I have alot of clients asking me how to resize their own photos versus having me or someone else do it for a fee. It is fairly easy so I wanted to write up an article and give you some basic information on preparing your photos for the web.



Why you SHOULD resize photos for the web


Whether you want to use your photos on social networking sites like Facebook, Hi5 or Myspace, on business auction and selling sites such as eBay or Etsy, on your own web site or blog, or sending via email, at the very least you'll need to resize your photos.


Photos right out of a digital camera or camera phone are too large for web use. For instance, a photo from a digital camera is anywhere from 3300 pixels wide by 2500 pixels high, from a camera phone, it would be smaller, but still too large for web use. If I wanted to post a photo on my website, on Facebook, my blog or even add it to an email, it would need to be no bigger than 500 pixels wide, the height will adjust automatically depending on which service or software you end up using. Some sites have max size requirements, like Etsy and Ebay. As you can tell by just reading this, 500 pixels wide is way smaller than 3300 pixels wide.



Resizing Small to Large


This is NEVER a good idea. Making a photo larger using any online service or graphics editing software will only pixelate, blur or deteriorate your photo and if you have a business and are showing off products, this is even a worse idea. Believe me, I've seen it, and I'm sure you have too and it doesn't look professional in any way.


For example, say you have some products to sell on Etsy and you found an old photo of one of your products on your computer but it is way too small (however it got that way). Below is the small photo, then after it was resized larger. Not too pretty huh? Your best bet is too try and find the original photo then resize it down, which is what I did for the third photo. If you can't find the original, retake the photo then resize it, it is worth it!

Small, Resized Larger, Redone



Resizing Large to Small


There are several different ways to resize your digital photos for web use:


* Free Online Editing and Resizing Service

* Free Downloadable Editing Software

* Purchase Editing Software



Free Online Editing and Resizing Service


There are tons of free online services out there, but I have narrowed it down to just a few that I feel are really good, fun and easy to use:


Aviary has both a basic Photo Editor and an Advanced Suite, both free! So much potential!


Picnik has lots of really cool editing features for free. Of course, you can upgrade to a premium account with even more features! View the samples, really cool!


Photoshop Express Online is a really good online editor, it's a bit harder to learn but has lots of great features. You will need to register for an account before you use this service.



Free Downloadable Editing and Resizing Software


Although I have never used any of the free softwares, the About.com has a list and reviews the top 11 free photo editors for Windows. You can read their article here or go through the top 5 below below to find the right one for your projects. I will first list the About.com's review page, then the publisher's website for each. The rest of the reviews can be found on the About.com Website:


PhotoScape:                  About.com Review        Publisher's Website


Gimp for Windows:        About.com Review        Publisher's Website


Paint.net:                       About.com Review        Publisher's Website


Serif PhotoPlus:             About.com Review        Publisher's Website


Photo Pos Pro:               About.com Review        Publisher's Website



Purchase Software


About.com has a great article on their top picks for Editing software and what to know before you purchase. They broke it down by: Advanced Photo Editors, Beginner Photo Editors, Budget Photo Editors, Digital Photo Software, Web Graphics Software and other options. You can read the full About.com article here.


I wanted to list here their top 3 picks for the Beginner Photo Editing software for Windows:


Photoshop Elements V10:            About.com Review        Publisher's Website


Corel Ulead PhotoImpact X3:       About.com Review        Publisher's Website


Corel PaintShop Pro X4:               About.com Review        Publisher's Website


Before you purchase any software, please do some research to find the best price. I like to start at both Ebay and Amazon.com, then go from there.


Of course with all this said, you could still hire someone to resize your photos for you, which is very easy, but not free.


I hope you enjoyed and found this article somewhat helpful and useful. If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact me.


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