Need Help

Dave is right, virtually all computers come with some sort of photo editing software and almost all digital cameras include one as well. The latter need to be installed by running the cd/dvd included with the camera and following the directions for installation - usually a simple, 1-2 step process nowadays.

Bart, you can write me privately if you want to, but if we figure out your situation in the forum I am sure there are others reading these messages who will also benefit.

What I need to know is whether you use a Windows or Mac computer, and which version of Windows operating system is installed. To find out on a Windows machine just right click on "My Computer" after starting the computer and then click "Properties" to see the operating system. From there we can figure out which photo editor comes with the computer operating system.

The 3 Techniques That Do The Job

If you find the photo editor on your own, there are 3 ways to change the photo file size to get it under the 400 kb limit that the forum requires. That limit is there to allow the downloading of photos in a reasonable time by people all over the world, many of whom do not have super fast internet connections. It also reduces the bandwidth used by the forum which could get to be a problem for us eventually.

You should learn how to do all 3 techniques, since they are all very useful when dealing with digital images. They are also very simple, once you see how it is done. Seems like rocket science at first, but there is very little to actually doing it, as you will see.

Technique 1: crop your photo. This means cutting off any or all of the 4 sides of the photo so that only the part of the image that is important remains. Often there is a lot of foliage or other content that you don't really care if anyone sees around the top, bottom, or sides of the photo. By "cropping" that out you reduce the file size and make a better photo. All photo editors have a "crop" tool and the ones I have seen are very easy to use. Using your mouse, you drag the sides of a box that appears on screen so that everything in the box is what you want, and everything that is outside the box is what you are about to crop out of the photo. Most of them work by first dragging the sides of the box to where you want them, and then by double clicking inside the box to perform the actual crop, leaving only the desired part of the photo showing after the crop.

Technique 2: Resizing the dimensions of the photo. All photo editors allow you to open a photo file, and then change the size of the height and width of the photo. You can work with pixels or a unit of measurement such as inches. A good size for the forum is 600 x 600 pixels which is about 8 inches x 8 inches. Sometimes you want to show the photo larger, sometimes smaller, but anything from 400 to 800 pixels on a side is good for the forum. By reducing the size of the photo you will also reduce the file size closer to the 400 kb maximum per photos.

Technique 3: Compressing the file - this is the most powerful technique for reducing file size. You will not see any changes like you do with the first 2 techniques unless you overdo it, but you can change the file size to almost anything you like by using it. Most likely the camera is saving the photo in jpg or jpeg format, which is what you want. If not, then change the extension after the period in the photo file name to jpg. Different photo editors let you do this in different ways, so just check that it has this extension or change to this extension and then proceed to compress the photo.

Many editors do this step when you save the cropped, resized image. The amount of compression is shown as low, medium, or high or by a percentage between 0 and 100 percent. A decent photo editor should show you the file size that will result from the percentage compression you are selecting. Just select more compression until the file size is down to somewhere between 100 kb and 400 kb. Tip: for technical reasons the file size shown in the photo editor may not be what the forum sees so give some room by saving the photo as a 300 kb or less photo.

In theory the amount of compression affects the quality of the photo. However, normal monitors are not capable of using the higher qualities anyway, and you are unlikely to see much if any difference between a slightly compressed and a medium or 50 percent compressed photo on your screen. Crank in enough compression to reduce the file size to 200 kb or so and you will still have an excellent quality photo. In the old days of the internet we rarely posted photos any larger than 50 kb in size, and they weren't bad. Most photos on the HVH web site are around 100 kb and they are pretty good most people would agree. The bigger the file size, the longer it takes the photos to download so it is not helpful to post photos larger than is needed for good viewing.

This covers the basics. There are many details and many differences due to different software but once you figure out how to do these 3 things using the software you have you will be able to post well cropped photos that show as the size you want and compressed enough to download quickly (and meet the requirements of the forum).

Please keep the questions coming about this, as needed.

Charlie