Image size

With different sensor sizes and megapixels on all cameras these days, its a hard question to answer, and I would rather steer you away from that and allow your solution become a software one.

I realise you have asked for a specific purpose, else you would not have asked the question in the first place, the only sure way to do it would be to setup camera on tripod, take photo, reduce image size, take another shot...rinse and repeat down through your sizes. Then observe file sizes through a software. BE aware that differnet photos at the final size you arrive at will be different sizes due to detail and/or colour variation.

However, I would advise a different route and have you take your photo's at as full a resolution as possible, then to have a software automatically resize all your images to the required size with just a few clicks. The reason is its better to have a full res photo for when you really capture that "Magic" photo, that may be saleable or you want printed to go on your wall.

Depending on the software you have there are ways to do this easily and a bit of work can enable you to accomplish this every time you load images to your pc. For example I can quickly setup my software to work on a whole folder of images, and it will reduce the size, sharpen put a frame around them, rename them and save...Just load the folder, walk away, operate kettle, come back job done.

What software do you have and why are you trying to do this, is it just to take photos and have them ready for web use without having to resize or some other reason?

Steve...

 

Woo Steve is correct about taking and keeping the largest image you can
and again your need to reduce image size

You can woogle "image resizer" and there are many free ones
I find this one quick and easy, for any pic any size and it is Free with a licence NOT PIRATE STUFF

http://download.cnet.com/AnyPic-Image-Resizer-Pro/3000-2192_4-75446952.html

Jack McH

 

Another thing to consider is how the images will be judged - as prints or on screen.
If on-screen you can reduce the pixels using PS Elements down to about 75 pixels per inch without really any noticeable degradation of the image and doing so would significantly reduce the file size.
I've just done an experiment with a 5185 x 3456 jpg. In its original 350 px form the file size was 51.3 Mb but converting to 75 px the file size is 2.36 Mb.
When i post image files to the web I always reduce the pixel/inch size as it results in faster uploads with next to no visible degradation of image quality at normal (i.e. non-zoomed viewing.

As Steve has said you are better reducing image size using your PC and photo editing software than in-camera.

 

I've got a slightly techie solution for you WOO.

When building web pages we sometimes want the absolutely smallest [filesize] image that has no apparent loss of quality. So we want to reduce the image just to the point where quality is adversely effected.

We use an online tool. We give it a "full fat" image, and it reduces it using various algorithms, and then displays all the various renditions it has made, one above the other - with quality gradually reduced as you work your way down the list of images.

Now here's the clever bit, if you put your mouse over any of the images then that image is replaced with the original - move your mouse out and the compressed image is put back again. By moving your mouse over/out of the image repeated the original/reduced images are toggled, and any changes in them show up like a stroboscopic light. This makes it really easy to see how much quality has been lost. It also displays, next to each image, what the filesize would be for that amount of quality reduction - so would be easy to a) see the image nearest to 1024KB and b) whether the quality has been wrecked, or not, at that compression.

I'm hoping that this may be important for a photographic competition.

http://www.netmechanic.com/products/GIFbot_FreeSample.shtml

You need to upload your image to the web somewhere (there is a File Upload button, but it only allows images up to 256K). Once you have uploaded your image to the WEB you need to enter a URL to it

Set the "Output Format:" to "Same as input type"

I don't think you need to enter a real email address

 

So they want it 1024 Kilobytes, which is exactly 1MB in size, have they mentioned a size in pxels they want the photo to be, they may have said something along the lines of 800px x 600px, assuming they have and you have those sizes, I'll try to help. Your photoshop elements is very similar to my full version Photoshop, if a little cut down.

Go to, "Image/Image Size"

Make sure Scale Styles. Constrain Proportions and Resample Image have a tick next to them and that Bicubic Automatic is selected at the bottom, then at the top under Pixel dimensions enter the pixel size of the longest dimension, the second and shorter dimension should automatically change for you. Click ok.

Now we save the image.

The following might be slightly different on your elements, if you struggle a couple of screen shots will help me determine your options.

Go to "File/Save As" this saves your photo as a new photo so that it does not ovverwrite your original. And select jpeg as the file type if not already selected, and type in a unique name for the photo and hit the "Save" button. A new box should open.

In the new box click the radio button next to "Progressive" and put a tick next to the "Preview" box if there is one. Now hopefully there is a slider that you can move left to right and as you move it it should tell you how big the file is, get it to 1mb or less and click ok. Your done, put feet up and enjoy a nice cup of tea.

Steve...

Any problems get back to me..