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a folder on your hard disk. Once the FTP connection window opens this is like any other hierarchically structured folder and the main connection window displays the website documents and subfolders. In Figure 14.1 you can see how I have created new subfolders with names like ‘portraits’ and ‘Snaps’. I use these specific folders to upload Web galleries and images to so that they do not get mixed up with the folder structure of the main website. I can then double-click on a folder such as ‘portraits’ to reveal the subfolder contents and drag the Internet-ready files or folders across into this window. That's all there is to it. The time this takes to accomplish will depend on the size of your files and Internet connection speed. All you have to do is to supply people with a weblink such as the one in the accompanying sidebar, so that they can access these files. When they click on the link you give them, the file should start to download automatically to their computer.

Download a sample image file

I have uploaded a photograph to my server which you can access by typing in the following URL address in your web browser: www.martinevening.com/portraits/evening.pdf. This image document was saved as a Photoshop PDF file. You will probably be asked if you want to save the file to the desktop. Click ‘Save’ and the file will start to download. The reason I saved this image as a Photoshop PDF was to demonstrate the security features that are available when using this file format. To open the PDF file you will need to enter the password ‘evening’ when prompted.

In the case of Bridge and Lightroom, you can now upload Web galleries directly to a server, without the need for additional FTP software. When using the Create Gallery panel in the Bridge Output workspace, you'll need to enter the same login information and password as you would to establish an FTP connection, but you'll still probably need FTP software to manage and delete these files and folders when they are no longer required.

File formats for the Web

Now that we have covered the fundamentals of how to access a server and administer your allocated server space, let's look at preparing images to be displayed on the Web, some of the different file formats you can use and which are the best ones to choose in any given situation.

Orphan works

With any photos that you upload to the Web, it is important to take precautions against future government legislation that may permit others to use photographs that are deeemed to be ‘orphan works’, because the orginal copyright owner cannot be found. It is possible to upload photos to sites such as Flickr and retain all the copyright metadata, while other upload processes may delete this data. One way to be absolutely sure is to incorporate a visible watermark in everything you publish to the Web.

JPEG

The JPEG (Joint Photographic Experts Group) format provides the most dramatic way to compress continuous tone image files. The JPEG format uses what is known as a lossy compression method. This means the heavier the compression, the more the image becomes irreversibly degraded. If you open a moderately compressed JPEG file and examine the structure of the image at 200%, you will probably notice that the picture has a discernible pattern of 8 × 8 pixel squares, and when using the heavier JPEG settings this mosaic pattern is easily visible at a 1:1 pixels view. JPEG compression is usually more effective if the image contains soft tonal gradations as detailed images do not compress quite so efficiently and the JPEG artifacts will be more apparent (see Figure 14.2). The JPEG format is used a lot in web design work, because a medium to heavy amount of JPEG compression can make most photographs small enough to download quickly over the Internet. Image quality is less of an issue when the main object is simply to reduce the download times. Apart from that do you really want the pirate to steal your treasured image at the highest technical quality?

Figure 14.2 This shows a close-up view of a JPEG image that was saved