Need help with image resizing

Foques

Ladies and gentlemen,

I am in need of a bit of a guidance; I need to figure out how to resize my images with a minimal quality loss.

I have a series of portait shoots, and client has requested that I create thumbnail images for them; the images must be up to 30kb in size.


thank you in advance

AceCo55

I'm pretty sure downsizing an image shouldn't degrade image quality ... if you don't choose a high compression.
Also, the smaller the image the sharper it will generally look - so I don't see a problem
First thing is to decide the pixel dimensions of the thumbnail.

In Photoshop:
MAKE SURE YOU ARE RE-SIZING COPIES!!!!!!!!
Image > Image Size > enter pixel dimensions and choose resize image and choose "Bicubic Sharper" for the method
File > Save (and choose a Quality level like 8,9,10)
I suspect, that method is not going to get you below 30kb though

Hence I would try:
File > Save for Web ...
In the dialogue box set the pixel dimension of the long side (lower right) and adjust the quality slider (upper right) until you can find a value that gives you around 30kb (look just below the photo on left hand side)
I'm guessing you will need a "medium" setting of around quality 30 or 40
Save the resized image to you desired location and then choose "NO" when it asks if you want to save changes (these are the changes to the original image you opened with)

I have many actions that I have made to create smaller versions of my images (for various outputs)

Thelensspot

AceCo55 wrote: »

Hence I would try:

File > Save for Web ...
In the dialogue box set the pixel dimension of the long side (lower right) and adjust the quality slider (upper right) until you can find a value that gives you around 30kb (look just below the photo on left hand side)
I'm guessing you will need a "medium" setting of around quality 30 or 40
Save the resized image to you desired location and then choose "NO" when it asks if you want to save changes (these are the changes to the original image you opened with)

I have many actions that I have made to create smaller versions of my images (for various outputs)

In PS CC the path is now File> Export > Save for Web (Legacy)...or Alt + Shift + Ctrl + S
This method has served me quite well over time and the images look fine.

Peano

Foques wrote: »

Ladies and gentlemen,

I am in need of a bit of a guidance; I need to figure out how to resize my images with a minimal quality loss.

I have a series of portait shoots, and client has requested that I create thumbnail images for them; the images must be up to 30kb in size.


thank you in advance

What software are you using? Photoshop?

Foques

you know, I'd completely forgotten about the save for web option. thank you

Peano

AceCo55 wrote: »

Hence I would try:
File > Save for Web ...
In the dialogue box set the pixel dimension of the long side (lower right) and adjust the quality slider (upper right) until you can find a value that gives you around 30kb (look just below the photo on left hand side)
I'm guessing you will need a "medium" setting of around quality 30 or 40
Save the resized image to you desired location and then choose "NO" when it asks if you want to save changes (these are the changes to the original image you opened with)

No, you don't have to do all that guesswork. In the Save for Web dialog box, open this menu and click Optimize to File Size. That opens a second dialog where you can set the maximum file size (30K in this case) that you want.

AceCo55

Thanks for the extra info.
I have CS6 which has all of the settings I mention

Never seen a copy of CC, so it was interesting to see the difference.
The optimize to file size is a nice touch.