At the risk of sounding like that crazy Dr. Ruth, bigger doesn't mean better! The reason Photobucket does not offer this option is because it is generally not a good idea to increase photo size for many reasons. Mainly because if your image is too small to begin with it is because it has low resolution. Increasing the image size will make it appear more pixelated. Reducing image size does not affect its quality but increasing image size CAN (and usually does) affect quality depending on the available resolution.

Most digital cameras and camcorders have optical and digital zooms. What you are trying to accomplish is a digital zoom. Optical zooms are GREAT... digital zooms on the other hand have limited use for most standard applications unless, for example, one's trying to identify the thug in a 7-11 surveillance video.

To drive this point home, here's an example...

{{gwi:172599}}

...and here's {{gwi:172604}}.

He's right, Anna. But maybe you can explain more why you'd want to display a larger image. Is it that you want to display the original size (for more detail), and PB resized it when you uploaded it? I know that the free sites out there limit things you can do with images, so if you were willing to pay for image hosting, you'd probably get more freedom...and options. :)

On a side note....GREAT fountain, Fi guy! Would love to know more about it when you get the chance.

Brenda

Yes, I'd like to display the original size, no larger, but PB resizes them smaller and then one can't go any larger, just smaller. You think if I pay for image hosting that would solve the problem?

Semper fi, I understand what you are saying about sharper photos, but the originals are actually pretty good, and I don't want to zoom in, just get the original size.

There are some great image hosting sites out there, Anna. If you're going to pay, though, I would shop around and not go with PB. Nothing against them, but there are sites designed specifically for paying customers who want quality images hosted.

Maybe there are folks on here who can recommend some.

Brenda

"...but the originals are actually pretty good, and I don't want to zoom in, just get the original size."

Ahhhh... I see sez the blind man! So, as Youreit suspected, apparently Photobucket is automatically downsizing the images because your photos are exceeding their 250KB maximum file size limit. So yes, becoming a sponsor will solve your dilemma unless you have some unusually sized MONSTER photos (by that I don't mean pictures of Big Foot... just images that exceed 1MB. LOL!). However, I do not recommend doing so because posting really large images to a forum can be a real hassle to view for members with slower internet connections, sometimes taking several minutes to download.

A better fix for your problem is to manually reduce the resolution and the actual size of your image so it can be easily viewed on your computer screen without the need to scroll horizontally or vertically. This is a very common mistake most of us make when posting pictures. You can use a variety of graphics programs to achieve this simple task. I use Corel Photo-Paint but there are MANY, many others. Alternately, if you don't have access to software that can manipulate your images, you can change the resolution setting in most newer digital cameras.

Given the choice between these 2 methods, I personally prefer taking photos at the highest resolution and using software to reduce the photo if/when necessary. Also, sometimes I save one version of an image for printing at high resolution and then save a slightly smaller version of it for posting.

Brandy, the fountain is a topic for another day in another thread as I don't want to hijack this thread. Come to think of it, several weeks ago someone in the Discussions Forum wanted to know about pondless water features and I had promised to post a step-by-step photo journal for him/her. But then I think I got busy with work and the World Cup...and of course, after {{gwi:171480}} everything became kinda fuzzy. 8-)