How to Reduce the Size of Pictures for Uploading and Sharing

After a great event, we carry the fond memories captured in our hearts, minds AND Cameras :)…. and when we want to upload some of these images from cameras, we discover that they take ages to upload (and view, subsequently) because the size captured in a camera by default is almost 4MB !

So How do we reduce them?

Here is a hands on tutorial on one such method. We will do this using the photo-editing application called IRFAN VIEW. I rate it higher than adobe since it is one of the easiest and most user friendly software that makes working on any pictures so very easy.

Okay, so first go to this site and download the software – it is totally free.http://www.irfanview.com

Having downloaded, install it and you are ready for the quick fixes to your pictures. This tutorial will cover –

A.    How to resize a single picture

B.     How to resize the entire lot of pictures in a folder (it will also touch upon a simple method of enhancing the colors)

HOW TO RESIZE A PICTURE – A SIMPLE THREE STEP PROCEDURE

(click on pictures to enlarge)

1     First locate the picture on your device and right click on it. You will get a drop down menu that will give an option of “OPEN WITH” – choose Irfan view by clicking on it. The menu looks something like this –

 

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2.     Now once the picture opens, go to the top menu of Irfan View and click on “IMAGE” and select “RESIZE” – as shown below –

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3.      Now select the appropriate options from the next dialogue box. I have given two alternatives. These are in RED and BLUE in the picture below. Select any combination and press okay and you are done! It is important to KEEP the aspect ratio and select the percentage judicially. The option in blue is best for viewing on the monitor of your device as it is optimised to the screen size.

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BATCH CONVERSION OF MULTIPLE PICTURES

In case you have many pictures that you wish to reduce in size OR convert to any common form (eg. grayscale) the batch conversion utility makes it possible in just a few clicks. Here is how –

1.     First,  make a new folder on your desktop or any other location where you want to save the new files. This will ensure your original files remain intact. See below –

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2.      Open the folder where you have the files that you want to convert.

3.      Right click on any one picture icon and select “open with”>irfan view ; see picture below

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4.      Now click on Irfan view menu and choose “FILE”>BATCH CONVERSION

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5.     You will get a screen that will look like the one given below. Follow the steps as shown. Step 1 is the file where you have your original pictures. Select the options upto  as listed in the sequence upto 4 as shown- step 5 will be done later.

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6.      After coming to step 4 above click on step 5 ie advanced and select the options as shown in the screen below – You may choose any percentage. The rule of the thumb is to make it 10% for 4 MB files, 20% for 2 MB files and 25% for 1 MB files. This will give you about 250 KB file as output. Click on OK once done.

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7.     Now back to the screen as shown and follow though the steps given – Select the folder where you want the output ie the folder “converted pictures” that you made in Step 1 above.

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8.   Once you click on “Start Batch” the files will start converting and result will be displayed in side window as given below.

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9.    That is it !

10.   Once done, go to your output folder and check the sizes, colors etc and start uploading 🙂

If there has been some mistake like size being too small or still large, just make a new blank folder and apply corrections in the relevant percentage dialogue box in batch conversion and run it again!

 

 

 

 

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