Uploading photos ...

[kwc]

Okay ... question for the forum experts!!

I'd like to post a couple pics to the forum but mine are all wayyyyyyy too big to be uploaded.

As I am not experienced at all about changing the size of my photos, I need advice on how to go about doing that.

The pictures were taken with my Kodak CX6200 digital camera (yeah, only 2megapixels, but it seems to do okay) ... and have been enhanced using my Kodak EasyShare software.

Thanks everyone!

[redhawk]

set your size for the max width that you can upload (if it's bigger) which is 1024 pixels. make sure your software is set to preserve aspect ratio. Also make sure you are set for 72 pixels per inch. Any mpore is a waste since screen resolution seldom exceeds that.

Then save it as a .jpg with usually 50% compression will satisfy size and quality needs for the forum.

Gary brought this up at the Xmas gathering and I think we will soon be posting a link to the best Free editing software available and then we can post how to use it.

I'm sure Gary will chime in shortly!!

[Wildernessphoto]

I am at your service...

Understanding uploading images is complicated. That's why we were going to write some FAQ for one specific, free, software so everybody could be on the same page with how to do it.
I would tell you that the free software we were looking at is Irfan view
we were talking about giving instructions for resizing using this software, and hopefully it will help.

How do I resize an image with Irfan View?

Just briefly, if you download Irfan view, open a picture in Irfan view, click on,
*image* in the tool bar, then *resize* then type in 350-375 for a pixel size for the largest number. put in *72* in the box that says *DPI* Then click OK and the image will resize.

Then in the new window (resized image) go to *file* then *save as* and rename the image by just adding a *1* at the end of the name. Save it as a jpeg file, in the *save as type* box below *File name*. Save it to the desktop which you do by clicking on the down arrow next to the *save in* window. and WA-LA! Your new resized image is on the desktop ready to upload to the forum!


How do I know if my file size is to big?

If your image is saved to the desktop, as instructed above, right click on the desktop icon of the image, and click on *properties* that will give you the file size and dimensions of the image. Your file size should be under 85kb for folks with dial-up to download the image. If it is too large, resize again, by reducing the size of the image, reducing the quality in the *JPEG/GIF save options*on the right, or the DPI as instructed above.


My computer takes forever to download pictures.

If your computer takes a long time to download pictures (dial-up), go to the top of the page on the forum, Click on *user CP* in the column on the left click on *Edit options*. Scroll down to *Thread Display Options*. You will see *Number of Posts To Show Per Page* Click on the down arrow and set for *5 posts per page*. That should speed things up due to loading less information on each page.

-Gary-

The Photography of Gary F. Dean

[kwc]

Thanks!!

I gave it a try with a picture from Murphy Lake ... it looks small when posted but it's size is 138kb.
I'll keep experimenting.
Thanks again!!

[Wildernessphoto]

I gave it a try with a picture from Murphy Lake ... it looks small when posted but it's size is 138kb.
I'll keep experimenting.
Thanks again!!

I just right clicked on your image of Murphy lake, and went to properties. It's saved as a bitmap image. Try saving it in a larger size in jpeg. the compression in jpeg will allow you more flexability, by allowing a bigger size, and smaller file.

Here it is saved as a jpeg, 350 pixels, 84.5kb.

see how you like that...
-Gary-

[Wldrns]

And now for something completely different...

Gary did a good job describing how to scale photos for the forum on a Win PC. How about our Macintosh friends?

It's really not so different. There are numerous applications out there, shareware and freeware if you can't afford something like Photoshop or Photoshop Elements. GraphicConverter is a feature packed inexpensive shareware application that is very handy, among others.

No matter what computer and software you use, you should first consider cropping the photo to get the size of the file down.

Every Mac sold in the past several years comes with iPhoto already installed. I'll describe the procedure using the older iPhoto version 2 which goes back a couple of years. It's even easier with later iPhoto versions.

From a digital photograph imported into iPhoto, click to select the photo.
- Make a duplicate photo before editing (click under the "file" menu).
- Then crop as needed using the iPhoto cropping tool found at the bottom of the window. To use, click the tool, draw a rectangle around your subject, click the tool again. Note that you can constrain proportions (aspect ratio) if you so choose.

Under the "file" menu select "export".
- Select the "File Export" button,
- Choose format jpg
- Click on "scale images no larger than:"
- Type in 320, the second number will automatically change to preserve the aspect ratio.
- Click the "filename" button and then hit "export".

To check the size of your saved photo, select the saved file and "get info" under the "file" menu (or just click apple-i). If it is too big, go back and change the 320 to something smaller.

Drag the photo to your forum post and that's it.

[Wildernessphoto]

Different software

Thanks Wldrns! that's good info. I'm clueless on Macs. Maybe we can get some folks to post info on there specific type of software they use and put the name of the software in the title so those who need instruction can browse the thread for there particular type of software.

[marzrw]

Hey Gary,

Hope you get this message. As tech savy as I try to be, could not figure out how to upload photos to this site and reduce file size until my brother, WB, told me about your tips. Sure enough it worked with the software you recommended. Windows XP kind of didn't like it,XP didn't recognize it as a safe site, but I took a chance that it was a safe software on your recommendation and it works fine. Thanks.

[Wildernessphoto]

Hey Gary,

Hope you get this message. As tech savy as I try to be, could not figure out how to upload photos to this site and reduce file size until my brother, WB, told me about your tips. Sure enough it worked with the software you recommended. Windows XP kind of didn't like it,XP didn't recognize it as a safe site, but I took a chance that it was a safe software on your recommendation and it works fine. Thanks.

I'm Glad it worked for you!
And nice avatar too!!