How do I resize my photos?

[DISNEYLOVER70]

I just got back and downloaded 826 pictures from my Disney trip last week. It is a new camera, Canon Powershot 700sd IS. I downloaded the software, no problem. I can see all the pictures, no problem. But they are HUGE!!

I tried searching the software to resize, but no option. It is ArcSoft PhotoStudio 4.3. Then I thought, maybe I download them to photobucket and resize there, but it was taking forever to download one picture so I canceled the download. I am sure it is simple, but I just can't figure it out. I would like to put some on the Dis as well as send them to Walmart on line for processing but I can't until I figure out this resizing issue.

TIA !!

 

[Master Mason]

I don't know that software, but whatever you do, back up the originals before you do anything to them, so you don't lose them if something goes wrong.

 

[Groucho]

The easiest and best-quality way, IMHO, is to use Irfanview (see download link in my sig.)

Run it and go into Batch mode (file, Batch or just hit "B"). Browse to the folder that has your current photos, then select all the ones you want to resize and hit the "Add" button, just to the left of the file selection box. If you want to do the whole folder, just hit "Add all".

You will probably want to resize to another folder, set that in the middle right of the window, where it says "output directory".

Below that, make sure it's set to "Batch conversion". Set the output format to JPG and hit the Options button. I usually set quality to 80-85, and check the bottom four JPEG boxes (for keeping the original exif data, etc). Hit OK.

Just to the right of that, hit the "Use advanced options" box and click the Set Advanced Options button. On the window that opens, check the "Resize" button". Use the "set both sides" option and put in the maximum size you want - 800x600, 1600x1200, 640x480, whatever you want to resize them to. I'd go a little bigger, as the photo host will often offer smaller-sized versions automatically, and that gives you the option of sharing a higher-quality version - but this is totally up to you.

Also check the "preserve aspect ratio (proportianal)" box and the "Use Resample function (better quality)" box. I like to keep the original time/date on the files, if you do too, check the "save files with original date/time" box in the lower right. Hit OK.

Now, you should be all set. Hit Start and off it goes. It will remember all your settings, so you won't need to change them again unless you want different settings.

Oh, and if you're sending them out to be printed, don't resize them - send them the original size, for maximum quality.

 

[ukcatfan]

If you are just trying to view them, and you are using Windows XP or above, just view them with the Windows picture and fax viewer that is built in. It should default to viewing them to fit the screen. It also has a slideshow option. You can also view similarly with the file browser part of Irfanview if you are not up to XP level. I do not know if it is offered on different platforms.

Kevin

 

[manning]

I have version 5.5 with a canon scanner

This should be the same

Click "edit"
click "image size"

You should be able to do it there.

 

[photo_chick]

Unlike Groucho I am anti-resampling ( but to each his own!). Everytime you resample you are reprocessing the image. Anymore I resize in lightroom at the same time I am converting them to jpg form RAW. Normally I do a batch resize of my selceted shots and output them at 400x600 (this is the original aspect ration for my camera) at 72dpi. It is a good size for e-mailing and viewing online.

If you don't have any photo software, download Picasa from Google. It is free and pretty nifty for very basic image editing ( like resizing) and organization. IT is so easy my MIL can use it (that say a LOT believe me)

 

[Groucho]

Unlike Groucho I am anti-resampling ( but to each his own!). Everytime you resample you are reprocessing the image.

This happens with any resizing.

Your options are just to resize (which just tosses data and looks the worst, usually with several jaggies and things like fine lines obliterated) or to resample, which will attempt to preserve detail as it resizes, using a variety of algorithms - Irfanview defaults to Lanczos, which is the best that it offers, and unsurprisingly, the slowest (but still pretty fast on most modern PCs.)

There's no way to take a, say, 3008x2000 pixel original and make it 600x400 without some reprocessing, whether it's coming from JPG or RAW. Resampling gives you the best quality.

The dpi is also completely unrelated to the resolution.

 

[Anewman]

Resize = Resample

period

 

[photo_chick]

Resize = Resample

period

Not in all cases. Not going to get into this here, as I don't really want to put the energy into it becasue it is not going to affect my daily life! Just going to agree to disagree.

 

[Anewman]

Not in all cases. Not going to get into this here, as I don't really want to put the energy into it becasue it is not going to affect my daily life! Just going to agree to disagree.

It is like saying someone SHORTENED their hair, but did not get a HAIR CUT.

If you take a 8 megapixel IMAGE and RESIZE to 600x800 or any other size(including LARGER than native resolution), unless you did a severe crop it was resampled.

 

[AZ JazzyJ]

You might try Visualizer Photo Resize. I've had good luck with that software creating thumbnails and smaller size versions of photos. It will batch an entire directory and even add a watermark (graphic or text) during resizing. Best of all it is free. If you have Adobe Photoshop, there are several Actions or scripts that will do batch file manipulation too. I definitely echo Master Mason's advice and make sure you back up the originals to a safe place.

Jeff

 

[photo_chick]

It is like saying someone SHORTENED their hair, but did not get a HAIR CUT.

If you take a 8 megapixel IMAGE and RESIZE to 600x800 or any other size(including LARGER than native resolution), unless you did a severe crop it was resampled.

One could argue that putting your hair into a pony tail will shorten it, but that is not getting a hair cut. Going bald would shorten your hair without cutting it as well. I wax my legs which shortens the hair without cutting it.

I am just being silly now, I know.

 

[Anewman]

One could argue that putting your hair into a pony tail will shorten it, but that is not getting a hair cut. Going bald would shorten your hair without cutting it as well. I wax my legs which shortens the hair without cutting it.

I am just being silly now, I know.

Actually a pony tail would not SHORTEN hair, hair length would be unaltered.

And since I dont wax, does waxing shorten hair or rip it out at the roots?

 

[Groucho]

FWIW, in Irfanview, if you hit Ctrl-R you get "Resize/Resample image", and you can choose to "resize (faster)" or "resample (better quality)", and if you resample, you can choose the filter to use, out of six, ranked from slowest to fastest.

I believe that like I said, resize just tosses out data - like if you resize from 800x600 to 400x300, it will completely eliminate every other line, vertical and horizontal. This is bad enough, but resizing a different ratio (like 800x600 to 521x391) will look really terrible, as some places will have two lines lost, some just one... This is what you find sometimes if someone's doing a really sloppy web page that has a large inline image that they've used HTML code to resize to a certain size. The browser downloads the full-size pic and resizes it itself to what the page recommends and it usually looks terrible!

While resample will attempt to preserve as much of the original detail as possible.

Ultimately, you've got to do something if you change the resolution, and resample is really the only way to go. And it's still resampling if it's done by the raw converter.

 

[Anewman]

I believe that like I said, resize just tosses out data - like if you resize from 800x600 to 400x300, it will completely eliminate every other line, vertical and horizontal. This is bad enough, but resizing a different ratio (like 800x600 to 521x391) will look really terrible, as some places will have two lines lost, some just one...

That is a resampling method, I think that is called bilinear.

Anytime you take an image and change the native resolution it is resampled, there are countless methods and devices to do the resampling but it does not change what it is.

If you open an image in Photoshop(CS2) and goto the resize menu(ALT CTRL I), if you uncheck the resample box you can not change the resolution. Photoshop also has four different resampling methods(algorithms) such as bicubic and nearest neighbor.

 

[Dznefreek]

If you are using XP:
Go to Microsoft .com
Type in Power Toys in the search box
Download Image Resizer under the Power Toys page (it is on the left halfway down)

 

[photo_chick]

Actually a pony tail would not SHORTEN hair, hair length would be unaltered.

And since I dont wax, does waxing shorten hair or rip it out at the roots?

A ponytail would shorten the hairstyle-- it is in the point of view. When i would put my hair in a pony tail it kept the overall length short enough to not get caught in the top case fan on my computer when was picking something up. When it was down it was too long and got caught in the fan.

If you wax correctly it should yank it out by the roots. When I tried to bikini wax it just broke the hair off before I was blinded by pain so that is all I really know about that! But the hair follicle is still there in waxing and that is where the hair grow back from.

Again, I guess it depends on your point of view. I still respectfully agree to disagree.

 

[DISNEYLOVER70]

Groucho-
I am going to try irfanview and see how that goes. Thanks for the detailed instructions!

Renee

 

[Groucho]

Renee, you're welcome. Good luck and let me know if you need any more help. Irfanview has got tremendous power, I've been using it for a few years and am still finding new tricks!

Well, I think resize as a separate thing from resample is kind of a tomato, to-mah-to thing. You can't resample without resizing, and it's debatable if you can resize without resampling.

Photoshop won't do a "simple" resize because the quality is junk and Adobe doesn't want that.

Paint Shop Pro apparently makes a distinction between the two terms, like Irfanview does. This page (warning, slow-loading Java applet) has close-ups of the difference. "Resizing duplicates or deletes pixels while Resampling smooths out rough spots by estimating how the 'missing' pixels should appear, and filling them with the appropriate color."

Here's some techy info, specifically pointing out that bilinear is "true" resampling and not simple resizing.

This page has some short info about the different methods of resizing a photo, one of which is merely "Pixel Resize - Simply stretches the image to the new size. This is the fastest option but has the least smoothing."

Photo_chick, I guess I'm just confused - if you don't like resampling, what do you like? I'm pretty sure that whatever you like it just resampling by another name (because nobody likes plain ol' resizing!)

 

[Lachesis00]

The BEST program that is quick if you want to do some mass resizing with little editing (it does minor editing, but each photo could be different...)

EZThumbnails Fookes.com I love this program!