John Howard Loc: SW Florida and Blue Ridge Mountains of NC.

I have decided to create a photo website and while I am spending some time selecting the host and software to build the site (have done it before with iWeb) I am also revirlewimg my photos and deciding how to organize them, i.e. By country/location.
Question, what is the best file format to upload. For me there is no point unless the files are high quality, which means large. Maybe jpg 100% quality? Plan on only uploading watermarked versions with imbedded copyright. Eventually I may add a selling page if I get some interest.
Maybe those of you who have been doing this a while have some advice for me?

rmalarz Loc: Tempe, Arizona

John, all of the photos I've loaded to my web site are 1024x683 pixels wide for landscape format, 900x600 pixels high for portrait. The resolution is 72dpi. That seems to work rather well. Useless for making print, which is intended. File format is .jpg.
--Bob

TheDman Loc: USA

You'd be fine with 80% quality jpgs. Mine are often 75% or so. Size depends on what kind of site you're designing; will your site fill the screen? If not, how wide will it be? You'll want to make your site a good width for the largest segment of your visitors, so doing some research on the most popular screen resolutions will get you started. Once you figure out your site's maximum width, you'll know how large to make your images.

One thing to not worry about is dpi/ppi. That stuff has no bearing at all on digital images. You're not protecting your photos from anything by making them 72 ppi, 1 ppi, or 9,000 ppi. It's irrelevant.

John Howard Loc: SW Florida and Blue Ridge Mountains of NC.

Thanks.

John Howard Loc: SW Florida and Blue Ridge Mountains of NC.

Thanks Bob. What is your website and do you post similar files on Flickr.

Longshadow Loc: Audubon, PA, United States

John,
I use FTP to transfer (copy) them to an album directory on the web site then add them to the gallery program I use. I also send only "large" JPEGS (normally) as it is all that is needed for a good rendition on the web (for my purposes).
(I've been lazy, I have to add an Acadia 2016 album...)
You can check it out at MyMindsEye.us

-L

John Howard Loc: SW Florida and Blue Ridge Mountains of NC.

Thanks. I have read about the ftp upload versus the more secure method. Thinking of signing up with Hostgator and Wordpress. They have those systems already. I think they also downsize the images so maybe I do not need to.

Gene51 Loc: Yonkers, NY, now in LSD (LowerSlowerDelaware)

I crop and resize to 2048 on the longest side. It will show a full image on a 1920x1280 display, and a large image on higher resolution screens. Jpeg, sRGB, 75%. I don't bother with watermarks for two reasons - they detract from the image and they serve no useful purpose than to show my paranoia. They do not deter thieves. All of my images have my copyright information embedded in the metadata.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/gene_lugo/

John Howard Loc: SW Florida and Blue Ridge Mountains of NC.

Thanks Gene. Both you and one other responded about screen size / resolution. I will need to look in to how the site builder software deals with that. Cheers.

CPR Loc: Nature Coast of Florida

Obviously if you put high quality large file size photos on the web they are there for the taking by anyone so disposed. On top of that they make the web page load very slowly and cost folks with data limits a bunch of gigs.
I would recommend putting small file size photos (<100kb) and providing a way for those interested to see/buy high quality versions.

sandiegosteve Loc: San Diego, CA

There are a number of philosophies about this. Personally, I like to upload a fairly high resolution base image and then create various thumbnail renditions, the small renditions allow for faster preview/viewing on devices. I like the base high resolution as it is a cheap backup should I ever need it.

I like to have my "high resolution" be 75-80% jpeg 3300px long edge. 72% seems to be a number that most think provides the best tradeoff between size and quality. 80%+ is much bigger with barely noticeable quality improvement.

dpi doesn't mean much as it applies to the way you are viewing it; historically computer monitors were 72dpi, but it is common to see 120dpi or more these days. Most mobile phones (and I think that is were most people will look) are often higher. For printing, it becomes much more important.

You didn't ask about software, but take a look at Piwigo if you want to do it on your own. Otherwise there are the Smugmug type sites (many options there for a cost).

Your website can apply a watermark if you want and prevent downloads of the original.