Home
Club Background
Calender of events and meetings.
Meetings
Gulf States Camera Club Council / Photographic Society of America
Contact Us / Membership Form / Competition and Judging/ Model Release Form

Corpus Christi Camera Club

Welcome graphic

How do I size a photograph for a web page?  How do I set the size of a photograph from my digital camera for a certain size to print? I hope to help you answer those questions at the presentation on the April 28th meeting.

To help you prepare for the presentation here are a few tips.

For digital photos the size is determined by the size on the camera when it takes the photo. This size is stated in numbers of pixels across and down. The pixels in a digital photo are like the grain or colored dots that make up the image of a film photo.

In a film photo the size is stated in a dimension, inches or millimeters. In a digital photo the pixel is used because the pixel size is different from camera to camera. The normal limitation on how big a print that can be made is determined when the grain or pixels become so noticeable they are objectionable. This limit changes with the viewing distance. A photo on a billboard may have large grain or pixels but because of the viewing distance they are not objectionable.

When you post a photo on a website or email it size does matter. Most of the time when a photo is viewed on a computer there are 72 pixels per inch, or about 3 pixels per millimeter. If you send an email with a lot of full size images from your digital camera you will notice it takes a long time to send the email and sometimes the attachment will be so big the company you have your email account with will not send it. By changing the size of your photos before you send them you can avoid this limitation.

What size are my images? First look at the manual that came with your camera. You may find you can save the images in several different sizes. What is best? Because we in the camera club normally want the best possible image to show at the meetings or hang on the walls of our house we might save the highest quality our camera produces. Some times you may have a situation where this does not fit what you want. For the maximum number of photos on the storage device in your camera you will have to decide how small can you stand. Do this ahead of time and take photos of different size and compression and then look at the results on the medium you want them displayed on. If you choose a small size and or a high compression method that choice is fixed. Another factor is how fast your camera can take one photo after another. In most cases smaller sizes and compressed files result in faster action from your camera. Your camera manual will give you this information.

You can see the size of each image by looking at the file information displayed on file "details" when viewing the files on your computer. On windows computers there are several options for viewing each file name, "details" is one of those choices. You can also "right click" on the file name and see more information.

What size is right for computer viewing? Like all other answers the answer is it depends on what you want. At one time a common computer screen size was 640 wide by 480 high in pixels. If you put a photo on that screen it would be that size or smaller. Now screens are bigger. Still a 640 by 480 makes a nice viewing size. Several will fit on a single screen and they show enough detail to get the idea across. When sending a photo to a friend by email this size works fine unless you have some other need. If you want prints made from a digital image file printers need 300 pixels per inch or more. That means if you want to send someone a photo to be printed 4 inches by 6 inches the file size would need to be 4 inches times 300pixels and 6 inches times 300 pixels. This would be a 2,160,000 pixel file. Each pixel might need 8 bits. This would be a 17,280,000 bit uncompressed file. Because of the use of compressed image files we do not have to send a file that large.  You as a photographer do not have to worry about all of this. The software will handle most of the math and other work. What do you have to worry about? When you open an image in your photo editing software, some came with your camera, the first thing you do is "save as" another name. I just add an "a" or a "1" after the camera's file name. There are several reasons for this. The first any changes you make will overwrite "destroy" your original image. If the original image is compressed, called a .jpg, then every time you open and close that image in your editing software the image is re compressed and the quality is degraded. Another reason is you may have several uses for that image. You may want to print a large photo to mount on the wall. You may want to send a small version to  someone by email, and you may want to have one sized for a screen saver on your computer. Each would require a different sized image file.

Come to the meeting and we can learn and discus this subject to become better photographers.

 

 

Don't forget that the next meeting will be at the Corpus Christi Museum down under the harbor bridge. Hope to see you there at 6:30 p.m. on April 28th.

 

If there is a feature you would like to see on our web site let me know. Bill

Click here to email me.

We meet on the fourth Tuesday of each month, except December. Our meetings start at 6:30 p.m. and usually end at 8:45 p.m. because we have to be out of the building by 9:00 p.m.

We meet at the Corpus Christi Museum of Science and History, located at 1900 N. Chaparral, from January to May. During the summer we meet at different places. Right now our plans are to meet at Nolan's at 2330 Airline. At the intersection of Airline and Cimarron. Notices are sent out as to where the meetings are to be held. We then go back to the museum from September to November. We do not meet in December. So get there early in order to get a good parking spot.

rushmore.jpg
Mt. Rushmore and Moon B&W by Lynette.

We are members of the Photographic Society of America (PSA), the Gulf States Camera Club Council (GSCCC) and the Art Center of Corpus Christi.

Here are the winners from the End of year.
Color prints:
  1. Around my house        by   Carlos Valdez
  2. Viewed thru the wheel by   Ed Sobalak
  3. Peek-a-Boo                by   Anne Weatherall

    1st HM. Breakfast             by   Lynette Browning

    2nd HM. Friends              by    Eve Kerr

Digital

  1. Flying Low                 by    Bill Browning
  2. Coming Down            by    Lynette Browning
  3. Playing in Paint           by    Lynette Browning

    1st HM.  2 Butterflies       by    Lynette Browning

    2nd HM. Hummingbird     by   Lynette Browning

B&W

  1. Crescent over Rushmore   by    Lynette Browning
  2. In for a Landing                by    Lynette Browning
  3. Daisy                                by    Lynette Browning

    1st HM.  Ready to Strike        by    Lynette Browning

   2nd HM.  Gull Reflection          by   Lynette Browning

Thanks for the fine entries it's fun and educational to see others work.