How to resize your photos BEFORE posting

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7george
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Re: How to resize your photos BEFORE posting

Post by 7george »

Another way to save decent photos for upload to the forum is to regulate also "quality factor" of the image if your software provides such option. Like if you lower this number from 98 to 93% for .jpg files (usually at the scale 0 - 100) this may bring the file size under desired 500kb to fit forum limits. The bad thing is that forum software resizes your image one more time after that to save cloud space. Free things work this way most times.
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WayneByerly
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Re: How to resize your photos BEFORE posting

Post by WayneByerly »

7george wrote: Sun Mar 18, 2018 4:09 pm ... for .jpg files (usually at the scale 0 - 100) this may bring the file size under...
Yes, thats an exclusive property of .JPG /.JPEG files. You can substantially reduce the size of a file by lowering it's quality from the default 90% to a lower number without having to change the dimensions of the picture. But lowering the quality percentage down below about 70% will result in serious degradation of the visual qualities of the picture... result in severely pixelated pictures ... while still retaining their original dimensions. Reducing it from 90% to 70% can result in very substantial savings in file size. But you are right, some software does not even address this issue. MSPAINT, the free software that I originally wrote about, is one of those. I think that's a serious oversight by Microsoft, but who am I to remark on that?
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jp29
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Re: How to resize your photos BEFORE posting

Post by jp29 »

For those using an iPad (like me) cropping and resizing pics is very easy - no external App needed - the procedure is well explained here:

https://www.lifewire.com/edit-photos-on-ipad-4103734
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DaveW
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Re: How to resize your photos BEFORE posting

Post by DaveW »

Modern multi-megapixel digital cameras are wonderful, but the average computer screen technology has not kept up with them, therefore images straight out of the camera are vastly overkill for the web. It is said that the resolution of the average computer screen is still only that of a 4-5 megapixel camera, so any resolution above that cannot be seen no matter if you use an 8 megapixel camera or a top of the range 36 megapixel camera, you will simply have file sizes that are far bigger than needed. Sometimes the uploader will downsize them, but for very big files they will usually simply reject them unless you resize them. Oversized images also mean they will not fit on many screens and people will need to scroll them to see all the image.

If you think 4-5 megapixels resolution is not much, bear in mind that many digital projectors still in use in cactus clubs projecting on a screen have a resolution of not much more than a 1 megapixel camera, 1/36th of the resolution of the top of the range professional cameras. The old saying "a chain is only as strong as it's weakest link" applies in this situation since no matter how many megapixels your "wonderful all singing all dancing" camera has you will only get the resolution of the screen you are looking at, all those extra megapixels are lost. Therefore everybody's camera or smartphone these days is more than good enough for Web use. Only if you make large sized prints, sometimes as big as a house door for top of the range cameras, can you really use all those extra megapixels.

Also few realise you will only get those theoretical resolutions camera makers claim is if the lens is up to it and the camera is on a very firm tripod since they are never obtainable hand holding a camera. However as said that will not matter for the web provided the camera shake is not excessive.

This was taken on a 10 Megapixel camera, low megapixeled by todays standards and is 800 x 669 pixels in size with a 97KB file size and is a crop from another image, but you are still only seeing it at around 4-5 megapixels resolution on your screen.
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7george
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Re: How to resize your photos BEFORE posting

Post by 7george »

The photo must be below 500 kb but pixels can be more than 1024.
Graftse.jpg
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The original size of this one was 1621 x 1101 and 160 kb. Try to reduce quality of the image.
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brixtertabun
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Re: How to resize your photos BEFORE posting

Post by brixtertabun »

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WayneByerly
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Re: How to resize your photos BEFORE posting

Post by WayneByerly »

brixtertabun wrote: Wed Jul 04, 2018 2:47 am Can you edit the first post and add more information? Apparently the limits are:
Max dimensions:1024x768 pixels
Actually, the 1024x768 was an example... You could go MUCH lower if you choose... LIKE 640x480 or 320X240...

Remember that if you leave the "Maintain Aspect Ratio" checkbox checked, the second dimension will follow the first dimension proportionately.

Keep in mind that I made that post for people that had no other option for resizing pictures than the Windows operating system. There are many programs out on the market that are either freeware or shareware or have a low cost for modifying the size of pictures.

What kind of Hardware are you using to modify the size of your pictures? A computer? Or a tablet? Or something else? And what additional information would you like to see me put in it. I'm not quite sure that I understand what it is that you would like for me to do when you say "more information".

And i believe that file size maximums have recently been lowered to 800 x 600. I tried to upload a picture that was too big the other day and it came back and told me that the maximum file size was 800 x 600, but if I go back and try and upload a picture that is too big now the only response I get is "picture too big" .
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brixtertabun
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Re: How to resize your photos BEFORE posting

Post by brixtertabun »

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aabell
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Re: How to resize your photos BEFORE posting

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Maryellen-J-Brandon
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Re: How to resize your photos BEFORE posting

Post by Maryellen-J-Brandon »

To resize your photos you can use photoviewerpro. It is simple to use and you can resize your all photo once. I am using this software for this task.
CephaloSquad
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Re: How to resize your photos BEFORE posting

Post by CephaloSquad »

Hi!

I've been trying to put up photos into my posts by resizing to the size suggested in this post. However, when I resize it to that size, or even smaller, the site tells me my photos are still too large to upload. I'm not sure why this message is popping up. The program I use to resize is just the stock photo viewer that comes with the computer. It's called Photos, on Windows OS. I imagine which program I use shouldn't be a cause of this but then again, I don't know too much about computers. Do I have to use the programs listed here specifically? If not, any idea what I'm doing wrong?


Currently I host my images on an image site, and paste the link into my posts but I'd rather put the photo up directly. Thanks everyone!
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ElieEstephane
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Re: How to resize your photos BEFORE posting

Post by ElieEstephane »

You have to reduce the quality of the photo so that the resulting photo is smaller than 500kb.
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WayneByerly
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Re: How to resize your photos BEFORE posting

Post by WayneByerly »

Hi Elie ... I hope you don't mind if I butt in and put in my 2 cents worth here ...

Somebody let me know if I make any egregious errors here ...

Cephalosquad...
First, is the picture a JPEG file? Because Elie's post AND my post here are for JPEG files and will not work for any other file type as far as I know.

Programs that that can edit JPEG files usually have a slider somewhere on the Edit screen (with a range of 1 to 10 or 10 to 100, depending on which program you use), to edit the Property of the picture called "Quality". What Quality is, is a measure of the amount that the file is "compressed" by the software that produces the picture before it gets saved. "9" is a little compression (and is the default), 8 is a little bit more, 7 is quite a bit more, and 6 makes the picture almost useless. The smaller the number, the greater the compression. And the numbers 8 and 7 are fairly large amounts of compression. And a Quality setting as low as 6 generally results in WAY too much pixelization when the picture is uncompressed for viewing.

Try small amounts of change to Quality, save the file, and then look at the file size. if its STILL too big, run the Quality setting down a little bit further, and repeat until the file will upload.

If your picture is NOT a JPEG, then as far as I know, the ONLY choice you have left is to reduce it's file size one more step. OR convert the file to a JPEG and follow the instructions here.

If this doesn't make sense, feel free to write again, requesting clarification.

There are only 2 "pages" to this post, and the subject is fairly well covered. It's not rocket science...
Make the moral choice & always do what's right. Be a good example. Be part of the solution & make a contribution to society, or be part of the problem & end your life with nothing but regrets. Live a life you can be proud of! Zone 7a
CephaloSquad
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Re: How to resize your photos BEFORE posting

Post by CephaloSquad »

Thanks both of you!
You have to reduce the quality of the photo so that the resulting photo is smaller than 500kb.
I have not checked the total file size, but I assumed reducing it to the height and width dimensions do that. I'll play around with it reducing the file size.
First, is the picture a JPEG file? Because Elie's post AND my post here are for JPEG files and will not work for any other file type as far as I know.

Programs that that can edit JPEG files usually have a slider somewhere on the Edit screen (with a range of 1 to 10 or 10 to 100, depending on which program you use), to edit the Property of the picture called "Quality".
Yes it is a JPEG. As to quality, just in case I did also drop the images to the lowest quality (it was listed as thumbnail quality), and even then this site still told be the photo was too big. In terms of quality and JPEG compression, I did keep those in mind before posting. I am a photographer (only by hobby, and have much to learn), and a lot of those concepts cross over into the editing aspect of photography.
CephaloSquad
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Re: How to resize your photos BEFORE posting

Post by CephaloSquad »

Ah I see where I went wrong! I reduced the quality on one of the bigger versions of the photo, instead of the resized version. Thanks again!
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