Camera Talk: Resizing Photos

Photos that you want to email someone, post on a photo sharing site or maybe even a blog, should be resized or shrunken. The smaller they are sized, the faster they will upload on your end and the easier it is for the recipient to download on the other end. Nobody wants to try and open an attachment with your 8 or 10 Megapixel photo and wait 10 minutes for it to download, unless they plan on making wall murals or billboards out of it. Folks in that line of business will ask you for the full-sized file if they really need it.

Having my own software for resizing, I wasn't familiar with what's available online for the average camera shooter. So, I did some research and experimented. It took awhile, but I finally found one FREE photo shrinking service that I highly recommend for the average traveling photographer.

Before you start, here's my recommendation to insure you don't loose your favorite photo (somewhere in your computer) in the process. First-Open a New Folder in your Documents and name it RESIZE. Then, right click on the photo you want resized and hit COPY. Go to your RESIZE FOLDER and PASTE it in there. I keep the RESIZE folder in Documents just to make it easier to find when I go to the photo shrink place.
If you've done all that and want to give it a try, STOP, open up another window, so you don't loose my detailed instructions. Then, have Camera Talk ready and Click on http://www.shrinkpictures.com; and you're ready to go, just read my words of wisdom for each step, carefully, as you proceed.

1. They say “Choose an image” Browse. Hit Browse and find your Resize Folder in Documents.
Click on the photo number you want to resize and the number should jump in a box where it’ll stay until you hit UPLOAD.

2. It’ll say: “Select New Maximum Image Dimension”
I would check the circle that says: “600 Pixels" only if I wanted a large picture for a magazine or something. "350 Pixels" is great for emails and flickr posting and "100 Pixels" would be for a postage stamp sized Bio picture, or, if you wanted to email a lot of thumbnail sized photos.

3. Apply an image special effect. Don’t do anything unless you want your photo to turn into a black and white! The Greyscale should already be checked for you; that’s what you want, not sepia.

4. Resized image quality (jpg compression), I’d select GOOD because Better or Best is just a temptation for thieves to steal and print your photos.

5. Then hit the RED BUTTON that says RESIZE. And quicker than you can spell Rumplestiltskin backwards, you’ll have a resized photo!

Now the tricky part:
When the picture is done cooking a screen pops-up with all kinds of stuff on it and neat things you can do with your new resized photo. Don’t pay any attention to them. Do what I do. Right CLICK on the photo. CLICK on SAVE AS. The photo will have some weird name and the picture shrinking dude will try and send it to your PHOTO FOLDERS. I don’t want to go looking through 1,000 ‘s of photos to find my shrunken photo and, I WANT TO NAME MY PHOTO, not let some photo-shrinker make up a new name for me. So, in the little box that popped-up, I double CLICK on DOCUMENTS, ’cause that’s where my RESIZE FOLDER is that the picture came from . I can see my original 10 MegaPixel photo there and I go to the box that has a BLUE photo-shrinker’s jibberish number in it and type my original photo number (IMGP 0330) and make the new photo IMGP 0330.1

Then, I hit the BLUE BUTTON that says “SAVE” and go check my DOCUMENTS, RESIZE FOLDER and make sure my new, resized photo is there before I close the photo shrinker's window.

This service was the fastest, most efficient one I found and will resize photos up to 8 Mega pixels. I wasn't sure of that claim they made, so, I tested it to make sure,  The photo I posted here was originally 8 Mega pixels and I made it only 600 pixels wide.  Just make sure any photos you may have that are too large are cropped to the dimensions given in my earlier post and stop on by the photo shrink to give it a try. Let me know how it turns out. Until next time, Happy Shooting !

A wildlife photographer living in Okinawa, Japan, Mike has been published in Apogee Photo Magazine, Boots N all, Brave New Traveler, Go Nomad, Matador Abroad and Trips, The Nihon Sun, Travel Thru History, The Okinawan , Wend Magazine and Photo Guide Japan. He has recently joined the ranks of travel writers, capturing Nature, Festivals, Castles and Cultural shots of the Ryukyu Islands to share with the world.