How to make a photo with less MB?

[squirrel]

I'm trying to upload a photo to the Playhouse Disney website for the bananas for birthdays and they only allow 1MB.

All of my photos have more than 1MB. Any ideas?

 

[JustineMarie]

I think if you upload your photo to photobucket, you can resize your image and that should lessen the MB.

 

[NotUrsula]

Different image formats have different compression ratios. Here's a good explanation: http://www.shortcourses.com/workflow/workflow1-1.html

The photo software that came with your camera should have a compression option somewhere in the editing utilities. If not, you can easily buy image conversion software.

If it isn't *.JPG, you'll want to convert it to *.JPG, because that format allows you to use lossy compression that will make it much smaller. It won't be as crisp, but you really don't need that if it is small-scale and won't be reproduced from that version.

 

[bjscheel]

Irfanview is a free download that resizes photos. I use it constantly for eBay.

 

[annacali]

If you use windows, you can download the Windows Image resizer (it's free). You can get it here http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/downloads/powertoys/xppowertoys.mspx and scroll down to Image resizer.

It will allow you to right click on any photo on your computer, and in the popup menu you will see "resize image" and you can select small, medium or large and it will create smaller copy of the photo for you. I use it all the time when emailing my photos to friends/relatives.

 

[squirrel]

Thanks so much.

Not sure what one I will do yet.

 

[squirrel]

Well, the photobucket isn't working I tried every link in the spot on the Bananas for Birthdays entry form.

I also made a copy of the photo and then resized the copy to make it under the 1MB limit and that didn't work.

I keep getting a message that it's an invalid file type.

I'll try another idea tomorrow, it's getting too late tonight.

 

[Rio_san7]

try windows paint.

 

[Matt'sMom]

"I keep getting a message that it's an invalid file type."

What file format/type are you saving your image as? Most sites will accept .jpg files, reduced to c. 72 dpi. I just went in to the site in question, and it accepted the upload of one of my .jpg files, 72 dpi without any trouble at all.

Do you have Adobe software on your pc? It is super easy to resize image files using Adobe Photoshop (which comes standard with the software bundle for many digital cameras). If you are unsure of how to use your photo editing software, just click into the help menu and run a quick search for easy to follow instructions.

Just asking, so as to try to help you troubleshoot & figure out what might be preventing you from sharing your image.

 

[disneynut14]

I use windows paint. It is in your "Accessories" folder. Just click "File" then "open". Then click on "Image". Click the "Stretch/Skew function". Type in your dimensions in the Stretch section. I usually start with 75 and 75 and work my way down from there. Just remember to do a "save as" so you don't replace the original picture.

Good luck!

 

[NotUrsula]

Just remember that the dpi count does not refer to physical size, it refers to the resolution -- how crisp the image is. You can have an enormous image that is still at 72 dpi; it would be big and blurry.

Based on the error message that you are getting, the issue isn't the size so much, but the image format. Some formats (*.tif especially) have a lot of additional data saved as part of the file, and the website's software may not be able to use that information properly. If the filename does not end in .jpg, you'll need to convert to JPEG format. (You can use Google Picasa to convert it if your camera software won't do it -- it's a free utility. http://picasa.google.com)