need technical help with submitting photos

[mysticmountainsmama]

Hi! I'd like to have an avatar and submit to the gallery. I get all the way to where I am told my pics are too big...I haven't got a clue how to make them small enough Thanks

[pburch]

Hi! I'd like to have an avatar and submit to the gallery. I get all the way to where I am told my pics are too big...I haven't got a clue how to make them small enough Thanks

I like to open photos in Adobe Photoshop Elements (way cheaper than the full-size Adobe Photoshop program) and select the "Save for Web" option. It shrinks the file sizes down tremendously and makes them load on a web page in a small fraction of the time required for the original photo.

Paula

[steve]

Digital photos from the camera are generally way more than necessary for publishing on the Internet. If I allowed those large files to be uploaded, my server space with fill very quickly. Not only that, pages would take forever to load.

You should have gotten some kind of photo editing software with the camera, and there may also be something that came with your computer. If not, there is likely some free image editing software out there that is adequate. I will be exploring Image Magick on one of the windows machines at school (I run macs).

Photoshop Elements is a great program well worth the money if you are getting into digital manipulation. Paintshop Pro on windows is also highly regarded.

What I like about Photoshop (I think Elements has it too--I have a full version), is that you can record what you are doing, then have it automatically do the same to a whole folder of photos. After I take 100+ pictures of an event at school, I can have them all resized in a couple minutes, then use an ftp program to upload the whole batch at once--from the camera to the Internet in 15-20 minutes!

Once you get to your image editor, you need to resize the picture's maximum pixels. I think the image gallery here is set to a max of 600 pixels for length or width, then you want to "save for web" to increase the jpeg compression which can take a 1 MB file and reduce it to say .05MB with very little noticeable loss of quality.

The avatars are to be sized no larger than 80 x 80 pixels and should be about 6-7 kb. I can adjust this up somewhat, but not much!

Let me know what os you are running. Also, check out that CD that came with your digital camera and wee what kind of image editor they provided.

Steve

[mysticmountainsmama]

OK Wow this computer stuff just boggles my mind! so I have a newly aquiered Kodak Easyshare C340. The word easy on it was a big selling point!

It has software and I seem to have some adobe photoshop too but I don't see anything about shrinking photo sizes, I'll look again Thanks Susanne

[tiedyejudy]

Hi, Susanne.  I have a Canon digital camera which came with software to upload, then editing software.  In the 'enhance' section, there is a 'resizing' option which I use to shrink my pix.  I usually shrink the largest side (width or height) to 180 pixels, which automatically resizes the other side to maintain the ratio of the original picture.  Sounds complicated, but it isnt.  Also, once I have resized, I sometimes have to go in and use a sharpening tool to refocus.  I do this after I resize because I don't always need to.  Definitely get in and play around with the software, because it's really important if you want to display your work online.  I have a website with a shopping cart, so the first thing I do after I have dried a load of garments is take pictures, upload and store so I can add them to the website.  After awhile, you don't even think about what you're doing!
Have fun,

Judy