Resizing your images to show in the group
Why resize?
The image files that come out of your computer are pretty large – a lot larger than we need them to be to look at them on the projector or on a monitor unless we are editing. They take up a lot of space on your portable media and they take longer to load and show if they are large. As photographers you need to be able to output your original files in different sizes, resolutions, and sometimes file types, depending on what they are being used for. So if you don't know how to do that this is a good time to learn.
Image editing software
The most well known image editor is probably Photoshop, but there are many other alternatives to Photoshop that are perfectly adequate for some jobs, and some are free.
On a Mac the simplest way to change the image size is to do it in Preview. Alternatively you can use the Photos app (formerly iPhoto) and on Windows you can use Paint – all of these come with the system software.
There are also a number of online, free and paid for alternatives to Photoshop that will do a lot more than the basics. Here's an article on some of these alternatives if you're interested.
I am going to show you how to change the image size in Preview (mac), Paint (windows) and Pixlr. Pixlr a web-based app, its free to use and you can use it on any computer platform.
Resizing a photograph using Preview (mac)
Open the original image in Preview by dragging the file to the Preview app in the Dock, or go to File > Open and find the image where you have it stored. When the file has opened in Preview. Go to Tools in the top menu bar and choose Adjust Size. A dialogue box will open, Next to the Width and Height boxes make sure pixels is selected (rather than cm, percent, inches etc. Make sure that 'Scale Proportionately' is ticked so it maintains the image proportions. And make sure that 'Resample Image' is tucked or you wont be able to choose pixels or reduce the file size. Now type in 2000 into the 'Width' field (if the photo is a horizontal format) or the 'Height' field (if its a vertical format). We want the longest side to be maximum 2000 pixels.
Click OK and the image will be reduced in size to the size you specified. Now you have to save it. DON'T use the Save command, but instead hold down the alt key (may be option on your keyboard) and then go to File> Save As... in the top menu bar.
Rename your photograph so that it still retains something similar to the original file name but add a number or other appropriate text so that you don't overwrite the original by mistake (and so you will know what the original was called). Choose JPEG as the file format, and make sure the quality slider is close to Best. Click 'Save' and choose your desired destination. It could go straight into your USB stick, or into another folder.
Resizing a photograph using Paint (windows)
Find and launch MS Paint. Go to Start > All Programs . Accessories > Paint, or just type Paint in the Start search bar.
Open your photograph by going to Open in the Menu (Ctrl+O). You may also be able to open its by dragging out to the application.
On the Home tab click the 'Resize' button
The 'Resize and Skew' dialogue box will open where you can change the size of the photograph. Click on the 'Pixels' button (not Percentage) and make sure that the 'Maintain aspect ratio' checkbox is ticked.
Now type in 2000 into the 'Horizontal' field (if the photo is a horizontal format) or the 'Vertical' field (if its a vertical format). We want the longest side to be maximum 2000 pixels.
Click OK and the image size will change. Now save the image by a different file name – rename your photograph so that it still retains something similar to the original file name but add a number or other appropriate text so that you don't overwrite the original by mistake (and so you will know what the original was called). If you have a choice of file format choose JPEG, and if you have a choice of Quality, choose High. Save it direct to your USB stick if you want to, or put it in another folder of your choice.
And you're done!
Resizing a photograph using Pixlr (web-based app)
I can recommend Pixlr for simple things like resizing and outputting different file formats because I have used it on occasions, and its quite like Photoshop in its interface. (it also supports the use of layers which we will discuss a bit later in the group). As far as I know though you can only output from Pixlr at 72dpi, which is fine for our purposes here. I am talking here about Pixlr, rather than Pixlr Express which is much more limited.
Choose 'Open image from computer' and navigate to where you have stored the original image you want to resize. and click 'Open'.
Your image will show on the screen within Pixlr.
Go up to 'Image' in the top Pixlr menu bar and select 'Image size'.
You will see a dialogue box with the current width and height of your image shown in pixels. You will also see a tick box that says 'constrain proportions'. Keep that box ticked, or you will change the aspect ratio of your image.
Change the width measurement
Change the width or height (in this case you are changing the width to 2000 pixels to show on our projector). The other dimension will change accordingly to constrain the proportions. Click OK. The image will now be smaller on your screen.
Save the new image
Go to the top Pixlr menu bar again and this time choose File > Save.
In the Save dialogue box:
- Give the image a name (I suggest you don't use exactly the same name as the original or you may overwrite the original if you save it to the same folder). Use a unique name – preferably add a number or something to the end of the new file so you will know the name of the original later.
- Choose the file format – in this case JPEG.
- Set the Quality – in this case I recommend 80% or 90% as we'll be looking at the images quite big.
Click OK, and navigate to where you want to save it. This could be straight onto your USB stick, or somewhere else.
The file will be output to your chosen destination.
And you're done!