The Fresh Loaf

A Community of Amateur Bakers and Artisan Bread Enthusiasts.

Successful Sourdough! Need help with pics!

Mary Clare's picture
Mary Clare

Successful Sourdough! Need help with pics!

Many thanks to all who have contributed such educational posts and inspiring pics! I have baked bread for over 20 years, but this website inspired me to try sourdough.  I began the starter from Maggie Glezer's "Artisan Baking" two weeks ago today, and it has exceeded my expectations.  I have to say, by the second day the starter smelled so awful I nearly threw it out!  Within a couple of days after that, it smelled fresh and lovely : ) I have now made three batches of sourdough - a Sourdough Rye from "The Bread Bible,"  Walnut Levain from "Artisan Baking," and Maggie Glezer's Sourdough Challah from "A Blessing Of Bread."  My family generally loves this stuff (except the one who loves soft sandwich loaves...)  

Once I get used to sourdough by the book, I'll look into more whole grain sourdough... I just thought I'd see how the 'white' version goes before tackling the more challenging world of whole grains : )

Once I went to keeping a smaller amount of starter, I didn't get the wild quadrupling/quintupling I had when I was feeding it with the amounts used to nurture the starter. (It was quadrupling in just four hours!).  Now it rises to about 3 1/2 times as much, not quite four times.... but it has raised the dough very acceptably!

I would show photos but I'm having a bit of trouble.  They will not upload, it says my files are too big.  I clicked on "create thumbnail" but I guess that didn't fix it.  Could someone tell me how to correct this?  I have a Mac.

 

mrfrost's picture
mrfrost

 Posting photos FAQ:

 http://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/2960/posting-photos-faq

 These steps from poster Debra Wink have also been said to be very helpful:"

1.Click on the tree symbol (next to HTML at the top of the comment box) and the Insert/edit image box will appear.
2.Click on the little symbol to the right of the Image URL field and the File Browser box will pop up.
3.Click on Upload at the top of this box, and a File field will appear.
4.Click on Browse to the right of the file field and the Chose File to Upload window will open.
5.Find and highlight the image file you wish to upload and click Open. This will take you back to the File Browser box.
6.Click the Upload button (right next to the Browse button).
7.Now the file should be listed in the file browser box. Click on it to highlight it, and then click Send to Editor at the top of this box. This will take you back to the Insert/edit image box.
8.Click Insert, and your image will appear in your edit window where your cursor was last positioned (but you'll have to use the preview feature to see how it will look in your posted message).
There is also a Help button in the top left corner of the File Browser box with tips and alternate ways to do things that you might find helpful."

 

mrfrost's picture
mrfrost

Resize pictures to a suitable size. You may already have an apllication on your computer to do this. You may already have an ap on your computer to do this. If not, there are free downloads(Power toys for pc, etc.).

Yumarama's picture
Yumarama

Your camera probably has a photo editing package it came with as well. But you definitely will have iPhoto unless your Mac is decades old. You can also use Preview to resize the photos. You have choices.

You will want to reduce the size that comes off your camera as it may be set for printing photos which uses large, detailed picture quality. For the web, the size needs to be reduced considerably, I'd say you'd be OK with photos in the 600 to 800 pixels wide range for this forum. 

Ho Dough's picture
Ho Dough

is to upload photos, as is, to a free photo hosting site like photobucket. There are several of these. You create a free account, then upload your photos to your account. Each photo has it's own unique url.  From there, you then do a copy and paste of the url link to the image as you edit your post. It then loads straight into your post:

 

Mary Clare's picture
Mary Clare

Here goes:

If this worked, this is the Sourdough Challah.  It looks a bit different...Our AC is broken and my husband didn't want the oven to heat up the house, so I took the partially risen braid and put it in a cast-iron skillet (and plopped the smaller braid on top) so it could be baked in the gas grill. Alas, the gas grill is also broken.... so, into the hot oven (inside our hot house!) it went!  Tasted great.

Now for Sourdough Rye... probably didn't let this proof quite long enough, but was  anxious not to overdo it. 

LindyD's picture
LindyD

But you need to reduce them a bit so we can more easily see them.  Photobucket does have that option.

Glad you got it figured out!

Ho Dough's picture
Ho Dough

The bread looks OK too. The rye loaf could have been one of mine.

 

On the photo size, you might also try adjusting the camera to a lower setting. For viewing as email attachments or on the web, the lowest settings some cameras have are still plenty good enough. The detail surpasses the pixel count of most viewers screens anyway. So what sometimes happens is the detail is not improved, the photo is simply enlarged or blown up.

Digital cameras are sold on the basis of mega pixel counts.......and 99% of us never need the capacity these cameras offer. Not only do the smaller pictures view just as well, but they don't hog up the storage space on your hard drive........and load much faster.

Mary Clare's picture
Mary Clare

Changing the pixel size on the camera made it easy to directly upload photos from iPhoto on the Mac.

Thanks a bunch!

Mary Clare