image shrinking (file sizing)
 

When I load pictures from my camera to my computer, the files are too large for me to upload to this website (and most others). Does anyone know of a simple method for shrinking file sizes of photographs?

I use http://imageshack.us/ to host photos here.

Get a free Photobucket account. When you upload photos to it, it even automatically resamples them to 1024x768 for you. Plus, then they are taking up space on the Photobucket server rather than gobbling up BikeForums server space.

tinypic.com takes like 3 seconds to upload. Once you have your size just right click and resave.
photobucket.com saves all your photos and have wayyy more features but you need to make an account and sign in each time.

+1 on Photobucket. Also, the pics don't take up space on your 'puter- an issue for me because of this Mac iBook G3 antique I use. Photobucket has editing functions that include resizing. My notion is that 1024x768 is too wide for the monitor and you end up having to scroll sideways to view the whole thing. Maybe not an issue with wide screen monitors, or maybe it's just this older Mac. Or maybe it's ME, I'm pretty computer-stupid.

I thought this was a mountain bike forum.

You're probably right; although 17 & 19" monitors are pretty common (at least for desktops) any more. Of course, I have to watch myself, since I've been kinda spoiled with this 28 incher.

You can always open the picture with the paint program, and use the stretch skew feature, under the Image tab. I find that 15% for both horizontal and verticle, gives me a size that's easy to E-mail and upload to my photobucket. I didn't realize that photobucket would automatically resize them.

^^ Yes, and that's just the default setting. You can also choose 800x600, 640x480 and even smaller and do batch uploads at your chosen setting.

I know less about the internet and computers, than I do about bikes!

I thought this was a mountain bike forum.

And here I thought it was a "which road bike/bars/tires/clothes can I ride on the trails?" forum.

This is a pretty nice, free, image editor. paint.net/

Otherwise use the MSPaint program that came on your computer like born2bahick said earlier. Just remember to stretch/skew in equal percentages so it doesn't make the picture look funny.

Microsoft tools- Image Resizer works very well.

If you have XP, try Image Resizer.

If you have Vista, try VSO Image resizer.

Anything for us Mac users?

In iPhoto just select the picture then select File/Export from the menu. Export to the size you need. You can select more than one picture when doing this.

upload to flickr

They resize automatically and provide many different sizes for you to link to.

I looked at my Photobucket account, and I have the capability to resize a picture after it's been uploaded. I have a paid account, and don't know if this applies to the free accounts, too. Click on the "edit" link under the thumbnail of the picture. Among the options are cropping and resizing. I've never used these, because I use Paint Shop Pro to do whatever needs done to my pictures before uploading them.

I thought this was a mountain bike forum.

Echo!