Reducing digital photo sizes makes emailing your images easier.
Reducing photo file sizes can be accomplished with a multitude of different software programs. The key to choosing an appropriate program is understanding your ultimate goals for digital photography. If you are using a program to edit images from your family outings and personal adventures, than a free or consumer based program will meet all your needs. If you wish to learn and develop as a photographer and potentially make a career out of it, than learning the higher-powered professional programs will help your editing skills develop over time.
Professional Photo Editing Software
Professional-level photo editing software programs provide the largest degree of resizing and compression options. While Adobe Photoshop and Corel Paint Shop Pro offer multiple methods of reducing photo file sizes, they do require a degree of time and monetary investment. Photoshop has an image resizing editing option that allows you to alter the image resolution and the file dimensions directly. The image resolution refers to the amount of data present in the photo and a digital resolution adjustment of 72 DPI, or dots per inch, will greatly reduce the file size. When saving, Photoshop also offers a "Save For Web" option that allows you to make a visual comparison of the various file compression options before you save the image. This function shows several degrees of compression in a split screen format so you can view and compare the distortion for quality control. A compressed image will contain distortion depending on how much data is removed to downsize the file.
Consumer Photo Editing Software
Most consumer photo editing software programs provide ample tools for reducing image sizes. If you simply need to take a large digital image and make it smaller for emailing, uploading to the web and viewing on a monitor or television, this option is your best investment. These programs are inexpensive and will also provide multiple editing options, such as black and white conversion, minimal special effects and text tools for adding words to your images. Many consumer digital cameras come with a basic photo editing software that is sufficient for reducing image sizes. The two main qualities to look for in a basic photo editing program for image size reduction are the ability to save the image to a JPEG file and a resizing tool. A JPEG is the most common digital image file used by consumers and is the default file format for most digital consumer cameras. The JPEG file format is a compressed version of the image and, when saving, you have the option to reduce the quality of the photo, thus creating a smaller image file.
Web-Based Editing Applications
A multitude of Web-based editing applications are available online for free. One of the more common programs is Google's Picasa program. You can download the Picasa application to your desktop and have basic photo editing functions on your computer. The main method of reducing the file size in Picasa is done when an opened file is exported. After choosing the export option, simply move the slider to adjust the compression, making the file smaller as the compression increases. Picasa will create a new file at the exported size. Choose an online application that has a strong technical support or online troubleshooting forum in case you need additional help navigating the program.
Cataloging Software
Many cataloging and archiving programs offer multiple options for resizing images. Adobe's Lightroom and Apple's Aperture offer high-powered cataloging functions as well as basic photo editing options. These programs reference the files imported into their cataloging options and they create a new file containing the designated edits when exported. Other cataloging programs, such as Microsoft's Expressions, allows you to adjust the size and file format of the original image in the catalog and apply the action to all the photos. This allows you to reduce file sizes quickly and make the adjustments to the original photos.
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