Manage Your Nude Photos . . .

and Share
Them
Originally posted in my Nude Hiking and Soaking Blog, Dec 6th, 2008,
at: http://nudehiker.blogspot.com/2008/12/manage-your-nude-
photos-and-share-them.html

When I head out to the mountains I take a lot of images of the

surroundings and what I'm experiencing. I also a lot of pictures of
myself framed within those settings so that I can relive the experience at
other times when I don't have the time or luxury to just shuck it all and
enjoy nature. At nude resorts, beaches and the like, picture taking is
limited out of respect for others. I don't mind being seen naked on the
web but others certainly have valid reasons to expect (or desire) privacy.
But in the wilderness, amongst all that beauty, I click away like mad.
How do you manage all those images? How do you share the ones you
want others to see and get some idea of the enjoyment you experienced
that day?

This blog is one way . . . my primary means of sharing a naturist journal.

Yet a blog is mainly a writing tool depicting a lineal passage through
time . . . the reader travels with you as you go from one experience to the
next. Seeing where you've been . . . what experiences excited you in the
past is best done with a photo album. A little bit of planning makes this
process easier:

1. Organize and manage your photos with a program like Picasa

Photo
2. Sign up for an Online Photo Storage account like Flickr. Give some
thought to how you would lay collections and sets out
3. Batch edit the image metadata of your photos using a program like
Exifer or PhotoMe
4. Cleanup and enhance your images with your favorite editor
5. Consider copyright and the use of your images
6. Geo-locate your images using GeoSetter
7. Upload your images to Flickr

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Organize Images on your Computer

Picasa Desktop Photo Organizer

(showing the photo editing pane - "warmify" adjustment)

Get an Online Photo Account

My experiences with online photo albums have been mixed in the past,
and for me the judgment of 'best' is still out. Blogger (this service from
Google) uses Picasa with a sizable amount of storage. I've been happy
with Picasa (both the online and desktop interfaces that do a good job of
sorting and categorizing my photos) but recently I've come back to
Yahoo's Flickr service as that service matures and provides better
control of who sees content . . . the so-called Permissions and Safety
Filters. It used to be difficult to share photos containing nudity on Flickr
but now you can set a Safety rating of Safe, Moderate, or Restricted and
Flickr will allow access to your images depending on the visitor's stated
level of content they are willing to view and the Permissions you have
assigned.

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Safe, of course, means no one is going to have a problem with the image.
Restricted is for stuff that is likely to 'offend' and probably belongs on a
porn site and not a widely-popular sevice like Flickr. Moderate is in-
between and is fine for images of simple nudity. With images assigned
Permissions and a Safety rating when I upload them, I'm pretty much
assured that those who view my images are not caught off-guard by the
nudity that I consider an essential part of the journey. I don't like the
fact that my images have to be 'filtered' but that's far better than the old
system of requiring all nudity to be locked up in private sets viewable
upon invitation only. The new system puts the onus on the uploader to
correctly categorize their photos as Safe, Moderate, or Restricted; and
the viewer setting a Safety Filter. Lacking a viable alternative I can live
with Flickr's TOS.

With that in mind, a Flickr Pro account in hand and the slick Flickr
Uploadr program running on my computer I can pretty much open my
photos to the world and share. Yeah, sure you can organize all that
content into collections and sets, add descriptive titles and short
descriptions but how does someone out there find an image that they
might be interested in? That's where the real power of sites like Flickr
come in in their power to access a little known feature of digital
images . . . the metadata that is saved by your camera when you take a
picture. Flickr accesses (with permission) this data to tag your images
and make it easier for people to search based on those tags . . . info such
as date the image was taken and location if geotagged. Tags can also be
added interactively to images after-the-fact on Flickr. A neat aspect of
Flickr is the ability to geotag your images on a map for a different view
of you collections and sets. Another neat (and essential aspect of tags) is
that you can have keywords of what kind of subject matter attached to
the image . . . if an image contains nudity a keyword can so state and
allow filtering. An example bears out the possibilities (and yes, this
example contains nudity . . . this is a nude blog, after all):

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A title and description are always nice but on the right hand side is
where you can add tags for your photos along with camera information,
copyright restrictions and geo-referencing. You can do this to your
images after they are uploaded to Flickr . . . or you can go a preferable
route and edit your image metadata ahead of time and at your leisure
using a few other programs available; notably Exifer and GeoSetter,
open-source and freeware programs, respectively, that allow you to edit
the metadata saved as part of your digital images. When you
subsequently upload the image, Flickr will automatically generate tags
based on that edited metadata . . . saving you a lot of time . . . plus the
original images on your computer also have this information to allow
some really serious drill-down searches locally. So the steps, using the
same image as above: Both programs can edit in batches . . . i.e., all the
photos taken on a particular trip . . . but I'll limit this short tutorial to
one.

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Use MetaTags to your Advantage

Exifer is slated mainly to edit EXIF and IPTC data in image files . . .
metadata about the camera settings and descriptive keywords contained
within the image file. Few people realize the amount of information that
is saved with a digital image file. When I worked a computer forensics
stint many years ago, if we had an incriminating image file the first place
we looked for clues was within the EXIF metadata . . . the make and
model of camera, serial number, date taken, etc. Many photo editing
programs corrupt or even change some of this data but if the editor is
launched from within Exifer that program will automatically make
backups and restore the metadata after editing. Certain EXIF metadata
is difficult to edit or change (with a few exceptions) but the IPTC data is
fully intended to be used and edited. This is where Exifer shines.

Exifer . . . editing the IPTC Metadata of the image

The extent of data you enter is up to you. I add contact information,

including my blog URL, a copyright notation (which I also have added to
EXIF) and Category and Sub Category (NAT for Naturism, and Nude
Hiking as a sub category for this batch of images) and sufficient
keywords (which Flickr will turn into Tags) to adequately characterize
this image. You can create templates and use them to pre-load
keywords . . . for example, I have a template that loads keywords for
images that contain nudity (i.e., Nude, Naked, Nudism, Naturism).
These keywords are important to later exclude an image from safe
searches.

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A general good rule of thumb (especially for images uploaded to Flickr
where the tag-cloud is a primary way of finding images) is to:

• Keyword where (Index-Galena, Sunset Mine, Wild Sky Wilderness,

Trout Creek, Washington, Cascades)
• Keyword the activity (cold weather nude hike)
• Keyword a time frame (Dec 2008)
• Keyword features (old log bridge, old mine site)
• Keyword the nudity factor (nude, naked, nudism, naturism)
though a Safety Flag of Moderate will keep those images from
unexpected eyes (Flickr's "Take Me To The Kittens")

These keyword suggestions are of course particular to the image I’m

using as an example.

If you want to add a detailed description of the image you may do so in

the Jpeg Comment tab . . . Flickr will use this for you image description
if it exists. One final step is to ask Exifer to create embedded thumbnails
of your images. These thumbnails are saved as part of the image file and
do not add appreciably to the file size. Your operating system can use
the embedded thumbnails instead of creating them on-the-fly later
on. EXIF/IPTC metadata and embedded thumbnails are preserved as
part of the image file. If you copy and save the file that metadata is still
there waiting to be set free (screen copies of an image, however, do not
carry metadata across . . . and, of course, they lose a lot of the original
image's resolution).

Another option to consider is PhotoME (ME for metatag editor).

PhotoME will allow you to fine-tune your metadata much like Exifer.
Like Exifer, PhotoME is free.

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 PhotoME Metatag Editor gives fine granular control over tags

Cleanup and Enhance your Images

Once I have my metadata in shape I will launch my favored photo editor

from within Exifer. The reason for this is because Exifer will save an
image's metadata and restore it after editing is done. As noted above,
many editors do change the metadata or add their own information. My
favorite editor is G.I.M.P. but use whatever one you like.

The Gnu Image Manipulation Program (G.I.M.P)

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Today's digital cameras are pretty faithful in recording the image as you
see it. However, some manipulation will clean up slight color imbalances,
blur and out-of-focus images. The G.I.M.P. Heal Tool is a one-step
process to auto-correct images. Many other effects are available . . . this
program is fully functional, open-source, and FREE! However, it does
have a steep learning curve.

Picasa from Google, which can also organize and manage your photos on
your computer, also has a photo re-touch function . . . easy, one-click
fixes to many common problems; and enhancements like to color
balance filter to warm up the colors in an image like the effect on the
first screenshot at the beginning of this article. Picasa is also free from
Google.

Update your thumbnails to avoid surprises

We may not want to show everything portrayed in an image, yet share

that image with others. We will crop images, perhap blur out faces to
protect the privacy of others. Yet not all photo editing programs update
the embedded thumbnail to reflect these changes. You may be left with
a thumbnail of the original image accessible by anyone. Such was the
case of television personality Cat Schwartz (e.g. TechTV). Schwartz had
published a photograph of herself on her personal blog. Because the
program she used to edit the picture (Adobe Photoshop) did not update
the thumbnail, the thumbnail revealed more nude facts than originally

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intended. If you edit your images significantly, use Exifer's capability to
create (replace) the image thumbnail.

An additional note on editing JPeg images. The JPeg format is what is

known as a lossy compression format. The image size is reduced to a
manageable size by the reduction of image information that, presumedly,
is not visible. Every time you save to the JPeg format you lose a little bit
more of the image quality. So make all your changes first and then save.
Or save to a lossless format such as a bitmap (BMP) if you must take a
break.

Retain Rights to your Images

Exiting G.I.M.P. you are returned to Exifer and your metadata restored
(assuming your have kept the default settings. Metadata is not readily
available to a viewer of your photos and you may want to note some
information (like copyright) up front. The process of doing this is called
watermarking, as I've done on the example below, using Exifer. Of
course, if someone wants to steal your image and use it as their own it is
a simple matter to crop the image and leave the visible watermark out . . .
though they'd have to go a step further and edit or strip the EXIF/IPTC
metadata encoded within the image file if they wanted to be complete.

The image with a watermark applied in the lower-right corner

There are more elaborate solutions to protect your images if you are
willing to pay a price. One of them is called Digimarc which inserts an

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invisible digital watermark as part of the image. You can't see it but a
plug-in for Adobe Photoshop can read and write those watermarks.
Digimarc primarily sells a tracking service that crawls the web noting
where images with embedded digital watermarks are located, telling you
if any of yours are posted out there, presumedly without your
permission. Unless you have high-value images which you need to
protect I don't see the value of digital watermarking that can only be
done with the expensive Adobe Photoshop suite; and the added cost of
tracking your images for a steep $80 per year does not seem like a good
value to me. Likewise the value of a visual watermark may or may not be
appropriate for you . . . for me, I prefer to keep my images unadorned
with extraneous text.

On the issue of copyright and image ownership, you could just simply
state copyright and be done with it. The image is yours and a
conscientious user would ask permission before using or posting it
somewhere else. No copyright within the metadata and you'd have a
difficult time demanding someone take down your image if it were being
used inappropriately. However, standard copyright also hinders the
sharing of your photos.

One option that is becoming very popular is to use a new copyright

convention called the Creative Commons License.

This work by bangedupshins@gmail.com is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works
3.0 United States License.
Permissions beyond the scope of this license may be available at http://nudehiker.blogspot.com.

With the Creative Commons license, you state and retain ownership of
your image but you also grant certain usage rights up front. For example,
all my images have been tagged (using Exifer) as CC Atrib NC ND
bangedupshins@gmail.com. What I am doing is stating that:

1. This image is covered by a Creative Commons License

2. The image belongs to me
3. The image can be used with Attribution
4. No commercial uses may be made of this image, and
5. No derivative works may be made of this image

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Stick within those licensing requirements and a user does not have to
ask for any further permission before using my image. I retain all other
copyright rights beyond those licensing give-aways. Creative Commons
licensing allows my images to be shared without the borrower having to
constantly ask permission. Flickr fully supports the Creative Commons
licensing standard and allows for easy sharing and copying from
interested users.

Add Location Information to your Images

Perhaps the funnest part of Web 2 Photo Sharing is geo-tagging your

images so that others can see where they were taken. For geolocation I
like to use a nifty freeware program called GeoSetter. GeoSetter can also
edit your EXIF/IPTC metadata but it's main purpose is to add
geographical lat and logs to your image so that they can be displayed in
applications like Google Maps and Flickr Maps. GeoSetter can add
geolocation by importing tracks from GPS receivers, or you may
manually note a location by clicking on an interactive Google map.

The GeoSetter interface importing the

images' location from my GPS receiver

Using the interactive mode by clicking on the map is intuitive and

easy . . . assuming you remember where you took the photograph.
Attaching your GPS receiver and importing a GPS track takes a little bit
of planning . . . and adjustment, but is more accurate, faster on a large
group of images, and also adds a bearing that applications that support

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this datum can use to indicate what direction the camera was pointed.

The planning part means you have to insure your GPS receiver and the
digital camera have synchronized times. They rarely do so I take a
reference picture with a GPS waypoint and later use the GeoSetter
dialog boxes to set an offset to be applied. This keeps all the images
synchronized with the times on the GPS track.

The location coords are added as metadata to the image

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Upload your Images to your Online Photo Account

The Flickr Uploadr

When you start Flickr Uploadr to upload your images to Flickr, the
program will scan the EXIF and IPTC metadata of your images and
automatically insert appropriate tags for your images. Any additional
tags you insert here will appear on Flickr but will not become part of the
metadata of the original images. Also on this page you can select a set
(or create a new one), permissions (who can see them), safety level (at
least moderate if there is any nudity), and a title and description for the
images. You can work in batch, selecting more than one image, or enter
the information for each image one by one.

Once uploaded you can rearrange and perform minor adjustments to

make you images more accessible. Tags, titles and descriptions will be
automatically generated for you based on the EXIT/ITPC metadata
saved with each file. Any photos that have been geo-coded will get added
to your Flickr Map (if you've enabled this feature) and viewable
depending on the Safety and Permissions for this image.

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 The same image now plotted accurately on my Flickr Map

My Nude Hiking Flickr Photostream may be accessed at:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/bangedupshins. Unless you have a Flickr
account and are logged on, you can only view images marked as 'Safe'.

A Flickr mashup called FlickrRiver is an alternative viewing method that

will likewise display images marked 'safe'. You still have to log into a
Flickr account to view images containing nudity and marked as
'moderate'.

Anyone who has a Yahoo account can signup for a Flickr account in
moments here.

Don't want to sign up for Yahoo or Flickr? View the images (nude or
not) with this Guest Pass.

Enjoy the photos . . . please feel free to comment on them

(constructively and with good intentions). Comments let me know that
people enjoy riding along with the adventure and perhaps come to know
that nude is not lewd.

Now get to work and start sharing your own memories of nudism with
others.

Tags: "photo sharing", Nudism, Naturism

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