Storing pictures in your computer

[Snakelove]

Hey guys,

When you have a huge sized picture taken from a DSLR, do you crop them to make the size (mb) smaller? Or do you just leave them as it is? If you do crop them, what program do you use?

Cheers,
Nick

 

[Snake_Whisperer]

Hey Nick,

What you need to do is resize, not necessarily crop. Your photo will be up there around 3000 pixels or more across, those are the numbers you need to reduce. If you right click your image, the pop up box should have an "edit" option (on my system it is 3rd from the top). Click that and you will open up in MS Paint. Once open in paint, second from the left on the top toolbar is an option to "resize". When that opens, you can shrink your image either by percentage or numerically, depending on the radio button you select.

Hope that helps!

Cheers,
Aaron

 

[Snakelove]

Hey Nick,

What you need to do is resize, not necessarily crop. Your photo will be up there around 3000 pixels or more across, those are the numbers you need to reduce. If you right click your image, the pop up box should have an "edit" option (on my system it is 3rd from the top). Click that and you will open up in MS Paint. Once open in paint, second from the left on the top toolbar is an option to "resize". When that opens, you can shrink your image either by percentage or numerically, depending on the radio button you select.

Hope that helps!

Cheers,
Aaron

Hey Aaron,

Oh that's good! Because that's what I do now. I didn't know how to explain it properly but yeah I meant resize. I thought doing it through Paint degrades the picture somehow. Thanks Aaron!

Cheers,
Nick

 

[HydroGoat]

I just take them at a reasonable resolution on my camera, because realistically, what are you going to need such a huge pic for? I use 1600x1200 and it's perfect.

 

[Renenet]

Paint isn't the best program for this kind of thing. While it'll do in a pinch, there are better programs for resizing while still retaining image quality. I use the well-regarded Irfanview, which is freeware (for non-commercial use) available at www.irfanview.com.

Note that if you resize the picture, you're going to experience a degradation in quality no matter what you use. You might be okay with that if the pics are for your own personal use. It's a different story if you're taking pictures professionally. Also be careful about overdoing it - if you resize too much you might not be able to print a decent 6 x 4" photo.

 

[FusionMorelia]

i shoot everything in raw and jpeg and store them on a western digital external drive, u can get a terrabyte now for $120
its worth it to keep all your shots at full size and full quality, allowing you to crop and edit a copy b4 having it developed

 

[falconboy]

Irfanview I've found degrades a lot. I've changed to Picasa and using the Export feature I am very happy with the quality if resizing.

 

[Snakelove]

Irfanview I've found degrades a lot. I've changed to Picasa and using the Export feature I am very happy with the quality if resizing.

Ah thank you for that. I'm gonna try it out. Looks good

 

[Defective]

photoshop is your friend or just get a portable HDD!!!

 

[Banjo]

I just store my photos on an external hard drive at full size, you never know when you may need full resolution photos, and like mentioned earlier you can get a 1 TB fairly cheap, and if your system crashes you still have your photos on the external drive, and any other important Docs you need to keep.