Picture Sizing.

I just bought my first digital camera, and know pretty much nothing about how to fiddle with the pictures I take, is there a way to change the size of the pictures I take? Or do I need photoshop? All the pictures I take are huge.

Thanks so much for any help =)

Well, somewhere on the menu for your digital camera there is probably an option to change the picture sizes. I know mine has an option to change the sizes to 5 different sizes.

If your camera has a function set button, look at what options the fuction set gives you.

I can't give you specific answers though without knowing the make and model of the camera, and even that might not help if I'm not looking at the camera itself.

wow, thanks for the fast reply. I can change the amount of MP, but I after I put it on my computer, I have all these huge pictures, that I dont know how to make smaller =/

In fact, the more MP your pics have, the larger it will be. Large is good to go from (because you can make large pics smaller and the quality will not get worse, but you can't stretch really small pics up to large size because it will look as if you made an embroidary or ministeck pattern )

So, yes, you basically need a program to rescale the pics once they're on your computer. Photoshop and Paintshop are regular ones, but they cost (unless you get a copy from somewhere). Also they have so many features... most you probably will never use, at least not at the beginning!

A very good (and free) alternative for the time being is http://www.irfanview.com/. Also check out this thread for lots more info!

Good luck!

You want to take the pics in the highest resolution that your space allows. That way if you want to make prints later .. or even blow them up .. you have enough pixels to make that possible.

I guess we should start by figuring out what kind of photo editing program you have on your computer. Any of them will resize a pic. Let me know what proggie you have and i can walk you through it step by step. If you just dont have anything on your puter to use go to photobucket.com and set yourself up an account. Upload the pics you want and then you can edit each one from there. The resize tool is primitve on PhotoBucket .. but it works just fine. You can post from there... assuming thats what you want to do.

For message board use i never use images over 400 pix wide. That makes them fit on almost every screen .. and wont annoy people.

You can PM if you have any other questions ..

MagdaleneWA said:

is there a way to change the size of the pictures I take? Or do I need photoshop? All the pictures I take are huge.

Click to expand...

You've gotten good advice so far.

The point that has been missed, is that you have to distinguish between the pictures you have already taken and the pictures you plan to take in the future.

The pictures you've already taken need a Image Editing or Image Management program to resize them -- Photoshop works well if you already have it and know a little bit about how to use it; It has some pretty good step-by-step help wizards for beginners. If you don't already have Photoshop, then IrfanView or one of the other freeware and shareware programs mentioned in this thread: Irfanview Is the Answer are probably a better choice. The learning curve for most of those programs is much easier than with Photoshop IMHO.

For the pictures you plan to take in the future, find the resolution setting on your camera -- NOT the "Quality" setting. The resolution setting is the one that lists the options as pixel dimensions -- 320x240, 640x480, 800x600, 1024x768, etc.

You want to select either 640x480 or 800x600 for any pictures iintended for posting on theinernet or sharing via e-mail -- you only need the higher resolutions for pictures you intend to print or expect someone else to print; and then only if you plan to print it bigger than 5x7 format.

If you're not sure whether you'll want to print a picture, use the highest resolution and resize a copy for internet posting or e-mail sharing and save the high-res original for possible later printing.

You also have to consider memory and storage requirements. The higher the resolution, the fewer pictures you can store on any given device.

For example, my camera has four resolution choices, from 2048x1536 )3.1 Megapixels) down to 640x480 one any given memory chip, that translates to to roughly ten times as many 640x480 pictures than 2048x1536 images -- and they all fit on my monitor without dynamic resizing or scrolling.

That is exactly what I was looking for, I really appreciate the time you guys took to answer my newbie question!! Thanks a lot!