How to Upload
As a member of the Footnote community, your contributions are going to be very helpful to many other people. Plus, whatever photo you contribute or share can not only be viewed by the public, but also commented on as well. Aside from the perks of contributions to Footnote, you get to provide information on historical events that were relevant to you, and perhaps make these relevant to some other person as well.
How do you get to put beautiful and iconic photos of your past on the Footnote database? The answer is in uploading. Uploading a file or photo can be likened to posting it on a bulletin board, allowing the rest of the World Wide Web to see.
Uploading is not that hard to do, but first you need to be logged in with your password and username to Footnote. Next, on the right hand corner of the home page, find the link labeled as "Upload," which is found beneath your username.
When you are directed to the Upload Page, you are prompted to select which file from your directory or PC you are going to upload. You may upload any image not exceeding the size of 10MB. Take note that Footnote accepts files in GIF, JPG, and PNG formats.
After you have selected your photos, they will appear as listed on the Upload Page, with the file size indicated. If you wish to upload more than one photo from your computer, you can highlight or select multiple files using the shift key on your keyboard. To upload the files you have listed, click the "Upload" button. A progress meter will indicate what percentage of your files has completed uploading. This may take a few minutes to several minutes depending on how many files you put up on Footnote.
When you are done, you will be informed that your photos are now available for viewing in your gallery. This may not be immediately implemented, as it takes a few minutes to update the database with your photos. More on managing the gallery will be discussed in later portions of this Footnote guide.
Tips on Selecting Photos
Because the photos you upload on Footnote represent what type of contributor you are, it pays to provide only the best quality photos you can get. Here are some helpful tips on selecting or choosing the most appropriate photos that will be greatly appreciated by your fellow Footnote members.
- Make sure the scanned images that you have are clear. Even though
you may have photos that are brown and old, having a good scan can still
make a difference. Should there be any defects on the quality of your photo,
you may do a little editing.
Since you are given a size limit as to which photos you may upload, you can use such photo software to make the file size smaller. Most default scanners or cameras can save photos more than 1000kb, which you may easily reduce to about 100kb.
- Use an image editing software to make modifications to the size and
clarity of your photo. Examples of these are Adobe Photoshop and the Image
Editor from Microsoft. If you don't have installers for these, there are
other freeware for photo editing you can find online.
Some notes on photo editing: although you can make wonders and cool changes to images using photo software, it is unwise to perform digital surgery on original photos, especially historical ones. Use the photo editing program only to resize, rotate, crop, sharpen, or change the brightness and contrast of images. Pasting or superimposing different images on a photo can compromise the authenticity and reliability of your historical document or image.
- Provide helpful image names to your photos. Note again that Footnote accepts files in JPG, GIF, and PNG formats. You may want to make managing the photos while you upload them by renaming the photos appropriately. Windows usually would put a default name as "Image00" or "Image01" if you don't label it yourself. Use labels that can summarize the contents of a photo, such as names, events, or even dates.
Footnote gives you the freedom to upload as many photos as you like, so
don't hesitate to keep adding to your photo collection online. You may never
know how many people will be interested to check out your contributions.
Members of Footnote can now view your photos, make annotations, comments,
connect or spotlight your photos.