downloading photos

[+jeb and co]

My digital camera produces jpeg images of around 750k. The maximum image size that can be downloaded to caches is 100k. I have found various fiddly ways of reducing the size and downloading images but none of methods are strightforward and as I don't often add photos to my postings I have to reinvent a procedure each time.

What methods do others use, and what is the best format/size of photo to download ?

[+The Good Shepherds]

Try this

[+Lance Ambu]

To change the file size you can change

the file type

the colour depth

or the image size.

 

Any decent graphics package will give you these options, I use Paint shop pro.

 

The simplest method for any given file type is to reduce the image size. (remember the old inverse square rule?) Reducing the image dimension by half will generally reduce file size by to a quarter of the original. Use pixels as the measure so that you can judge the size of the final image in relation to the screen size of a computer.

 

NB Megapixel images when viewed at 1:1 require screen scrolling. So if you don't intend to print or enlarge your original image then reduce the pixels/quality when taking the picture.

 

File sizes are discussed here in relation to scanning but apply equally for digital imaging of whatever source.

 

Hope that helps

 

Lance

It's dark and we're wearing sunglasses.

[+Wood Smoke]

The easiest way is to use Paintshop Pro.

 

It has a very easy image resize :-)

 

WoodSmoke

[+The Targett Family]

Jeb & Co I use fireworks for my images it realy is the easiest out of them all

 

I've tried the editor the good sheapherd has just recomended, it's easy to use but you do need some understanding of what you are doing. Whilst it does show you the compressed image it does not show you the size. which is all important. Photo shop is good, I use it for resizing photes but I still use fireworks to compress the image.

 

Kids Caches and Mayhem what a day in the celtic tribal city.

 

[This message was edited by The Targett Family on April 05, 2003 at 11:30 AM.]

[+cone_dxf & family]

I use Paint shop pro, as I like the browse facility and resizing images couldn't be easier. I usually resize to 640x480 which for most images puts them under 100K, occasionally they need to be tweaked a little smaller, but in PSP you can lock the aspect ratio, so just reduce the 640 to 630 for instance and the software will calculate the other dimension for you.

 

Best Wishes

 

Mark

[+Stuey]

quote:

---

Originally posted by jeb and co:

My digital camera produces jpeg images of around 750k. The maximum image size that can be downloaded to caches is 100k

---

 

Surely you can change the settings on the camera to a smaller image size and lower quality? As long as you take the photos on the low setting especially for uploading, then you can just upload it directly. If you already have good quality images that you want to reduce in file size though, then any of the methods mentioned are fine.

 

--

Cheers,

Stuey

[+The Targett Family]

This is true about changing the image quality on the camera.

But if you do this then you wnot have any control or latitude for editing your image taken with the camera, the larger the camera the more editing you can do

 

Kids Caches and Mayhem what a day in the celtic tribal city.

[+SimonG]

There's a step-by-step guide in Markwell's Additions to the FAQ.

 

SimonG.org - now with added blog!

[+jeb and co]

Thanks for all your suggestions and methods of shrinking photos. As mentioned in one post I could take the photos at a lower resolution but this has two disadvantages to me, poor print quality should I want a hard copy and also as pointed out by The Target Family less control over edditing (plus the fact that I would forget to reset to high quality when needed).

Thanks to SimonG for the Markwell. I did a search on the UK posts on this subject, I guess I didn't go wide enough.

Markwell suggests using Paint - which I didn't even know I had on my computer and as you all know this will let you edit, resize and do all sorts of other things to images.

A quick trial run shows that I need to shrink the photos to about 30% in both directions to get well under the 100k limit.

[+John Stead]

This has been a most useful topic as although I normally use IrFan as suggested by Markwell the Photoresizer suggested by the Good Shepherds has the advantage of showing you what the resulting size is going to be before execution. But can anyone tell me why when reduced photos appear as thumbnails on the cache pages they are often pixellated (i.e. blocky) unless you use the option to view original.

[+Lance Ambu]

This is due to the initial rendering by the server, just refresh the page to see the piccy as it should be.

 

Lance

It's dark and we're wearing sunglasses.

[MCL]

quote:

---

Originally posted by Stuey:

Surely you can change the settings on the camera to a smaller image size and lower quality? As long as you take the photos on the low setting especially for uploading, then you can just upload it directly. If you already have good quality images that you want to reduce in file size though, then any of the methods mentioned are fine.

---

 

Yes but bear in mind that although one might want small grotty images for uploading, one probably wants a lovely fine resolution image for one's own use. Set the camera on low-quality and you lose that ability to keep good copies yourself.

 

No trees were harmed during the production of this posting, but a large number of electrons were terribly inconvenienced....

[+Chris n Maria]

I use a 2mPixel camera set at high resoultion for my photos. To get them down to size I have created an Action in Photoshop which reduces the width of the picture to 400pixels then saves it as a JPG under the name CachePic.jpg at High Quality. This will reduce it to a size small enough to load up onto the site.

 

If you have taken the picture in Portrait format you will need a second action that reduces by a different dimension (havn;t worked this out yet as I usually do it manually).

 

Hope that helps.

Chris

 

Bear rescues a speciality!

London & UK Geocaching Resources: http://www.sheps.clara.net

[+Teasel]

quote:

---

Originally posted by Chris n Maria:

If you have taken the picture in Portrait format you will need a second action that reduces by a different dimension (havn;t worked this out yet as I usually do it manually).

---

If you're using photoshop, the <File><Automate><Fit Image...> menu option should cope with resizing both portrait and landscape photos. It's also useful to create a droplet, so you can drag and drop whole batches of photos onto it using windows explorer, then watch as Photoshop chugs through the lot, automatically saving them.

[+The Hornet]

If you have Windows XP you can download a free Powertoy from Microsoft. Once installed, just right click on an image file (or files) and select resize.

 

It's as easy as that.

 

_________________________________________________________

 

It is better to regret something you did, rather than to regret something you didn't do.

[+THE BRAMBLERS]

Posted by Teasel

quote:

---

If you're using photoshop, the <File><Automate><Fit Image...> menu option should cope with resizing both portrait and landscape photos.

---

_______________________________________________

 

I am using Photoshop and I have tried resizing but I still cannot get the picture onto the web page without it looking pixellated.

 

What should I resize to? etc etc.

 

Please can anyone help?

 

Debbie

[+cone_dxf & family]

quote:

---

Originally posted by THE BRAMBLERS:

I am using Photoshop and I have tried resizing but I still cannot get the picture onto the web page without it looking pixellated.

 

What should I resize to? etc etc.

 

Please can anyone help?

 

Debbie

---

Its to so with the way the image is served by the GC.Com servers I think, if you return to it subsequently you see it displayed correctly, and other people viewing it get the image OK to strat with. I'm sure there'll we a Webhead along soon to explain

 

Mark

[+THE BRAMBLERS]

Posted by conedxf & family

quote:

---

Its to so with the way the image is served by the GC.Com servers I think, if you return to it subsequently you see it displayed correctly, and other people viewing it get the image OK to strat with. I'm sure there'll we a Webhead along soon to explain

 

Mark

---

 

Thanks for that piece of info. I tried it again and logged out and back in again and it worked. Hurray!!

 

Thanks again.

 

Debbie

[+Lance Ambu]

See my reply above.

 

No need to logout, just refresh the page to see the piccy properly

 

Lance

It's dark and we're wearing sunglasses.