Photo resizing for dummies

Treebeard

I thought I'd post a little how-to on the subject of photo resizing.

I'll show you how to use irfanview, it is easy to use and FREE.

Go to www.irfanview.com and download a copy. Install as usual.

Open the program, then open your image (shouldn't need screen grabs for this bit).

Choose 'resize/resample' option from the 'options' dropdown (see pic 1)

Click the 640 x 480 button then click OK (see pic 2). Your picture will now be the correct height and width for posting.

Click 'save as...' from the 'file' dropdown (see pic 3)

Next you need to set the filetype to JPG (see pic 4).

When you've set the filetype to JPG a little window will open next to the main save dialog box (see pic 5). All you need to change here is the slider position. 70% worked for my test image. Click save.

If you then click 'save as...' again, you should see the file you just saved, along with the size. If the size is over 70kb the slider down a bit and resave, overwriting the previous resized image save.

I would recommend that you do not overwrite your original image. Its fineProbably best to set up a new folder to save resized images in, leaving the originals well alone.

hope this is clear. If anyone has anything more to add then feel free.

Regards,

Chris.

Attached Images

	resize1.jpg (62.6 KB, 178 views)
	resize2.jpg (62.5 KB, 120 views)
	resize3.jpg (62.0 KB, 91 views)
	resize4.jpg (63.4 KB, 91 views)
	resize5.jpg (60.8 KB, 102 views)

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John Dixon

Chris,

Thanks for the info. As one of the "dummies" I really need help in this area. Unfortunately, I am not allowed to download any programs on my work computer (I try to follow the rules), but I will install it at home. Since I view this site mostly at work, I'll have to stick with good ole' Photo Editor there. I have to admit, I'm starting to get better with it though.

Take care,

John

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Adam_MA

Chris,
Great tutorial!
Thanks
Adam

Ian_Homer

Chris/Matt/Anyone !

Is it possible to add a title box to the pictures - or is that
something for the future ? With the old system you generally put the description in the "Title" and had a single large photo to match.

I can see no easy way of doing that with multiple pictures per post and the thumbnail format.

I know this saves on valuable space, but it would be nice to identify individual photo's somehow without having to add text to the photos, which
is then unreadable once reduced down to forum size.

Any thoughts ?

All the best,
Ian

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FredL

Chris, thank, thankyou, thankyou. This afternoon I will go to work on my Kodak pictures and see if I can get a couple off to Bonsaitalk.

Can this tutorial go to "Frequently Asked Questions or somewhere permanent? I am sure this is one of the most useful pieces I've seen on Bonsaitalk.

Fred

heymikey(deceased)

One of the quirks of Irfanview that I have experienced is that when you take jpeg file (say 50 kb), open it with Irfanview and make a minor change and save, it will show as a much larger file (about 150 kb; too big to post). If you then reopen it in MS Paint, do nothing to it and resave it, it will return to about 50 kb. Also, the same image file will often appear lighter or more washed out in Irfanview than in MS Paint. I create all my virtuals in Paint then adjust for minor rotation, color characteristics, brightness/contrast in Irfanview. If the file is too large I compress it using Xatacom. All these programs were freeware (Paint came with XP) which goes to show you how cheap I am (and you can be also). You may be able to do more or things with Photoshop, but it's not required.

TreeBay

There is no caption feature, and there actually never was. There was just the limitation of being able to post only one photo, so there was never any real confusion. Now that you can upload several, we might be able to number them - Photo 1, Photo 2 etc. Adding text to the photo probably won't help because it will be illegible in the thumbnail, and very hard to read in the expanded view.

You might use a meaningful filename, though. That shows up if you hover.

Regards,

Matt

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TreeBay

That is a question of compression. Most programs will do just as Irfanview and save the file with zero compression. You need to make a selection of what jpeg quality (compression) to save the file at. Usually trees can take 20, 30% compression without any appreciable loss in quality. That makes the image maybe 1/4 to 1/10 as big as the uncompressed file.

Many people don't understand compression, so they save JPEGs with zero compression and wind up with huge files. In reality you only need that quality level if you are going to print high-resolution photos on paper.

Regards,

Matt

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heymikey(deceased)

heyMatt; It does not seem intuitive or logical that a program would save a 50 kb image to a file that is then three times as large (there is no improvement in quality and the image appears identical to the original), however I believe it may be happening and I trust you computer knowledge if you say so. Additionally, with MS Paint one can add text (many fonts, sizes, colors, bold, italicized, etc.) to any area within the image. Regards, heyMikey!!