Reducing the file size of an image

As Nikon, Samsung, Panasonic et al compete to produce the best camera, even in the economy camera range, pictures files will continue to get bigger and bigger. 

Great news if you want to print the image.  Not so great news if you want to put it on your website or send it in an email.  

All Club-Sites websites come with 500mb of space free - but this is quickly eaten up with the new superduper images we now take for granted. Sending an email with a full size image will take ages and may bounce because the recipient is unable to receive emails over a certain file size.

My new, and very small, pocket-sized camera produced a picture file size of 2.6 mega pixels of Tigger (below). 

The images don't need to be huge to look good on your screen, so here are a few ways of reducing the size of your image and saving valuable space.

Choose the image to work on and copy it into a new folder on your computer (consider creating a folder Pix for Website on your desktop) use a new name for the picture that describes the image in one word eg redfirework.jpg, tennisball.jpg, johnsmith.jpg, clubhq.jpg, tigger.jpg  Never, never work on your original image - or you may lose it.

Once this is done you can work on reducing the image.  Load up the editing software that came with your camera or quite probably came pre-loaded on your computer.  Select the image that you saved by name, eg tigger.jpg.  The software will let you crop the image - removing unnecessary portions of the picture.  This is a good idea if you are taking pictures of an individual, try to cut out unnecessary information either side and top and bottom.

Once this is done look for an option in the software that says "Image Size," "Resize," or "Resample".  This will provide you with an opportunity to specify the file size. Other options you may find when saving the image:

Resample - You need this set to "on" when sizing down. This enables the software to change the pixel dimensions.

Constrain proportions or keep aspect ratio - this option needs to be enabled. It prevents the image from being stretched and distorted. When this option is enabled, you only need to enter one value (height or width) and the other value will adjust automatically.

After re-sizing the image, ensure you are saving the image with it's new name - whatever you do don't overwrite your original, high resolution file.

If asked, you need to save as a JPEG file.

All software varies, my computer didn't seem to have any of the options mentioned until I asked it to "export" the file, then I was able to select the final file size.

If in doubt, go with the selections the computer offers, then experiment to see how the result varies with different options on and off.

When choosing the compression level, keep quality around medium.

Aim for a final file size of about 10Kb, though my computer would only reduce as far as 256Kb - but that's a whole lot better than 2.6Mb.

Tigger Cropped close but no pixel reduction Cropped close, and reduced to 30 pixels
Original image.
File size 2.6Mb		 Image cropped, but no pixel reduction.
File size 1.6Mb		 Image cropped and file size reduced.
File size 256Kb
 

 

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