In this section, I will give some recipes for resizing and saving for a couple different skill levels and also a Short Lesson on Print Sizing

[Part 2] [Part 1]

Photoshop Elements is probably the most widely used on this site or anywhere. If you don't own it or ANY paid for Photo Editing Software I would highly recommend buying one. There are also other very fine Editing Software out there such as Paint Shop Pro or Arc Soft Photo Studio. Also check the CD's that came with your digital Camera, or Scanner they often contain some editing program for free. That is how I got my copy of Elements. But even if you buy them it is a good investment of $80. So the examples I will give apply to Elements but really would cross over to most editing software.

OK, so you can't afford either of them and all you have are what came with Windows or you downloaded some Power Toys from Microsoft. Throw them away, don't use Paint, don't use the Re-sizer. Put your hands up and walk away from the computer. If you can't afford anything, Use one of the Free Photo editors available. My favorite is Picasa although others like Gimp, since I have no experience with Gimp, I will use Picasa in the examples. Picasa lets you do quite a few things quickly and simply. It does have some short comings when compared to Photoshop Elements. But if you are scared away by Photoshop, you will probably like Picasa's simple interface. The nice thing about Picasa is that it never really alters your original image and keeps that one intact; it is only when you "Export" The file that it permanently alters the photo but as a New File.

Some general information first.
Size Matters: The most common size or resolution for Computer Monitor Screens right now is 1024 wide by 768 high. There are still a few people with 800 X 600 and with the launch of LCD Monitors more people are looking at higher 1152 X 864 Screens or possibly Wide Screens. But let's shoot for what is the most common right now. So what should I size my photo for? It is partially personal preference but I like mine big and bold. So for Landscape Orientation pics, I use 800W X 600H (or 800 x 533 in the case of DSLR). For Portrait Orientation I use 650 High to fit on screen. Some people like to use smaller images but I would not go below 600 wide landscape or 500 high portrait orientations.

For the purist or people who like to KISS. (Keep It Simple Stupid)

If you don't like to edit your image and prefer them direct from Camera to screen

For Photoshop Elements

*    Open the Image in Photoshop Elements
*    Click File/ Save for Web Save For Web Screen shot
*    A new window will open, under "New Size" make sure the Constrain Proportions box is checked, put in the dimensions you desire and click apply.
*    Now move up above and make sure that JPEG is in the dropdown box for settings
*    On the slider next to that, move it back and for until you get a total File size of 100k to 150k (if your image is smaller than 800 X 600 you can probably go a little less) But really anything less will degrade your image
*    Click OK
*    Rename the file or save it in a new folder so that you don't overwrite the original full size image

NOTE: Why to use "Save to Web" instead of "Save As". Images taken with Digital Cameras all contain other information called EXIF data. This contains such things as the time and date, the type of camera and all the Exposure information. It can also be annotated with other information like a caption, the Copyright info, the photographer name etc. As Cory has stated, he strips this data off anyway so why waste valuable File space that could be used to improve image quality to that data. Save to Web Strips that data out, Save as, retains that data

For Picasa
*    Locate the image you want in the Picasa Browser
*    Select the image by clicking on it
*    Click Export in the lower right
*    Browse to a Location you wish to put the file. Picasa will make a new Folder there.
*    Under Image Size Options click Resize to and put in a dimension, This will alter the longest dimension so on a Landscape orientation Photo it will change the Width and a Portrait one it will alter the height and the other dimension proportionally
*    Now the one part I don't like is that you can't see what the total file size will be after you set the image quality in Picasa but through my experiments it appears that if you use 95% it yield the right file size and no loss of image quality
*    Click OK... Done

For Users of Other software.

The steps are pretty similar to Photoshop Elements But they may not have the Save to Web Function that it has and you may have to follow the steps in the next section to achieve the same results. And, they all may have their little ways of doing things but if you keep to the correct sizes and the most important part of File size before distortion and artifacts appear. You should be just peachy no matter what software you use. You should see a Resize either as a button in the Desktop or under a Dropdown for Image/Re-size.

For the Tweakers out there:

You could follow the steps above but if you would like a little more control over everything and maybe refine your image a little more you can follow the steps below.
*    Open your Image in Photoshop
*    Click Image/Resize/Image Size Image Size Dialog Box
*    Make Sure "Resample Image" is Selected
*    Choose Bi-Cubic Re-sampling It is the most precise
*    To Keep the Image the same proportion Check the Constrain Proportions Box
*    Enter the desire Width or Height into the Pixel Dimensions Box, You only need to put in one or the other, the other dimension will be calculated for you. Click OK
*    At this point, if you wish to add any Annotation (Typing tool) or Mattes to your image it is a good time to do so. Better than before you resize as they will keep their resolution better.

Now, I believe that most images need to be sharpened after re-sizing. It is a personal preference but most images will benefit from it. Don't over do it though and get nasty white blob edges. Either just click Filter/Sharpen/Sharpen for the lowest preset level of Sharpening. Or if you would like more control of you sharpening you should really use Un-Sharp Mask. Unsharp Mask Dialog Box Unsharp Mask is confusing to some since there are three sliders and where the hell do you put them. So I will give a Basic Recipe to use at this Resolution of Image. Set the Amount at 150%, The Radius at 1 and the Threshold at 1. Then move the amount slider back and forth till you achieve the desired amount of sharpness. Just enough to crisp up the edges that have softened from re-sizing but not so much you get white globs of glow around the edges.

*    After you have sharpened your image you can now save your image for the web. You can  follow the steps in the above example except for the re-sizing part since we have already done that in this example or you may want to work even more precisely in the example below
*    Click File/Save for Web
*    In the lower left  Click the drop down box for Zoom and select 300%
*    Using the Hand in the photo move the image around till you find an edge and background area.
*    Now move the Quality Slider back and forth till you see no difference between the Original Image and the JPEG one. This still will probably result in a 100K file size but on some photos such as Black and white or those without a lot of color tone range it can result in an even smaller file size without any introduction of Distortion and Artifacts
*    Click OK and choose the File name and location of your choice
*    Done

Now upload your images to Photographica for all of us to enjoy in Pure and Nasties free Clarity.

A quick note, this was resizing for Photgraphica, Other web-sites have other Image or File Size requirements that may be less than here. Check with that web-site but you can use the basics you learned her to size for any web-site or even to send e-mail Photos to your Friends and neighbors that are not bigger than a City Block.

A quick lesson on Sizing for Printing

This could easily be a subject all unto itself but I will touch on it lightly right now.

For Web work all images are displayed on screen at a Resolution of 72ppi. But this is nowhere optimum for Printing. In general Printing is done at a resolution of 240 - 320 ppi (Do not confuse this number with your printers resolution which have no bearing on each other.) So how can I determine the best size print for the Photo's Image size I have?

*    First off, you need to use your Full size image, NOT the one we just re-sized for the Web and Photographica. This will never have enough resolution for any size print.
*    So, open your Full size Image in Photoshop.
*    Click Image/Resize/Resize image
*    This time, Uncheck Resample image
*    In the Resolution box Type in 300 Pixel per Inch
*    In the size Box you will now see the optimum Size print for the resolution of Image you have. Take for example, a 1800 X 1200 Image. It will have a Perfect print resolution at 300 PPI of 4" X 6" Image size for Print Screen Shot
*    Now, say you want to print this as an 8 X 12; (Not accounting for cropping to 8 x 10) put those dimensions into the Resize Dialog box. You will see that the Resolution drops to 150ppi. Not optimum for printing (Will it work? Yeah it will but it will just not be the best) Try 5 X 7 and you will see that it falls within the range of 240 - 320 ppi. So from this we can see that the largest quality Printable size for a 1800 X 1200 Image is  5 X 7
*    You can resize your Image for a bigger print and it is best done in Photoshop and use it to resample the image larger. Using your Printer Driver and telling it to Fit to page is not Optimum. But it is best to have the amount of resolution you need for the print size you desire without Resampling Resizing

And this is just one more reason why, if you intend to print from your Digital Camera, you should shoot at the highest Resolution so you have the option of printing at the largest size you would like. But if you never intend to print larger than 4 X 6, well you can shoot lower. Up to you.

Here are some basic numbers for you:
Mega-Pixels           Photo Pixel            Print Resolution     Print Size

1.                       960 x 1280    240 PPI              4 x 5.3
   
2.                     1200 x 1600    240 PPI             5 x 6.7
   
3.                     1536 x 2048    240 PPI             6.4 x 8.5
   
4.                     1704 x 2272    240 PPI             7.1 x 9.5
   
5.                     1944 x 2592    240 PPI             8.1 x 10.8
   
7.                     2304 x 3072    240 PPI             9.6 x 12.8
   
8.                     2448 x 3264    240 PPI            10.2 x 13.6

[Part 2] [Part 1]