FAQ: How do I resize my pictures to show on the forum?

[RobertP]

This is intended as a guide for those not already confident with picture editing and wanting to make their pictures suitable for sharing on the forum. The forum has a size limit of 800 pixels for width or height of a picture. This guide is mainly about resizing for uploading to the Talk Photography gallery space you were given when you signed up. The gallery has a file size limit of 200kb as well as the picture dimension limit. If you are going to host your pictures somewhere else on the internet then the file size limit does not apply - the 800 pixel size limit is all you have to worry about.

So now on to making your pictures gallery friendly. The editing of the picture is all basic stuff and any editor program should be able to do it. I have downloaded and installed a free viewer/editing program called Irfanview (http://www.irfanview.com/) <-link and will be using it for these basic editing steps. You can download it and use it too if you find your own program confusing.

Open Irfanview and then file menu > open...and browse to your picture.

Here is my picture. If you look in the bottom corner you can see it is much bigger than the 800 pixels size I want.
http://www.talkphotography.co.uk/images/tutorials/using_talk_photography/robertp_resize_to_800/resize_to_800_01.jpg
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Now we need to change the size. Select image then resize on the menu.
http://www.talkphotography.co.uk/images/tutorials/using_talk_photography/robertp_resize_to_800/resize_to_800_02.jpg
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In the size box you need to type the new size for longest side in the original.
This picture was 3519 pixel x 2345 so I have replaced 3519 with 800. The other measurement will change automatically in proportion (because the preserve aspect ratio box is ticked).
http://www.talkphotography.co.uk/images/tutorials/using_talk_photography/robertp_resize_to_800/resize_to_800_03.jpg
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Resizing a picture smaller usually makes it softer looking so you may wish to use a 'sharpen' filter on it. In irfanview it is image> sharpen on the menu. Other program have a slider to set the amount of sharpening or other settings. You need to judge how much you need. getting it right comes with practice.
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Now you need to save your new smaller picture. Choose 'save as' from the file menu.
http://www.talkphotography.co.uk/images/tutorials/using_talk_photography/robertp_resize_to_800/resize_to_800_04.jpg
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On the drop down list box at the bottom choose jpg as the file type. As long as the box is ticked the jpg options window should become visible. You can change the slider at the top to set the file size (by changing the amount of file compression ie picture quality). Unfortunately with Irfanview and many other basic programs you have to guess where to put the slider for the file size (in kilobytes kb) you need. I guessed at 90 for good quality and hopefully less than 200kb that I must not exceed for the gallery. Photoshop has a 'save for web' function that shows you the file size before you save it and it changes as you adjust the quality slider.
http://www.talkphotography.co.uk/images/tutorials/using_talk_photography/robertp_resize_to_800/resize_to_800_05.jpg
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When I use windows explorer to find the new file and check the file size it is 94kb so I could have set the slider higher. Viewing the picture it looks fine so I'm happy to leave it at 94kb. If it looked jagged and poor quality then it is quite quick to repeat the above process with the original file and this time choose a higher setting on the quality slider - and get a file closer to the 200kb limit.
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You now have your resized picture ready to upload to the internet - either to your gallery space or elsewhere.

[david1701]

i will throw in that the flock browser will do this when using its bulk uploader to upload to facebook / photbucket / flickr / myspace / some other sites I don't have accounts on

[LovesRaptors]

used IrfanView to resize photograph to up load to gallery 800x570 but I am being told file size still too large, where am I going wrong?

[Just Dave]

Check your save quality it might be still to many kb needs to be under 200kb

[LovesRaptors]

Dave, save quality is at 89-90 max ty. most photographs in my re-sized images folder are the same and I am being told images are too large.

[Just Dave]

save it below 89% then click on the save quality slider and choose a different quality I dont use that infran but if you look at Roberts last image you can see it slides lower (towards the left)

[fletch5]

or use your yahoo account id to sign into flickr and host there. the 200kb max doesnt count if hosted on other sites i dont think:shrug:

[VivaVida]

Imageshack is pretty good too! :D

[alexam]

I haven't resized for uploading to TP before, but as example, one of my portrait shots is 475 x 713 and 992.2Kb in size. If I reduce the size to 330 x 495, the size of 194Kb reduces the image quality, which I wish to avoid.

I am using Elements 8 to resize, so what am I doing wrong please.

Malcolm

[Big Andy]

In pse8 chose image and select mode.
Then select 8bit mode. (This allows you to save in jpeg)
Then select Image-Resize-Image size...
In the box that appears set your longest side to 800
Go to file-save as- and select jpeg as your file type.
You will then get an option as to quality to save in (usualy about 10 or 11 does it for me)

NB If you do it this way the exif infor is left in the file. If you chose save for web the exif info is stripped from the file before saving.

Sounds as clear as mud on rereading so any Qs ask away and I'll try again. :bonk:

Don't forget it's only the file your editing thats changing size/quality the original will be unchanged with no loss.

[alexam]

Hi Big Andy
Thanks for the help...................... got it now but slightly different from your wording, which may be Windows 7 Ultimate ???

Used .... image ... showing 5184 wide x 3456 height ............... changed that to 800 wide x 533 high

File .... save as .... changed the name & hit OK, then the box with highlighted 12, which I reduced to 10, giving 136Kb. Repeated using 11 and that gave 193 KB, so now I know and appreciate your help.

All sorted and have uploaded my first 5 photos into my Album. Hope they are in the right place as I am unsure about Albums and Galleries?

Thanks a lot

[jd.smith]

Help I am using PS Elements 7 do I need to re-sample or resize my images I looked at re-size but I dont get a pixel option only percentage, cm,mm, inches, points, picas, or columns and now I confused myself.

Thanks in hope

JD


Please ignore ticked the resample box in re-size and thinks became clear. Dohhhhhhhhhh