When creating a post on a desktop it’s easy enough to drag $ drop an image, but what about those trying to post from a phone/tablet ?
Coukd suggest a function to inset an image directly from the Apple Photo library at a suitable size (usually medium or large) - and guess likewise needed on Androids.
Seems to work the same way as on a desktop from my Android phone.
I'll find an iPhone and try that.
Agreed, suitable files (less than 4MB) are being unnecessarily reduced even further (into the kilobyte range).
from my ipad.
I'm not sure who you think is doing the 'unnecessary reductions', as from my iPad, I selected a picture that was 1.3mb and it's been inserted as that size.
Same with my Android phone.
Can you expand a bit on the issues you are having as I am not seeing them?
Thanks
Alan
This is from my iPhone. Downloaded from this site at 3.5MB (confirmed, still 3.5MB on my phone) but, re-uploaded here, it’s been reduced to .984MB.
That's weird, because this forum doesn't reduce file sizes (as far as I know). Are you sure your iphone isn't doing something.
Alan
Testing again from my iPad. File size is 2.6mb on the ipad.
Now trying one larger than 4mb. This was 13.8mb on the ipad. Reduced to 2mb. So, I was wrong, the s/w does reduce it but only if it's over 4mb.
This one is 6.6mb on my ipad.
I will see if I can find out what the algorithm is doing on picture uploads.
Alan
I found your “How To” Alan. Thanks!
First image in the forum for me:
I ain’t chicken!
You missed off one step.
Alan
I did it, then all I saw was text so I thought it was wrong. Fixed it.
That one is over 3 megabytes on my phone. DPReview did the same thing to my images when posting from mobile. I specifically picked “Actual Size” when uploading.
There's something weird going on. From my PC, if a file is over 4mb, I get an error message. From my iPad if it's over 4mb, it gets reduced. So, I don't know who is doing it and what the cut off is.
Further investigation is needed - and a chat with the developers.
Alan
It’s not just over 4mb. Anything from mobile is reduced to about 1/4th the file size.
Yes, I am finding that too with some files. But I can't find out where that's coming from. Still investigating.
Alan
According to the developers (and they should know), it's not the forum s/w doing any sort of file size reduction. So, it's either happening on the iphone itself or as a generic interaction between the iPhone and the browser.
Alan
I wonder if Android does the same thing?
I can’t upload an oversized image from my iOS Photo Library at all… The website doesn't throw an error, it just won't accept the image. I will try uploading an exported image from the file system after my morning meeting.
Meanwhile… I'm getting an inconsistency between the actual file size (on my device) and what the photo picker (used to upload the photos) thinks the file size is — a much larger number. I'd share a screenshot — but I can't do that without downsizing those images. (I should have cropped them more aggressively than I did.) The example image in my screenshot is 4.2 MB. The file picker says the "Actual Size" is 10.7 MB.
This was all on the iPad Pro 12.9. I'm running the latest iOS/iPad OS Public Betas so the problem might be on my end here. I'll be looking at this later — and will also experiment using the iPhone.
Gotta run…
From one of the developers:
I think an Andoid JPG is just that. So, if it's over 4mb, it won't be allowed. I can test that out in a minute.
Alan
From my android
No, I can't upload more than a 4mb file.
Apple's Photo Library isn't quite as proprietary as implied. The original image is stored in its original file format. There may also be a separate "processed version" that is either HEIC or JPG. These individual image files are managed by a database and appear to be a single image in the library — but they are not particularly proprietary. As stated, the operating system will transcode to JPG on export (if necessary and unless otherwise specified) for compatibility. Sometimes, for example in Apple Mail, you can control the size of the exported JPG, but I'm unaware of a way to control this from the photo picker.
JPG files are less efficiently compressed relative to HEIC. This may in itself explain the discrepancy I'm seeing — but that discrepancy feels too large.
As a workaround, my standard IOS workflow for DPRev is to export a downsized version of the image to the file system, then upload that version to the site. Unless the discussion is technical I'm disinterested in encouraging pixel peepers, so I elect to downscale the resolution — but I could just as easily provide a full-sized image that is more highly compressed. I did this for some of my earlier image uploads here — before I decided to return to sharing lower resolution images.
Try as I might, I have been unable to export an oversized image from my iPad. It doesn’t get compressed — it never goes through.
Edit to update: When I try to upload a file larger than 4 GB from the File System the site returns an error message informing me that the file is too large. I just tried to import the same image directly from my Photo Library using the photo picker and received the same error. This morning I wasn’t getting — or failed to notice — the red-boxed error message when using the Photo Picker.
Second update: The above was using my iPad Pro 12.9. I just tested using my iPhone 13 Pro. I got the error message when trying to use the File System. I got no response from the system when I used the Photo Picker — but the message composition box hasn’t become active again. (Same behavior as this morning with the other iPad.) I’m going to let it sit for a while and see if the image is eventually accepted.
