Edit Oct. 2, 2015: This information is out of date and is no longer applicable.
So you want to link to a full size image. But that image came from Tumblr or Twitpic. And you don’t want the extra UI around it. The problem is you end up with URLs that look like this:
If you click on the link, you’ll notice that the image has expired.
http://s3.amazonaws.com/twitpic/photos/full/421793754.jpg?AWSAccessKeyId=AKIAJF3XCCKACR3QDMOA&Expires=1318403683&Signature=azYJpu81dNMPFmf8unu2qt8pdiA%3D
The “expires” part of the url dictates when the image will expire. The number is the epoch time. Go to Epoch Converter to convert it to normal time. In this link, the picture expired on October 12, 2011 at 12:14:43 AM PDT.
Twitpic
Let’s say you want to link to the full size picture seen here: http://twitpic.com/6z4i56. The way to do that is to take the image id and append it to the end of http://twitpic.com/show/full/. The image id is a random looking string of letters and numbers and can be found at the end of the URL. For our example, the image id is 6z4i56. The direct link to the full picture would then be http://twitpic.com/show/full/6z4i56.
Tumblr
The process for an image linked on Tumblr is a little different, but just as easy. Let’s say you only wanted the image link as seen in this post. Again clicking directly on the image leads you to the Amazon URL which will eventually expire.
Rather than clicking on it, right-click the image and select the option that is phrased like “Copy Link Location” or “Copy Link Address” or “Copy Shortcut”, etc. The text may be different depending on your browser. Paste that link somewhere. You should end up with this: http://www.tumblr.com/photo/1280/11347664520/1/tumblr_lsxz2ahWnd1r4d6ex.
By grabbing the image links using the methods above, you won’t end up with URLs that expire really soon. This is helpful for anyone you’re sharing the image with that can’t check it out until the next day, for example. Hope that helps!