Compressing large photos to be able to upload??

[Thomas Hastings]

I'm not sure if this is the correct place for this question, please remove or point me where to post this if necessary. I have searched through the website and the internet to see if I could find any information on how best to compress large files to be able to upload them here, or anywhere that may not allow large files. I may have come across it and didn't realize what I was looking at and for that I apologize.

I have an iPhone 14 Pro. I'm not by any means a photographer or video taking person, but I do appreciate them. I know the immediate simple solution is to simply not use the RAW feature when taking photos or videos. I have played around on my MacBook Air trying to figure out how to compress the RAW files to be able to post them here but have been unable to figure it out.

I have to believe, in 2023, there is someway that I can reduce the file size so I can post them. I'd prefer to not have to buy some expensive program but if that was necessary, then I suppose I would prefer one that would also allow me to make videos as well, I may play around with that for fun. My mom enjoys looking at the pictures and videos from my trips and I have considered making videos for her to watch, not these super fancy ones some of y'all may do I see on YouTube, just something simple.

Anyway, any help in this matter would be greatly appreciated. Thanks y'all!

 

[OTH Overland]

I'm not sure if this is the correct place for this question, please remove or point me where to post this if necessary. I have searched through the website and the internet to see if I could find any information on how best to compress large files to be able to upload them here, or anywhere that may not allow large files. I may have come across it and didn't realize what I was looking at and for that I apologize.

I have an iPhone 14 Pro. I'm not by any means a photographer or video taking person, but I do appreciate them. I know the immediate simple solution is to simply not use the RAW feature when taking photos or videos. I have played around on my MacBook Air trying to figure out how to compress the RAW files to be able to post them here but have been unable to figure it out.

I have to believe, in 2023, there is someway that I can reduce the file size so I can post them. I'd prefer to not have to buy some expensive program but if that was necessary, then I suppose I would prefer one that would also allow me to make videos as well, I may play around with that for fun. My mom enjoys looking at the pictures and videos from my trips and I have considered making videos for her to watch, not these super fancy ones some of y'all may do I see on YouTube, just something simple.

Anyway, any help in this matter would be greatly appreciated. Thanks y'all!

I am not sure you can upload compressed images (other than JPEG is already a compressed image) I have to reduce the resolution (resulting in a smaller file size) of the pictures I take with my DSLR before I can upload them. you do not need anywhere near the resolution on a screen that you need for printing or enlarging a photo. The stock photo viewer in windows allows resizing, I am not much of an Apple user, but I believe that there is a program on the mac called 'preview' right click on the image and should be in the shortcut menu, open that and on the 'tools' pulldown there should be an 'adjust size' option so you can select what resolution you want to switch to. I have a friend who uses something called 'shortcuts app' to reduce his photos, should be able to google that.

I only make videos for fun, so I purchased Filmora from Wondershare which was around $70 for a perpetual license and seems to have most of the typical functions one would want out of a video editor, now that I am creating 3d building animations for work I have added the Adobe suite of photo and video editing software as this is what is industry standard. Photoshop is a super powerful photo editing platform if you really want to dive into editing photos.

 

[Viking1204]

I use Paint.net and it works pretty well, it's free too!

 

[Thomas Hastings]

I am not sure you can upload compressed images (other than JPEG is already a compressed image) I have to reduce the resolution (resulting in a smaller file size) of the pictures I take with my DSLR before I can upload them. you do not need anywhere near the resolution on a screen that you need for printing or enlarging a photo. The stock photo viewer in windows allows resizing, I am not much of an Apple user, but I believe that there is a program on the mac called 'preview' right click on the image and should be in the shortcut menu, open that and on the 'tools' pulldown there should be an 'adjust size' option so you can select what resolution you want to switch to. I have a friend who uses something called 'shortcuts app' to reduce his photos, should be able to google that.

I only make videos for fun, so I purchased Filmora from Wondershare which was around $70 for a perpetual license and seems to have most of the typical functions one would want out of a video editor, now that I am creating 3d building animations for work I have added the Adobe suite of photo and video editing software as this is what is industry standard. Photoshop is a super powerful photo editing platform if you really want to dive into editing photos.

Great info, thank you!

 

[Thomas Hastings]

I use Paint.net and it works pretty well, it's free too!

I will have look, thank you!

 

[genocache]

I use Paint, right click on image chose open with Paint. In Paint upper left corner select resize, in resize select pixels. Change top pixel size to 1000 and chose maintain aspect ratio, click OK. In upper left corner select File here you can chose to add the smaller size image or replace the original size with the smaller size. HTH Oh yeah, Windows 10.

 

[John and Mandi]

You can use Preview on a Mac but RAW images usually open in Photos. You can export a single or a batch of images out of Photos at a reduced quality and as a jpg. As an example, I opened an image and selected File/Export 1 Photo. On the Export prompt I made sure it is set to JPEG as Photo Kind and as High for JPEG Quality.




Here is the output at ~3MB


If you want to export a batch you need to select them by holding the command key and clicking on them, the selected photos will have a border. Five images are selected in the following screen shot.

Under File/Export you would pick the Export 5 Photos (the number will match what you have selected)

Then choose the same export settings as above. I don't post to the forum from my iPhone so I can't provide any guidance there.

 

[Thomas Hastings]

You can use Preview on a Mac but RAW images usually open in Photos. You can export a single or a batch of images out of Photos at a reduced quality and as a jpg. As an example, I opened an image and selected File/Export 1 Photo. On the Export prompt I made sure it is set to JPEG as Photo Kind and as High for JPEG Quality.

View attachment 249361
View attachment 249362

Here is the output at ~3MB
View attachment 249363

If you want to export a batch you need to select them by holding the command key and clicking on them, the selected photos will have a border. Five images are selected in the following screen shot.
View attachment 249364
Under File/Export you would pick the Export 5 Photos (the number will match what you have selected)
View attachment 249365
I don't post to the forum from my iPhone so I can't provide any guidance there.

Thank you! I will definitely give this a try.

 

[John and Mandi]

You're welcome. I've been doing it that way for our blog for years. You can also enhance or fix brightness, balance, color etc and manually crop the images in Photos...basic image processing. Another export option if you prefer image quality over size is to set Maximum as JPEG Quality then select Large under Size. Using the same image as above the output is ~1.3MB.


The difference in quality for a message board is marginal so the smaller file size is probably preferred.

 

[Thomas Hastings]

You're welcome. I've been doing it that way for our blog for years. You can also enhance or fix brightness, balance, color etc and manually crop the images in Photos...basic image processing. Another export option if you prefer image quality over size is to set Maximum as JPEG Quality then select Large under Size. Using the same image as above the output is ~1.3MB.
View attachment 249367
View attachment 249368
The difference in quality for a message board is marginal so the smaller file size is probably preferred.

Well thank you again, this is great information.

 

[Thomas Hastings]

You can use Preview on a Mac but RAW images usually open in Photos. You can export a single or a batch of images out of Photos at a reduced quality and as a jpg. As an example, I opened an image and selected File/Export 1 Photo. On the Export prompt I made sure it is set to JPEG as Photo Kind and as High for JPEG Quality.

View attachment 249361
View attachment 249362

Here is the output at ~3MB
View attachment 249363

If you want to export a batch you need to select them by holding the command key and clicking on them, the selected photos will have a border. Five images are selected in the following screen shot.
View attachment 249364
Under File/Export you would pick the Export 5 Photos (the number will match what you have selected)
View attachment 249365
Then choose the same export settings as above. I don't post to the forum from my iPhone so I can't provide any guidance there.

I finally had a moment to perform this. So easy, a little embarrassed I didn't figure that out on my own lol. Thanks again for the information!

 

[John and Mandi]

No worries, glad to help.