 20 hits a week grew to 10 to 20 hits a day.  This encouraged me to post even more frequently.

Over the next few months I enjoyed some modest growth in my readership and then one day, I hit it big.  Scott Kelby linked to a post on my blog on his extremely popular blog, Photoshop Insider.  Can you say Jackpot?  I experienced my first 1000 visitor day.  Of course this didn’t last but it certainly did help to raise my banner into the public eye.   Since then, I have paid close attention to what information has had the greatest impact on readership so that I can focus my blog on content that seems to be of most benefit to my readers.  I still write and post for myself but now with a more keen eye on what is popular with the public.  So here are a few tips that might help grow your own photo blog.

Tip # 1 – Get some notice from a popular blog.  Now it’s no secret that Scott and I are buddies but the concept is still the same.  You can achieve the same results with a post that hits it big on Digg, or gets mentioned in 1001 Noisy Cameras, or on Technorati.  This isn’t always something that you can count on but it will probably happen if you are posting some quality articles or photos.  Buzz is a very powerful force on the internet but it can be fleeting which means that you need to keep writing interesting posts that keep feeding the beast.  That leads us to …

Tip # 2 – Quality counts.  If all you are doing is regurgitating the same stories from other blogs you run the risk of boring your readers with content that they have probably seen already.  Original content is what keeps people interested and keeps them coming back for more.  Sharing interesting articles that you come across is not a bad thing but if it’s your only thing, you probably won’t sustain your readership.  This doesn’t just count for written articles.  If your thing is posting images, make them quality images.  A great example of this can be found at Stuck in Customs.  Trey Ratcliff, the blog author, is not always long on words but the quality of his images never disappoints and thus  translates into a large and loyal readership.  Almost every day, Trey’s readers can count on a different image to keep them coming back.  This is a key component to …

Tip # 3 – Keep your site fresh.  If you only get a chance to blog every now and then, readers will lose interest and start looking for fresh sites that are always offering something new.  If you want proof of this, just check out David Ziser’s blog, Digital Pro Talk.  David is a blogging animal.  He averages 6 posts a day, so every time you come back, it seems there is something new to digest.  Dave is kind of a freak of blogging nature and there aren’t many that can match his volume of posting.  The main point is that there is something new every day and that keeps his readers coming back for more. But sometimes quality and quantity may not be enough to reach new readers which takes us to …

Tip # 4 – Learn to be social.  Just like a Hollywood movie star, you need to go out and be seen by your public.  So how do you accomplish this?  Be active on other blogs.  Take some time and visit other blogs in your niche.  Follow up your visits with a comment or two.  I’m not talking about self-serving name dropping and commenting for the sake of drawing readers.  I’m talking about adding value to another persons blog.  Within your comment you could also refer to something relevant that you have done on your blog but don’t just shamelessly comment to plug your site.  Believe it or not, if you are thoughtful and relevant in your comments, it will reflect well on your own site and draw new visitors in.  There are also social tools that can really kick-start your blog and they are the subject of …

Tip # 5 – Social Bookmarking sites.  You may be aware of social bookmarking sites but have you ever used them?  There are a multitude of bookmarking sites out there but the biggest ones are Digg, Technorati, StumbleUpon, del.icio.us, Mixx, and Reddit.  Another newcomer that is much more photography-centric is PhotographyVoter.  The basic premise of the sites are as follows; register at the site, add bookmarks to sites or stories you find on the web, find other stories that others have bookmarked.  While it’s not a terrible thing to add your own blog entries to the sites, be generous and share other sites that you find interesting.  It will pay off in the long run.  And just how much traffic can be generated from a bookmarking site?  Well, I had a simple post titled 10 Places to Photograph Before I Die that caught fire on StumbleUpon and generated over 20,000 hits.  Not everyone returns to a site after reading a story like this but if they like what they see, you might just get a few new loyal readers.  So what do you do with all these new readers?  Why feed them of course …

Tip # 6 – Offer your site up as a feed for people to subscribe to.  Hopefully you are aware of what a feed is and whether or not your blog offers one.  If you don’t, you will serve yourself and your readers well by getting one for your site.  For the unaware, a feed is a way of offering your content as a subscription that can be downloaded by a feed reader and then digested by anyone that has subscribed.  Typically someone who uses a feed reader would visit numerous sites in a day to see if there was new content but instead, the new content is delivered directly to their reader allowing them to keep current without having to navigate from site to site.  If you don’t have a feed for your site, you can try out FeedBurner as a possible solution.  I have been using it for some time and I think it’s great.  not only does it distribute your feed but they offer some amazing tools to really keep on top of the data generated by your feed.  The best part, FeedBurner is owned by Google so it’s free!  So now that you are providing a feed, maybe you should start reading some too …

Tip # 7 – Keep an eye on what your fellow photographers are up to.  I’m not talking industrial espionage, more like staying informed on what the community is up to.  This will help you keep up to date and stimulate your imagination for future topics.  I have generated numerous blog stories from articles that I read elsewhere.  Not the same material but related items that I thought of while reading someone else’s blog.  Call it inspiration.  And how to you get all this inspiration, get yourself a reader and start adding  site feeds.  I have at least 50 different sites that I read every day.  I couldn’t do this without the help of a feed reader.  My reader of choice is the Google Reader but there are a multitude of readers out there for you to choose from.  Chances are that the web browser you are using right now has feed reading capabilities.  While you are searching Google for their reader, think about how readers might find you through the same search engine …

Tip # 8 – Search Engine Optimization.  This is also known simply as  SEO and it can get fairly complicated but there are some basic principles that you should adhere to when writing your blog.  First of all, concentrate on writing good content.  This is the basis for all SEO strategies.  Good content will lead to other sites linking to you.  Search engines key on this.  Also, try using some keywords in your content.  Everyone knows that there are certain buzz words that are embedded in the photographic vernacular (digital imaging, Canon, Nikon, HDR, RAW, JPEG, etc.).  Try and key in on a few of those when you write.  Try inter-linking or linking to previous content within your post.  Finally, link out to others that have relevant content.  All of this linking and keywording and content quality will raise your search score over time and drive more readers to your site.  SEO is one way to increase traffic but if you want to really get into it, do your research…

Tip # 9 – Study the success of others.  There are tons of successful sites out there (I have listed a few for you already in the previous tips) and they don’t have to be just about photography. Study them and find out what they are doing to keep readers coming back.  One of my favorite research resources is ProBlogger.  This site is jam packed with information that can help you craft your blog into one that is much more appealing to your readers and give insights into how you can take things to the next level.

I saved the most important tip for last but hopefully it’s one you already know.

Tip # 10 – Have fun!  Blogging can be challenging but as long as you are having fun, it will show in your posts and your readers will enjoy coming back over and over again.

One of the great mysteries in digital imaging is that of resolution and how it differs for printing and your monitor. I have had more than one person ask me to print a poster from a PowerPoint slide where the end result is great text and highly pixelated images. Their big question is always, “why does it look so good projected on an 80″ screen but so bad when I make a 30″ print?” This is usually the point where I try to explain the difference between screen and print resolutions. I don’t even bother with the whole raster vs. vector issue.

The same issue is found in reverse on many photoblogs that I have run across. Many times a photographer will take an image with their multi-megapixel camera and just upload it to their server without thought to actual screen resolutions and optimal sizing. The average 5-MP camera has a resolution of about 1600×1200 pixels. From looking at my user stats, I can tell you that the most common screen resolution is still 1024×768 pixels. In other words, why upload more image than the average user can fit on their screen? Not only are the images too large for standard monitors, but they are using up more server storage than is really needed. So here is another consideration, if you are writing a blog, the actual space the blog text occupies is somewhere between 500 and 750 pixels depending on the blog software and theme you are using. If you are uploading images to live in your blog post, you probably don’t need anything larger than that pixel width for any of your images.

Maximum Image Width for my blog is 720 pixels

There are exceptions to this rule. If you want to provide a higher resolution image for the reader to view, either using Lightbox or having the image open in a separate window, then you will probably want something larger than 600 pixels. Even so, you should still consider not exceeding the limits of the average reader’s screen. So how do you go about making sure your images are of optimal size? There are a couple of easy solutions.

First off, don’t just dump your images straight into your website (this includes Flickr). First of all, it will take a long time to upload but it will take even longer for someone with a dial-up connection to download. I know as a cable user I sometimes get spoiled by my fast connection and forget that there are those who still connect at 56K and are just as valuable a reader as someone using FIOS. Don’t make them suffer waiting for images to load. Sooner or later, they will just stop visiting your page because they get tired of waiting. Those big images are also resource hogs taking up space on your server. I know that lots of people actually have their blog images hosted on a public storage site like Flickr or Picasa but hey, storage is storage. Why use it if you don’t need to (I actually have other reasons why I don’t host my images via Flickr or Picasa but that’s a subject for a different post.)

Resize the image prior to uploading. This makes sense for a few reasons, not to mention the ones that I just listed above. As with anything having to do with your images, if there is a way to control what happens to them, you should. Why let an automated process resize your images when it is easily done by yourself prior to uploading. The tool I use for resizing is Photoshop. This is a fairly easy process but usually renders really nice results for me.

To resize in Photoshop, it’s just a matter of clicking the Image menu and then on Image Size (you can also use the keyboard shortcut Cmd + Opt + I) The nice thing about the Photoshop resize is that you get to choose which method is used for interpolating your data from large to small. That’s the trouble with downsizing your images, you are effectively throwing out information so you should be careful which information is being tossed.

I typically choose the Bicubic Sharper which, as you can see above, is also recommended by Adobe for reductions. I also use this one for enlargements but once again, more info for a future post. You also have the ability to input which resolution you would like your image to be and, as long as the dimensions are linked, it will maintain your aspect ratio for you by changing the dimension of the other axis (change height and width is automatically changed for you).

There are other methods that will allow you to resize for web in Photoshop, another one to consider is the Save for Web & Devices option found under the Image menu.

This option will allow you to resize and choose your JPEG, PNG, or GIF file options while comparing several different options at once. Above you can see the 4-Up option (no, there is no 7-Up option). This box will also let you deal with slices for making those larger web graphics load even faster. I have to admit that I don’t use this dialog very often but sometimes it is nice to see some comparisons, especially when you want to see how different JPEG compressions will effect your image.

Finally, this brings us to JPEG. If you are running any sort of photoblog, then you want your images to look good. That immediately rules out GIF for your images. Save that for your graphics files. The PNG format isn’t bad and will allow you transparent areas but you can’t set the compression level so there is diminished control over the final image size. That leaves us with JPEG. JPEG, which isn’t actually a file format, it’s a compression algorithm, has been around for years and still works as well today as it did 10 years ago, if you use it right. I’m not going to explain how it works (I really ought to wrie down all these ideas for future posts) but I can tell you what you should and shouldn’t be doing.

Here’s a BIG DON’T for you. Don’t just compress your images to a very small size without resizing them first. They will look like crap when they re-open in a browser. I am always surprised by the number of files that people email to me that are less the 300K in size but open to 20MB in Photoshop. Here are some definite DO’s:

Do use as little compression as possible for your image. There is usually no need to go less than Medium on the quality scale.

Do keep the Preview checked on. This will give you a real-time view of how destructive the compression is being to your image.

Do keep an eye on the file size of your image which appears below the Preview Checkbox (see image below). This will tell you how large (or small) your image will be with the current jpeg settings. I try and keep all of my web images under 300K if at all possible. The majority end up around 200K or slightly larger.

So to summarize:

• Don’t use more image then you need on your site. It will load faster and your readers will be happier.
• Know what your optimum sizes are and resize using your favorite image editor (control the destiny of your images).
• Choose the appropriate file size and compression for your images.

I would like to take this opportunity to thank my buddy, Scott Kelby, as well as Dave Cross, Matt Kloskowski, the Scriv, and all my friends over at Kelby Training/NAPP for having me on this week’s episode of PhotoshopUser TV.  I had a great time seeing the studio and NAPP offices as well as all of the fine, fine folks down in Tampa.  If you aren’t tuning in to PhotoshopUser TV, you don’t know what you are missing (like me getting to debut the new blog name).  Seriously, it is a fantastic resource that is full of tips, information, and just the right amount of jocularity.   To view the current and past episodes, you can go straight to the PhotoshopUserTV website or you can do as I do and download the episodes on iTunes.

Hey, Did I happen to mention I was on PhotoshopUser Tv this week?  Thanks again, Scott.  It was a hoot!

And now for something I was playing with over the weekend.  You may have seen some of my IR shots in earlier postings or over in my Gallery page.  I decided to take my IR to the next level by doing some channel swapping in Photoshop.  Basically after taking the image with an IR camera, I set the white balance for an area that would normally be green.  Then when I opened the image in Photoshop, I used the Channel Mixer to swap the red and blue channels.  Finally after a little levels work, I used a hue and saturation adjustment layer to balance out the colors in the image.  After all that, I got this -

Where is Jeff’s Photo Gallery?  Jeff’s Photo Gallery started life as a way of sharing some of my images with my family and friends.  It was much better than a mass email that usually would end up getting dumped in the trash.  The blog allowed me to post images that could be reviewed at the reader’s leisure.  So much less spammy than an email.  Anyway, from there I started adding more and more content about photography.  My posts were also becoming more frequent to the point that I post almost every day of the work week.  Throw in a couple of mentions on Photoshop Insider, a profile on Jason Moore’s blog, and making the top 87 over at Epic Edits and, well, Jeff’s Photo Gallery is certainly now more than just a little picture gallery.

So what’s with the name?  Good question!  I’m glad you asked.  I have been searching for a name for quite some time but got serious about it a couple of weeks ago.  My first criteria was that I wanted to be able to buy the domain name or web address for whichever name I chose.  Let me tell you, that is no easy task.  Just about anything and everything with the word photo or imaging has been spoken for.  But having the domain name was very important because I want people to be able to associate the name with the web address.  Now if I had Scott Kelby’s name recognition, it wouldn’t be a big deal but I am about 45 best selling computer books behind him so using jeffrevell.com wasn’t really an option.  So one evening I was sitting with some friends and we were looking at different word combos that had domains that were available and my buddy’s wife threw out photowalk.  I liked it right off the bat.  But we took it one step further, let’s go PRO!  Lo and behold, the domain was available and there for the taking/buying.  So now you can access my site using the old address or you can use www.photowalkpro.com to get here.

So what exactly is a photowalk?  Wikipedia defines it as: “the act of walking with a camera for the main purpose of taking pictures of things you may find interesting.  It is also often done as a method to practice and improve one’s own photography skills rather than with specific focus on documentary photography.  Photowalking is also often associated with on-line photo sharing.”  Those definitions are also extremely descriptive of what my blog has become, a walk through the world where I shoot what interests me and then share it amongst my friends.  But also a way of improving my skills, and possibly helping you do the same.

So there you have it, my big blog change.  Ok, it’s not really a big change but one that has been long overdue.  So tell your friends, tell your family, shout it from the rooftops!  Or not.  But I do hope that you come back and get a little something from my blog that will inspire or instruct or even amuse you.  That would make my day!

And now for something from the Left Coast.  I got about one hour of daylight to go out and shoot around Livermore, Ca. yesterday.  I have since taken the red-eye back to DC and am now in a coffee induced state of artificial consciousness.  See you next week.