canberrabirds

File sizes

To: <>
Subject: File sizes
From: "Geoffrey Dabb" <>
Date: Thu, 19 Apr 2007 19:05:54 +1000

A  couple of chatline members who have been severely inconvenienced by the transmission of very large files have suggested that I resend the below message from (was it indeed, Great Scot!, May 2005?).  It could benefit from some updating, but please just note the general drift.  I notice that conventions have changed and the  ? ___?  Should be “ ____”.

 

___________________________________________________________________________________________________

 

At David McDonald's suggestion and in consultation with David Cook I have slightly revised and expanded an earlier message about making use of the list to share bird photos.  With much greater enthusiasm for snapping birds as a result of digital gear, I anticipate there will be a lot more pics obtained that will be worth putting around.  My suggestions are set out below and are in the same form in the enclosed word doct.  

 

Guidelines for sending bird photos on canberrabirds chatline

 

1)  Photos of some current interest are suitable for the list, such as those showing rare visitors, or unusual behaviour, or subjects where help is sought with identification.

 

2)  Unless the pic has current news value, consider sending it to the COG Photogallery rather than emailing to the list.  There are no set size limits for sending to the gallery, as any necessary resizing is done by David Cook.  Photos are normally displayed promptly.  

 

3)  Photo attachments to emails to the list should not be more than 100kb.

 

4)  The following points may assist in reducing the size of bird photos:

 

·                    A picture simply transferred from digital camera memory or a scanner will usually be too large to email but can be edited by a simple graphics program (the kind supplied with many digital cameras) to produce a ?jpeg? image of appropriate size.

 

·                    ?Editing? in this sense need not affect the original image, but involves producing an additional version that is suitable for emailing.

 

·                    Reduce the amount of information in the image by cropping it to show only relevant detail eg in most cases just the bird will be sufficient, with minimum background.  This will probably also reduce the dimensions of the image.

 

·                    Further reduce the dimensions of the image (by using ?resize? or ?save as? options).  Dimensions might be expressed in cms, inches or pixels.  A pixel size of 300x200 that is ?mainly bird? will generally be large enough in most cases for viewing on a monitor, even though it might not enlarge or print with good quality.  A jpeg image more than 600 wide might be too big for convenient viewing on the monitor at the receiving end.

  

·                    The two above steps will generally achieve an image of less than.100kb.  If the file-size is still too big, consider reducing the resolution of the image.  How this is done will depend on the editing program, but it might be achieved by applying a degree of ?compression?, by selecting a standard such as ?medium? or ?low? rather than ?high?, by reducing the pixels per inch or centimetre, or by using some other resolution scale however expressed.  Sometimes when an image is ?saved? or ?saved as? this will of itself alter the size of the file ? either up or down.

 

·                    At the stage of sending the image, your program might give you an opportunity to specify the dimensions for sending eg ?actual size?, ?full screen?, ?quarter screen? and/or at a specified width in pixels.  This is another way of controlling dimensions, that can be used instead of or additionally to that indicated above.

 

5)  If you have not had much experience in editing and emailing photos, you may wish to experiment.  You can discard the results ? and your original image need not be affected, although you may wish to make a copy to work on as a precaution.  You can also practise by emailing an image to yourself to see how it will look, and how large it is, when received.        

 

6)  When replying to or commenting on messages with pics, take care not to resend the pic unnecessarily.  This can easily be overlooked if the pic is embedded in the original message rather than an attachment.  If your reply settings do not automatically delete the pic, you will need to do this manually.

     

                Geoffrey Dabb
email    :  
m("iinet.net.au","gdabb");">
ph/fax   :   02 6295 3449
 

Attachment:emailing bird photos.doc
Description: MS-Word document

 

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