How do we fix this PIC problem..?

[CSY Man]

Howdy all.

Tried to show a nive picture of my new charger, but I keep getting this message:

The file that you have tried to attach is too big. The maximum size is 1000 bytes.

Well, hell, how do I fix it..Dunk the digital camera in salt water to make it less Pixel sensitive?

Try to edit the pic..?
Got no options on them pull-down menus that says:

OOOps, ya screwed up somehow: Ya have a nice pic, but ya got to change the pixel calories included.

Too heavy for this here page, but we ain't gonne tell ya how to do that...Do a guess and if it don't work, call yer local 'puter geek.


Aye, no geek around...What the hell happened to plug and play?

Is Bill Gates closing the doors on us amaterus?
Why can't we post a pic showing our brand new battery charger, without having a dork-load of error messages show up on the screen?

[Wahoo Sails]

Two things come to mind, first, reduce the image size before you upload it, secondly use a JPEG compression tool to reduce the file size. If you don't have the JPEG compression tool, I heartily recommend getting one, when I send photos via e-mail, I can reduce the file size by a whopping 60% with no apparent loss of image quality ... makes upload/download times much shorter.

Bob & Lynn

[CSY Man]

first, reduce the image size before you upload it,

Good idea, but how...?

[NoTies]

Stand further away from the charger when taking the photo so it seems smaller.

[Talbot]

some graphics programmes will allow you to re-size a picture, and to manipulate the pixel count as well. I use Paint Shop Pro (now owned by Corel) which is particularly good at this.

If you dont want to go to the expense of a decent graphics programme there are a number of freeware tools designed purely to manipulate jpeg sizes here is a link to one of the many available.

[sv_makai]

Most photo editors will allow you to save your photo at a lower resolution. In stead of just File Save , use Save As and select the options to reduce resolution.

Anytime the pixel count or resoultion is reduced the quality of the photo is degraded. It is especially apparent when blowing up the photo. Most time when emailing photos the lower quality is not an issue.

We are using Microsoft Preminum. Works great as an editor and is easy to use.

[CSY Man]

Thanks for the replies.

Yes, I have some of these programs, one is Adobe Photo Shop 3.0.

Been screwing with it for a few minuttes this morning and clicked around, but none of the options are to reduce the pixels, although the physical size can be altered.

Will keep trying and will try the links above.

[ssullivan]

CSY Man:

1000 BYTES is an insanely small amount size. You won't be able to reduce a picture to this size (which is 1 K). A small, but viewable picture of a charger would weigh in at a min of 60K (60,000 bytes) or so. Yours would likely be around 100-200K for us to see detail on this forum (in JPG format).

The error you are running into is the only thing I really feel isn't designed well on this board. The "Attach File" part of the form when you post is completely useless. The way many of us have got around it is to post your picture into your own gallery in your profile. (The My Gallery section)

Open up that picture in your gallery and note the URL at the top of your browser (http://blah blah blah). Copy that link into your message, and people can at least click on the link to open up your image.

I have seen some people post images inline as well, but I haven't taken a lot of time to figure out how to do that. What I do know is they can't be using the "Attach File" feature. It does indeed show a 1000 byte limit. Maybe the person who first set up the board forgot to set that to a proper size. It would be great if they fixed that and adjusted it to a more reasonable size.. maybe 300K.

[ssullivan]

CSY Man once whispered in the wind:
Thanks for the replies.

Yes, I have some of these programs, one is Adobe Photo Shop 3.0.

Been screwing with it for a few minuttes this morning and clicked around, but none of the options are to reduce the pixels, although the physical size can be altered.

Will keep trying and will try the links above.

Just for the sake of using Photoshop to reduce images in general:

You are on the right track in "reducing pixels". The area you went into (Image Size"), does indeed change the size of the file you are saving. There are 2 things in there that do it:

1) The Width and Height settings. Make sure when you change one, the other is changed by the same relative amount. For instance, if you have 100x300 as an initial setting, and you change the first number from 100 to 50, you will need to be sure the other number changes by the same amount... or... changes from 300 to 150. This is usually automatic. If you don't do this, you will find your picture will be stretched out or flattened.

2) The resolution setting. This one is probably most important. If you are starting with a 300 dpi resolution, even on a small image, you will have a huge file size. This is because you are keeping a lot of detail in the image. You will need to reduce this number to around 100 dpi at the maximum for posting to a website (reducing the picture size by 2/3). The higher numbers are essentially for print work, since you need a lot of resolution on paper for things not to look grainy. The computer display requires far less detail. Just crank this number as low as you can go without losing the details you want to see - may involve some trial and error, but sticking to about 100 will deliver an unbloated image that is easy on the eyes.

3) When you are saving, you will want to check the jpg quality setting that pops up. If this is at 10, you may want to reduce it down to 7 or so. This will shrink the file size further, but as you make it really small, you will lose deatail.

PS: In more recent versions of Photoshop (not sure if this is in yours), you can select File->Save For Web. This takes a lot of the guesswork out of this process, allowing you to play with the settings and jpg quality while seeing a preview of the image. Then when you have everything just the way you want it, you can save it out.

Hope that helps a little bit.

[NoTies]

Had a bit of a play with one of my photos. If you have "paint", open it in that then go to "image" "stretch/skew" then reduce the percentages in the stretchbox to 50%. This makes the file size 1/4 of what it was, you can reduce/increase as much as you want. Best to make a copy of the photo and play with that so you still have the original. Didn't reduce the quality of a 1 meg file significantly on my screen.

[CSY Man]

Okay Gents, thanks for the advice, and yes I am making progress here.

I did download and install Mr.Talbot's free program, the one called Picaso.

Incidentally it found a bunch of "lost" pictures and picture files that we thought were gone forever on this here PC.
My better half is an artist and she has been in a bad mood lately 'cause some of her stuff was "lost".
Not anymore, thanks Mr. Talbot, as you know, if Mama ain't happy, nobody ain't happy....

As for the picture of the stupid battery charger.
Yeah, not a big deal. The only reason I thought of posting an image of the thing is that I already had the pic on the 'puter for insurance purposes 'cause I have bolted on a few expensive items since the last insurance survey, and a picture is worth a thousand words, etc.
Then we had a thread running on just battery chargers and in a beer-haze last night, I thought it would be a good idea to add the picture to the thread...

Now, that size thing has been a problem for me other times as well: Been trying to build a web-page, or rather a home page, but it also have restrictions on size. (Guess they want extra money for unlimited size pictures)

I have been poking around Adobe and Picaso, but so far have not
found it an option to shrink the pixels. Yes, for e-mailing purposes they let you reduce it, and also for actual size, say 50%, but no mention of actually reducing the pixels for purposes of up-loading.

But then again, both the Adobe photo-shop and the Picaso program are the free versions, and may have limited options.

Will keep trying...And yes, I can put the battery charger in the photo gallery, but not sure if it is THAT good looking....

[Talbot]

Glad to have been able to assist in restoring marital harmony