Resizing to under 8MB?

fclark

I'm just a standard user at this point, so my images need to be under the 8mb limit. I don't totally understand the whole techno-stuff behind how large image files are, so bear with me. I've converted a bunch of RAW files from my Canon 350D to JPGs, and the size really varies - some are barely 1mb, and some are 10mb?!? It doesn't seem to correlate with whether or not I"ve done any post-processing on them or not.

My question is what is the best way to get these files under the 8mb limit? I'm sure there must be a way to still have great image quality at that size, but I'm not sure if I should be changing the jpg quality when I save, or changing the ppi or something. These images will likely be sent for commercial printing, so they're not just for web viewing.

Thank you!

bwg

fclark wrote:

I'm just a standard user at this point, so my images need to be under the 8mb limit. I don't totally understand the whole techno-stuff behind how large image files are, so bear with me. I've converted a bunch of RAW files from my Canon 350D to JPGs, and the size really varies - some are barely 1mb, and some are 10mb?!? It doesn't seem to correlate with whether or not I"ve done any post-processing on them or not.

My question is what is the best way to get these files under the 8mb limit? I'm sure there must be a way to still have great image quality at that size, but I'm not sure if I should be changing the jpg quality when I save, or changing the ppi or something. These images will likely be sent for commercial printing, so they're not just for web viewing.

Thank you!

make sure you're saving the jpg's as 10 quality, not 12. see http://smugmug.com/help/photo-storage for more information

Sheaf

fclark wrote:

I'm just a standard user at this point, so my images need to be under the 8mb limit. I don't totally understand the whole techno-stuff behind how large image files are, so bear with me. I've converted a bunch of RAW files from my Canon 350D to JPGs, and the size really varies - some are barely 1mb, and some are 10mb?!? It doesn't seem to correlate with whether or not I"ve done any post-processing on them or not.

My question is what is the best way to get these files under the 8mb limit? I'm sure there must be a way to still have great image quality at that size, but I'm not sure if I should be changing the jpg quality when I save, or changing the ppi or something. These images will likely be sent for commercial printing, so they're not just for web viewing.

Thank you!

The files are different sizes because of the way JPEG compression works. The general rule is the more "busy" a photo is, the larger the size is. If half the photo is taken up by blue sky, it will compress well and be smaller.

fclark

bigwebguy wrote:

make sure you're saving the jpg's as 10 quality, not 12. see http://smugmug.com/help/photo-storage for more information

I'm using PSP 9, and the jpeg quality settings go from 1 (highest quality) to 99. I've been saving on 1. When I choose Image-Resize, my original dimensions show as width: 2242 pixels (4 in) height: 3365 pixels (6in) and resolution: 560 pixels/inch. Then I can adjust the pixel dimensions, which changes the print size in inches as I slide it, but the resolution stays at 560 ppi. That is with the default 'resample using: Smart Size" option checked. If I uncheck that, then I can change the resolution, which of course also changes the print size possible. If I do this and change it to a lower resolution, say 125ppi, my file size actually gets a little bit larger. ???

I've also tried changing the jpeg quality when I save - a 10mb file goes down to 7mb when I change the quality from 1 to 3. It seems like this would be the best option for resizing, then - there can't be too much difference between 1 and 3 out of 99??

The article you referenced wasn't really what I was looking for - there is a link at the bottom of the page to 'click here' for more info on saving jpeg files, but that page comes up blank for me. ???

Thanks.