Dealing With Digital Photos

What if you need to send digital pictures to your web or graphic designer? Or you may want to blackmail your boss with photos from the office party - but that's a felony so I would discourage you from doing that!

To share your pictures, whether you are sending them to your designer or to Grandma, you will need to make sure the file size is within the limits of the application you are using, whether it is your email utility or an online photo album like Snapfish.com.

The file size is determined by the resolution (dpi, or dots per inch) and image size (the width and height of the image). The files coming directly from the camera are usually 72 dpi (dots per inch) and poster-sized at 42"x28" plus, which translates to a huge - 18MG - file. Both can be changed in your image editing software.

To share a file that can later be used in a printed catalog for example, or that Grandma can print on her snazzy new photoprinter you will need to increase the resolution to 300 dpi. If the photo will be used for your soon-to-be launched eCommerce website or used by Aunt Annie as her screen saver 72 dpi - 92 dpi is fine.

But the file still will be too large. To put this bloated file on a diet, reduce the image size to a more standard size; 8x10, 4x6 etc. Even with an 8x10 image size, you will notice the file drops down to a relatively slender 1.5MG. This may still be too large to email or upload, however. You will need to find out the maximum file size your application allows and reduce your image size accordingly.

It is important to note that many cameras create images with non-standard aspect (height to width) ratios. This means when you reduce the width of a picture with a portrait (up/down) layout to 8”, the height might only be reduced to 12”. Be sure your “maintain aspect ratio” option is selected. You will know this option is on when you type in a height value and the width value automatically changes. If this option is NOT selected and you end up changing the aspect ratio the resulting picture will be squished and your subjects will end up looking like something from a house of mirrors.

OK, so I exaggerated the error here - and it's a shameless ploy to show you pictures of my kids - but you get the point.