Everyone loves to see other pilots flying and the best way to do that is by sharing screenshots. Here is a basic tutorial that will hopefully help new pilots get the hang of this.

First, To snap screen shots in Flight Sim you need to have a program capable of doing this. There are several available such as these:

A) Snapper found here: http://www.ovosoft.net/snapper/
B) FSScreen found here: http://www.flightsimworld.com/downloads/viewfile/1058.html

Both come with instructions on how to install and how to use. I personally have used both and prefer Snapper as it is easy to use and has more features. Here are the instructions for Snapper: http://trawing.vusn.org/docs/VUSNSNAPPER.pdf

Once you have installed one of these programs you can simply press a designated key spelled out by the program to take pictures while in flight. They will not harm your flight, can be snapped in any "view" and can be used along with VAFS3 with no special details.


OK..... So.... you now have Snapper or FSScreen and have taken some flight pictures. What do you do next?

There are two schools of thought... You can either "edit" your photos or use them "as is." If you choose to edit them you can do so with a "paint" program. There are two great payware programs out there in Paint Shop and Photoshop but the minimum cost would be $69 for Paint Shop Pro Photo XI (Office Depot) Photoshop is very expensive! Paint shop also has free 30 day demos available to see if it suits your fancy.

Or you can use a free program like GIMP or even MS Paint! You can find Gimp here:

http://www.gimp.org/windows/

Well.... Now that I have a program, what do I edit? Glad you asked. Size and "save as" extensions are the two main reasons you would use an editor. However some people are skilled at using an editor to add "heat lines" or "blur" to make pictures come to life.

Primarily, we want use the editor to save the picture as a JPEG (.jpg) and size it to around 800x600 maximum. I save my pictures with a descriptive prefix.. For example: Ketchikan2.jpg. This indicates it was a flight to Ketchikan, what sequence it is and it is saved as a jpeg!

Now that you have edited your shots you are ready to store them so they are viewable to others. To do that we need a web based storage spot....


What is web based storage? Web based storage is a website where you can upload for public access any photos you have taken. There are numerous spots available such as:

1) Village Photo - Found here: http://www.villagephotos.com/
2) Photobucket - Found here: http://photobucket.com/
3) Flickr - Found here: http://www.flickr.com/
4) Your own web provider... some ISP's offer this to members..

The beauty is they are free... However, they do offer very inexpensive "upgrades" so that you may store many many photos. That part is up to you. But for a normal Pirep a free service should be just fine.

OK...so how do they work? Well, once you sign up they will give you instructions on how to "upload" pictures. This means taking them from your hard drive and placing them on the web in the photo storing location. Each site differs a little so you will need to follow their instructions for uplaoding.

Once they are uploaded they are ready to share and here is how you do that!



Each provider will have a link by your uploaded picture that says "copy url" or "copy photo link." You simply click on that link to "copy" the address. Then you are now ready to insert it into a Pirep.

Simply go to our forum and start a new topic in the "Picture Pirep" thread. Place your text as you would normally and anywhere you want to insert a photo you would click the "insert image" button in the toolbar of the forum.

When you click the "insert image" button you will see a small rectangular box pop open. It is here that you would "paste" the link to the image you previously copied. On you have inserted the link you click OK. You may not see the picture immediately as our forum has two view modes. But you will see either see the picture or a line of text that shows the picture address.

Now click the forum "preview" button. The post you are entering will be shown as it will appear and you should see your picture as you inserted it. Voila'

You may repeat this same process using other picture "links" until you have completed you post. That is all there is to it... Once you have tried it you will see that it is very easy to do. The first time may be a little scary but we all have to try this sometime.

Please ask questions regarding this in the forum below. Thank you!! Jeff





Q - I just see little red "x's" where my picture should be?
A - It is possible that you do not have the link address properly inserted or you have exceeded your photo storage limit.

Q - Can picture be put between lines of text?
A - Yes... Just use the enter key to go below or above the picture and type in your text

Q - Is there a limit to the number of pictures I can post?
A - No.. However 12 is a good maximum as people may have slower connections which would delay the loading of your post

Q - I am having problems uploading.. is there an easier way?
A - Yes.. most upload sites will allow you to upload 10 or more pictures at a time.

Q - My picture site ask if I want to "compress" the pictures I am uploading?
A - This is an option on some sites. Say no to this as it can distort your pictures or try it to determine if your site does not damage images

Q - I want to do BMP files instead of JPEG...
A - Please use JPEG. They are smaller in size by a considerable amount

Q - I still don't get it...
A - If you have "Teamspeak" you may talk directly to another pilot who can walk you through this process

Q - Is this the same thing for inserting signature pictures into the forum posts?
A - Yes... same thing..
_________________

Here is another freeware program for snapping shots. New today at Avsim..

Jeff

Filename:	imagetaker.zip
License:	Freeware, limited distribution
Added:	25th May 2008
Downloads:	657
Author:	Alex Ranc | Cielosim
Size:	226kb

Jeff,
Great job. Thanks. Now if I can just get my act together....
Mark

Here's one I found Jeff. Very simple to use and takes shots in .jpg, .bmp, .gif, .png formats, whatever you prefer.

http://www.stagesoft.org/en/

I use it but I am currently having problems with the web space my provider offers. I am trying to upload pictures to my web space with SmartFTP or CuteFTP and my provider's server is not allowing me to log in. But I'm glad you mentioned the photo storage places above. I'll give them a try. But SnapShot seems to be a very good, easy to use program for taking screens.

Regards,
Tom