Compress photo files on computer?

[golfgal]

Is there a way to compress your photo files on your computer? DD tried to load more photos on her laptop and her hard drive is "full". What is the best way to deal with this, external hard drive maybe??

 

[bicker]

Photos are rich data. There are ways to compress photos, but you may not want to do that.

First, compression breaks down into two categories: "Lossless" and "Lossy".

Lossy compression is accomplished by reducing the resolution of the photos. Essentially, the photo will never be as good after lossy compression. While that might not matter now, it probably will a few years down the line, when you'll want to blow the photo up for some purpose. The graininess will be greatly exasperated.

Lossless compression is also an option, but generally, lossless compression has little effect on photos. Many photo formats were designed to be relatively efficient, so there is not much advantage to be gained.

My recommendation is to go with the external hard drive idea.

 

[Cando86]

I use a program called FastStone Image Viewer. I think I downloaded it from imagegeeks.com and it works great. I can't believe how much space I've opened up! Good luck

 

[Imzadi]

Get a cheap couple of flash drives. DD needs back up for her computer AND for her back up.

Plus, if she's out of hard drive space, her computer is probably running extremely S.L.O.W.

Buy.com has 16GB flash drives for about $30, if not cheaper nowadays.

 

[SandrA9810]

How big is her current hard drive?

and is she using the space wisely or never deleting a thing?

Since she's always gonna want to add photos, having an external drive might be the best option. If she has music, movies, and tons of photos, I'd go with a 100gig drive if not bigger.

 

[golfgal]

I have a 1TB hard drive on the way from Amazon. It is to be delivered today. I have been thinking about doing this for a while, just to protect the pictures if something were to happen to the computer. There are 5+ years of family pictures on that computer. Thanks.