Oh dear!!! What can I do? I took a bunch of pics and they are downloaded onto my computer but.. they are HUGE! I don’t have any image editing software (that I know of) and I need to shrink em! Any advice? Thanks in advance!

Try out GIMP (GNU Image Manipulator Program), it’s an free image editor: http://www.gimp.org/

Talking about size of photos, I am still so ‘green’. My husband has Photoshop so I can resize and adjust. Food bloggers have such beautiful, sharp, BIG photos on their site. The big photos don’t seem to take more loading time. So, what’s a typical image size? I’ve been told to keep my resolution at 72 but I want to know width/pixel dimension. It’s usually around 3,000, would you leave it that? I was always advised to take it down to 500 but it looks measly, HELP!?

For blogging I usually make images no bigger than 950px wide by 650 px high. Anything bigger requires stuff most people don’t have – bigger resolution, large monitors, etc. It’ll change in the future but that’s a place to start.

I do highly recommend Gimp with the GimpShop skin (just Google Gimpshop)

Thnx Matt for your advice. I’m going to stick with Photoshop right now, don’t need another learning curve and spending time on tech stuff.

BTW, love your food blog, beautiful.

Thx – if you have photoshop definitely stick with that – Gimpshop for those who don’t. Image> image size in PS – pretty simple there.

BTW – resolution has nothing to do with anything. Stick to pixel dimensions unless you’re printing images.

Matt,

Educate me on resolution. I was told that Window’s monitors can’t produce anything greater than 72 dpi and Mac was something like 96 dpi and using anything greater than that was a waste of photo size.

Is a photo with dimensions 950px wide by 650 px high with a 300 dpi resolution the same file size as a 72 dpi resolution? If it’s for web based viewing does the 300 dpi add anything?

Thanks for your help as always, your tips have helped me a great bit so far.

Chris

Resolution is one of the most misunderstood photo concepts so I’ll be glad to give you a walkthrough.

Resolution is literally dpi – dots per inch. Think about a 4×6″ print. The more dots per inch, the more resolution. Make sense?

Let’s talk math for a second.

A 4×6″ print at 100 dpi is literally 4×100 * 6×100. Does that make sense? 400×600 pixels total.
A 4×6″ print at 300 dpi is literally 4×300 * 6×300. That’s 1200×1800 pixels total.

So the 2nd print is obviously higher quality – and it’s a larger total image.

Let’s do one more. An 8×12″ print at 100 dpi is 800×1200 pixels. At 300 dpi it’s 2400×3600 pixels.

Ok, now here’s the thing I want you to see – the 4×6″ at 300 dpi is 1200×1800 pixels. The 8×12″ at 100 dpi is 800×1200. The 4×6″ is technically better quality of a print. But what happens if you put them online? An 800×1200 displays on your monitor at 800 pixels by 1200 pixels, no matter what. Your monitor has a set number of pixels. If your monitor is set to 800×1200 resolution and you display the 800×1200 it will take up the entire screen. Whether it’s a 4×6″ at 200 dpi or an 8×12″ at 100 dpi – they’re the same pixel dimensions. Does that make sense? What’s 4×6″ at 200 dpi? 800×1200 pixels. And 8×12″ at 100 dpi? 800×1200 pixels – same! One has DOUBLE the resolution – but the pixels are all that matter.

So in the end, don’t think about resolution except in printing. Think about output. What size do you want the image to appear on the monitor? Size it to that in pixels.

Matt

Hey Matt (or anyone else who has PS/PS Elements), do you normally use the Save For Web feature or just adjust the pixel settings by hand?

I absolutely use save for web – I think I use either 40 or 45 quality for every image on StartingToCook. I wouldn’t say there’s a huge loss of quality at 40 but it definitely saves loading time and space!

I do what Matt does as well – use Save for Web. I set mine to 60%.

Also I do a smart sharpen on every image before I save it for the web (using Photoshop). Just a minor tweak to get everything as sharp as possible on the screen.

Thanks! One last question, image format: jpg, png,or gif?

Honestly I think we *SHOULD* use PNG but I never got used to it. I use JPG.

If you’re on a Mac you can choose to “export” a photo from iPhoto to a folder and then you can choose to change the size.

Or you can use this online tool: http://webresizer.com/resizer/
This tool also optimises them so the photo looks the same but takes up much less space and therefore loads faster (and takes up less space in your server).

I’m late to this conversation, but if you are using self-hosted Wordpress for your blog, you can also install the WP Smush.It plugin. It automatically runs all your uploaded images through the Yahoo Smush.It program, which losslessly reduces your photo size. It’s not a replacement for these other methods, but every little bit helps, I find!

http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/wp-smushit/