 |
|
Once you have finished making all the adjustments to your image that you normally make (cropping, adjusting colors, levels, curves, saturation, etc.), you are ready for the last step of resizing your photo for the Digital Challege. The requirement: reduce the pixel dimensions so you image will fit within a rectangle with a horizontal (H) dimension of 1024 pixels and a vertical (V) dimension of 768 pixels. To start, open the "Image Size" dialog (or "Resize > Resize Image" in Elements). It can be found under the Image menu and should look much as seen here.
Pixel Dimensions: The top section labeled "Pixel Dimensions" tells you the size of your image file in megabytes (this one specifies 23.1M). You also learn the total number of pixels within the image - 3120 wide by 2592 high in this example. The height multiplied by the width reflects your camera's Megapixel rating, the number of pixels, in millions, recorded by your camera sensor.
Document Size: The next section, Document Size, tells you how large the image will appear on a PRINTED page at a specified number of pixels per inch (Resolution). If you were sending this image to an inkjet printer, the printer would be commanded to space its drops at 300 per inch and the overall size of the image on paper would be 10.4" by 8.64". But photos for the Digital Challenge are not being printed. Instead, they will be sent to the Web which does not use this information. So the Document Size section can be ignored for the remainder of this HowTo.
Scale Styles: This setting is important if you are changing pixel dimensions in an image with more than one layer. Although unnecessary in most cases, you may leave this checked to be sure.
Constrain Proportions: If your photograph has an aspect ratio of 4:3, you probably want to keep that same shape when you reduce pixels. Clicking on Constrain Proportions will assure that the original aspect ratio is maintained.
Resample Image: Reducing (or increasing) the number of pixels in an image is called "Resampling". Photoshop doesn't simply discard pixels when resampling, but uses information from the discarded pixels to maintain the integrity of the original. How it uses the lost pixels (or added pixels when upsizing) can be chosen from a dropdown menu seen above as "Bicubic Sharper (best for reduction)". Options also include a Bicubic Smoother, recommended when upsizing an image.
Here's
the downsizing process in Photoshop:
1) Check "Scale Sizes"
2) Check "Constrain Proportions"
3) Check "Resample Image"
4) Set the resample option to Bicubic Sharper
(NOTE: Adobe recommends Bicubic Sharper when reducing pixels but some images may look better using other settings)5) Change the Image Width to 1024 pixels
6) Make sure the Image Height is no more than 768 Pixels. If it is, you must now reduce that dimension to 768 pixels. (This will also reduce the width below 1024 pixels).
7) Once you have reduced the image so that neither the horizontal 1024 dimension nor the vertical 768 dimension is exceeded, click "OK".
You have now finished downsizing your image for the Digital Challenge and all that is left to do is to "Save As" a JPEG file, at maximum quality and with a new name.
This site is maintained by the Charlottesville Camera Club. All images are property of our members and protected by copyright. For more information please email us at info@c-villecameraclub.org
