I know that this is off topic for my blog but I have recently read on one or two blogs that Blogger is starting to charge for photo storage.
As a starting point it is worth reading what Blogger themselves have to say on their What are the limits to my account information?
Generally I can't see any personal Blogger reaching any of the limits other than the photo storage which may be a case of not understanding how Blogger stores photos.
Blogger stores photos in a Picasa web album which is automatically created when you create a Blogger account. This is mine.
You should be able to view your album by going to this link and giving your Google login when asked.
Picasa web albums has a storage limit of 1024Mb which may not sound a lot but consider this. As you know my blog is very picture heavy and I aslo have two other blogs which share this storage space but I have only used 27 MB (2.68%) of my permitted storage.
So why have I used so little storage - photos under a certain size do not count towards your allowance see here
Photos up to 2048 x 2048 pixels and videos up to 15 minutes won't count towards your free storage. 2042 pixels is very large but it may well be that your camera takes photos at a much higher resolution. My raw photos are 4320px x 3240px and each is 5.1Mb. If I stored the photos straight off my camera after 200 photos I would reach my storage limit.
If you usually upload photos at their 'straight from camera' size by using the upload option below then it is likely that all of your photos will be above the free size.
The answer is to reduce the image size before uploading to Picasa web albums using one of the following:
- You could set up your camera to take lower resolution photos for your blog.
- You can resize your photos using photo editing software
- You can upload from Picasa software that can be downloaded to your computer free from here
When you upload from the Picasa software you can set the upload size using one of the two options below. The one on the left uploads to Picasa web albums and the one on the right uploads to Google+ album.
- You could upload to Google+ and upload your photo that way as they will automatically be resized to 2048 px on the longest side. You'd need to upgrade your account to Google+ first
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I raeched my free storage allowance last week. I didn't know anything about it until I was told that the limit had been reached. I'm getting round the problem by now resizing my photos before uploading them.
ReplyDeleteIt seems that quite a few have reached the limit at the moment, Jo and it would be a shame if they stopped blogging because of it when there are ways around the problem.
DeleteThanks for this post Sue. Analysis of problem and corrective action all in one. I guess I need to review my Picasa page (which I never knew I had) and this might bring me back under the limit and enable new posts.
ReplyDeleteStill a bit skeptical about Google. (Funny that Jo reached her limit too) They will make us pay (if only through advertising) once the jostling for market superiority has worked itself out. Us slow to adapt types - me, not you and Martyn - will have to keep on our toes!
Just keep your photo size down Mal and you should be OK. I do think that they could make the conditions clear at the outset rather than making you ask the right questions. Maybe that is their idea to draw you into paying. It isn't just a Google thing most of the online storage systems do the same thing.
DeleteSue; call me lazy if you like, but I just pay for the extra storage! I reached my 1GB limit very early on, because I post hundreds of photos (each of mine are about 2MB), but I rent additional storage space at a ridiculously small rate. I pay about £3.50 a year for 20Gb, which will keep even me going for a fair while, so I don't have to worry about re-sizing. This comment notwithstanding, you have given some excellent and very detailed advice. I had to show Jane how to do all this that you have described, only this last Friday.
ReplyDeleteIf you're happy to do that fine, mark but it isn't really any more trouble to save the £3.50 a year :) It is good value though if you want to save full size photos online. Did you pay in sterling as one of the blogs suggested that they only accept US dollars?
DeleteSue; I paid by credit card, online (the only possible way I suspect), so the fee was automatically converted from $US to £UK.
ReplyDeletewhen this happened to me they asked me if I wanted to upgrade which I did and so far, touch wood, I haven't had any problems.
ReplyDeleteSo did you pay for the upgrade Elaine?
DeleteNo - not that I know off
ReplyDeleteDid you mean upgrade to Google+ and not Picasa
DeleteYou rock. That was a great tutorial and I will be working on it. You gave me good advice when I maxed mine out. I did Google + and seemed to get more room. Now I understand what you were talking about with the resizing. Thank you so much!
ReplyDeleteGlad to clear things up Bonnie.
DeleteThanks for the advice! I have been paying early now! sigh! I shall take action now to reduce the photo resolution !;)
ReplyDeleteYou aren't ever going to show your photo on the Internet at the size it comes out straight from the camera, Malar. Try popping your photo in a piece of software that allows you to view actual pixel size and you will see that the photo is huge so it's a bit of a waste of space uploading the full size image.
DeleteThanks for the information, good to know. I'll have to look into this a bit further now. So glad you shared the info.
ReplyDeleteGlad to be of use Kelli
DeleteVery handy tips!
ReplyDeleteGood to have you back Diana
DeleteHad no idea about this Sue so thanks for the heads up. I have used 37% so not too bad and now I know what to do hopefully I will never reach my limit!!
ReplyDeleteYou shouldn't Tanya
DeleteSue, I found this post via Jody's Spring Garden Acre blog.
ReplyDeleteIrfanview is a free photo editing program that I have used and loved for years. I have mine set to open all my images, and they are easily resized either one by one, or you can resize an entire batch at once. It also allows color corrections, cropping, some special effects, text insertion....lots of stuff for a free program! I resize all my blog photos to 800x600 pixels, and have more than four years of picture heavy blogging without running out of space. You can download it at www.irfanview.com/ and be sure to download the Irfanview plugins as well as the program.
Thanks for this additional information Annie's Granny
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