Digital Photo Question...

I've got a friend (yes, it's true - just one though! /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif) who has 1 digital camera. I've no idea what brand it is or what it's spec'd out as...anyway, everytime they upload a pic to their computer, it's like 4 screens large. He tries to print them and it prints about 1/4 of the pic on each of 4 pages. He emails them to me and same thing...have to scroll around to see it all until I resize it...

Now I have 3 digital cameras and I don't have that problem at all. I've resized a few of his pics for him. Is it his software settings or what? I have no idea what to tell him so that they can get normal sized pics. Mine work fine...

Help? I know some of you are just digital/graphic experts and am certainly hoping you can tell me something that he will easily understand...thanks!

He's probably taking pictures at a 1600x1200 resolution. While the quality is good, the pics come out huge on a 800x600 screen. He should be able to change the camera settings so it takes pics at 800x600 or 640x480 so the pics wouldn't be so big. The main drawback is the quality of the pics will not be as good when blown up or printed.

Another way is the software that he uploads his pics to should have some sort of batch processor to resize the pics to a useable level. 640x480 is a good size for email and web pages.

Sigman,
It could be a few things, What resolution are his pictures? What software is he viewing with? What software is he using to print with? I would suggest he download a copy of Compupic from www.photodex.com and try that SW for viewing and print. He can demo it for 30 days to see if it's a software issue. The SW automatically resizes pictures for displaying and printing, plus a lot more features.
What software are you using to resize? If you can resize, you must know the res? Need more details to start debuging.
Sorry, more questions than answers here.

I agree with Billy here. His camera is probably set to its highest resolution, so it spits out 1600x1200 images.
Having him change the camera settings to 800x600 or 640x480 would solve these problems - though some detail might become lost. Resizing the images on the computer with the camera's photo editing software, Photoshop, Irfanview, or other image viewer would also work.

As an example, on Irfanview you can hit ALT-I and then M (or hit CTRL-R without the modify image box on screen) and then type "640" in the "width" box to resize the picture (if the "preserve aspect ratio" box stays checked, you won't have to type anything in the "height" box - it will automatically put 480 in it). Once the picture is resized, hit ALT-F and scroll down to "save" or "save as" to save the photo in its new size.

It's actually quite easy to do once you get used to it.

I'm a big believer in taking pictures at the maximum resolution because if it's a keeper that you want to print, you'll be glad you did. I then resize, typcially 800x600 before emailing. As mentioned, there are plenty of imaging software apps that will do that and most will allow you to view at "fit to screen" as well.

P.S. Irfanview is a good starter app as it's free.

try Qimage web page it automatically resizes images to standard sizes for printing, if that's what you want to do. Very good subsampling, crisp prints. For web display, just use any photo editing software to resize. Qimage prints real good images.
Rob

I emailed him a link to this page as well as Irfan View (which I use as well as ACDSee). Verified he's taking 1600x1200s...thought his photo printing software would resize for him.

His camera had to come with software for printing & editing...Thanks for the help...we'll "stay on it" until he's comfortable with the process.

I take all my pics at the native 1800X2400 resolution of my digital camera (a three year old Fuji 4700). I stay at this resolution because the initial image is essentially the "negative" and taking it at a lesser resolution limits the quality of the image and its future uses.

My usual image viewer defaults to full-screen should the image be larger, and, of course, I seriously reduce the size for anything I use on the web. I also usually reduce the size when e-mailing, unless the recipient will be printing the image.

My strong suggestion would be for your friend to learn to use his computer to properly view images, and to learn to reduce images to an appropriate size for e-mailing and such.

I would NOT suggest reducing the quality of the originals by going to a smaller size for the original.

(I plan on getting a higher resolution camera in the future since this one limits me to no more than 11X14 inch prints at good quality. Of course having abundant resolution is also good even with small prints - it allows cropping so that most any part of the image can be printed as an entire image.)

I suppose that's why I have a 40G drive just for images. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif

Sigman

What O/S is he using?

I know that people on this board don't like Microsoft O/S's, but XP does have some photo software built in, it can resize photos for printing or e-mail.

In printing it can stretch or shrink a photo to fill a page, also print it in various sizes from wallet (with multiple copies or other images) to 8"x10"

This is simplest way I have found for WinXP.

With having to do tech support for a parent who likes electronics, but looks for the "Any" key. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif I try to find the simplest way.

[ QUOTE ]
Tomas said:

My strong suggestion would be for your friend to learn to use his computer to properly view images, and to learn to reduce images to an appropriate size for e-mailing and such.

I would NOT suggest reducing the quality of the originals by going to a smaller size for the original.




[/ QUOTE ]

A big second on that. You effectively ruin the images for most printing applicaitions by limiting the settings on the camera. Why buy a good camera, and then take lousy photos with it? /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/icon15.gif

David <><