[...] modified a blog theme which lead to this series of posts. One of the things I did was add the Rotating Header Image Plug-in. I have a directory of images which are sized to the header space provided and the plug-in allows [...]

Originally Posted By Adier
Sir Dave is there a chance that in rotating you get the same image?

Adier, Yes, you get the same image when it rotates back to that location in the list. These header images are not random, they appear in order of the list of images, if you have 10 images in the folder and set the plugin to rotate every minute it will take 11 minutes to rotate back to the first images. If you set it to rotate every day, it will take 10 days.

If you put 25 or 30 images in your header it will go through the entire list before coming back to the top. I think I now have about 15 images in rotation and when I find a new one that will make a good header image I add it to the rotation. I’ve already removed some images from the rotation order. It keep things fresh and and provides a new look, for me minute by minute. I chose the images carefully to complement the Blog Title location and color and the search box on the opposite side of the header. It is all html and seems to function quite well. I’m pleased with it on the Tucson News Blog.

No plugins, I’ve outlined my system above. That’s how I do on all my blogs. (5) of them at the moment.

Are you using any plugs-ins to manage images? At WP.org there are about 150 different ones.

Get motivated : )

I only FTP images. I never use the editor to upload. I have an image directory and put all images in that directory.

I resize all images to 1024 wide if I’m going to display them as large using lightbox. Otherwise I size them to fit the post usually around 350 px.

If you upload all large images and display them as small you are slowing your site down considerably. The entire large image has to be loaded then resized on the fly. This is why I only upload the size I want to display if it isn’t going to be enlarged.

If I want a large copy to show using lightbox I load it into my photo editor resize it to 1024 wide. Use a keyword description in the title and save it. Now I resize it again for display in the post and save it again with sm at the end of the name.

Ex. cactus.jpg cactussm.jpg. I have a code snippet saved in google notebook that I copy into the html window of the post then I copy the first file name and paste it into the snippet, in this example it would be cactus all the rest is already in the notebook snippet.

That’s my process, it only takes a minute to add in my images.

I process all the images for the post at the same time and save them in a special image directory. My FTP program is always set to default to that directory for uploads.

I get google traffic from all the images as well as the posts. Both the large and small images get indexed. That is why you want keywords in the file name as well as the description. DSC_1003 doesn’t get searched very often.

I find this is a hassle using the editor to upload 2 photos and trying to remember what each is named. I am not motivated enough to open my FTP and send them to the site.

Thoughts?

Not quite my thing personally, as I LIKE the familiarity of a static image. Call me boring, but at least I’m consistent.