How do reduce IMG file size?

[Darren179]

I would like to post some pics off of my new camera. However the size of each image is about 1mb. How can I reduce this so I can post multiple pictures from this photohost account.

[Bartman]

What I used to do was shrink the photo in photoshop. Ive recently found out, if you can get photoshop 7.0, that if you open the picture up in PS and just resave it it will be smaller. You go to save as and click save. It will then ask you how you want the quality to be, and I go to 7, but between 7 and 15 it looks identical and the quality isnt reduced.

If you dont have photoshop, I think you can use paint to shrink it.

[Matt_K]

What i've found to be even easier in Photoshop is open the pic and click on File, then go to 'Save for web'.. Then just select the quality 'High, Medium, Low' and you're done..

[Darren179]

oh thanks, Kind of late though :P. I just went and did it the long way>

[shaggybill]

Yeah, I do what Matt K does. In Save For Web, you can resize it AND lower the quality while seeing how good it looks as you do it.

[spidergecko]

I like to use ImageReady and just optimize the pic. It cuts it down about 75%.

[Bartman]

Thanks Matt, ive gotta try that out :D

[Big Mike]

You should definitely change both the size and the compression level. Try to keep the size at 600x400 or smaller. That way it won't be too big for most people to view on their monitors.

If the files are pretty good to begin with, you can compress them quite a bit into .jpg format...and they will still look good viewed on the web.

If you plan on keeping the shot for editing later or possibly to print, don't forget to save the original file. Don't copy over it with the saved-for-the-web version.

[Slannesh]

Depending on what i'm doing with the pics determines what I do.

I use Matt's method in Photoshop when i'm just trying to make them small enough to post.

But often i'm resizing for websites so I have specific sizes that I use for that.
Glad you figured it out though :)