How To resize your photo

Jared Polin March 4, 2011 30

Super Secret Project Time.

How many of you would be unsure how to resize your image to 1000 pixels on the longest side. I know the answer would be some of you and that is ok, I was at a loss for a long time when I first started out as well.

I decided to open the three programs on my Mac that are capable of resizing images to show how easy it really is. I started off with Adobe Lightroom than went to Adobe Photoshop and finally tried using Apple Iphoto for the very first time. What I found is that each program has the same ability to resize your images and its very easy.

There are many more programs out there like Adobe Elements, Picasa and I am sure Microsoft has a few offerings that all would resize your images. Now that you see how easy this is, which program do you use to resize your images, I would be curious to see the ratios. Please leave a comment below.

Please Share and Enjoy:

TAGS » SSP, Super Secret Project

About the author: Jared Polin View all posts by Jared Polin

Jared's work has graced the pages of some of the most prestigious music publications, and his personal blog and online archive have become destinations for budding photographers and music fans around the world. Polin has also photographed professional and recreational sports teams, as well as politicians and international dignitaries.

Twitter - Facebook

30 Comments »

Paul Baker March 4, 2011 at 9:33 am -

720 on the longest side for Face Book users, as any higher an FB shrinks to this size anyway. Great tutorial btw
- Edu March 4, 2011 at 4:12 pm -
  
  Yea, but Facebook still applying crappy compression to the uploaded photo.
  - Jared Polin March 5, 2011 at 3:47 pm -
    
    I fully agree with that.
- Joakim March 4, 2011 at 7:14 pm -
  
  That’s 50% true. Nowdays Facebook also allow photos to be 2048px and for those the file size is limit to 6MB so you can use pretty good quality. But I still just use the 720 limit myself but set the quality to high instead.
  - Edu March 4, 2011 at 9:03 pm -
    
    I knew that. My complain is that the photo posted in FB is crappy. The ‘high quality’ uploaded photo is seen just like a simple text link, buu
    BTW, although you upload a 100% quality 720 px, FB applies a HORRIBLE compression.
    - Joakim March 5, 2011 at 3:05 pm -
      
      Facebook compress the quality to about 62% so not totally horrible. So for a free image hosting service that’s kinda good. But I rarely upload my photos directly to FB cos I think it’s easier this way. LR -> Flickr -> Blog/Twitter -> FB, so have no need to upload it a 2nd time.
sonya cruz March 4, 2011 at 10:10 am -

Well that is good to know because I usually use BDziser program and Picnik some time!.Most of the time BDsizer!
Rick March 4, 2011 at 10:11 am -

Photoshop
sonya cruz March 4, 2011 at 10:12 am -

That is a awesome picture the one you ha ve on you wallpaper… That is one of my to do’s list.. thing !! Cool
Ben March 4, 2011 at 10:16 am -

Jared
You can do it in Preview very easily.
Open the photo in Preview > Tools > Adjust Size > select the size you want
Save

Simples
- Jared Polin March 5, 2011 at 3:48 pm -
  
  thanks for pointing that out.
Allison Jane March 4, 2011 at 10:17 am -

Good and useful tutorial.
I would like to add that when reducing the size in Photoshop, make sure you choose “Bicubic Sharper (best for reductions)” in the drop down list at the bottom of the Image Resize window. You’ll get a sharper image in the end.
Mike March 4, 2011 at 10:38 am -

It’s a snap when exporting in Aperture.
Thor March 4, 2011 at 11:08 am -

This is a free program. It is possible to do a batch process with lots of options. http://www.faststone.org/FSResizerDetail.htm
mandy March 4, 2011 at 12:25 pm -

My get info sucks its a small little box with very little information. I use mac aswell, Jared how do you get your get info box with so much detail while looking at a photo from IPhoto?
Rick March 4, 2011 at 12:36 pm -

Lightroom or GIMP.
Ahmad Jones March 4, 2011 at 12:42 pm -

gaaaawh!!! thanks jarod i’ve been having this problem for two days now.thanks you must have been reading my mind or something.
Abe March 4, 2011 at 1:32 pm -

In Lightroom if you select Long Edge it will recognize the longest edge and set it to what you want. Instead of selecting Width and Height. FYI
Heather March 4, 2011 at 1:44 pm -

Now that I have Lightroom, I’ll use that. Don’t yell at me, but I used to be able to resize my images in Paint really easily.
- Magda March 4, 2011 at 5:58 pm -
  
  Untill I got LR I used Paint too. It’s really easy there Good to know that I wasn’t the only one..
Lee March 4, 2011 at 1:47 pm -

I use GIMP (GNU Image Manipulation Program), free shareware from the web. It has all the necessary features (for me) of the expensive photo editing programs. To resize, click Image tab at top, go to Scale Image in the drop down menu and do pretty much what Jared described in his video. Thanks, Jared, great video as usual.
ZagatoZee March 4, 2011 at 4:02 pm -

I normally use FotoSizer for batch resizing an entire folder of “keepers” prior to uploading to FB or other sites.
Tom in Ireland March 4, 2011 at 6:22 pm -

I use Lightroom, thanks for the tip Fro!
Warren March 4, 2011 at 6:28 pm -

Thanks for sharing that jared!

I think I will stick with Lightroom although I do have PS CS2.. another great tip from the FRO!
Bruce March 4, 2011 at 10:51 pm -

The GIMP when doing a single file and want to use a graphical user interface. ImageMagick’s mogrify and/or convert commands when resizing from the command line in Linux or Mac OS X (can also get it for Windows).
caz March 4, 2011 at 10:58 pm -

Thanks Fro, Love your show and work and i appreciate that you take time to teach beginners as well..your a good man.
Geert March 5, 2011 at 4:26 am -

Hi folks,

Several years ago i discovered Yaniks photoschool. He teaches the” fit image thing” you can put the width and height numbers. So portrait and landscape images will have the same measures.Otherwise you have to make 2 actions ( one for the portrait and one for the landscape images). Don’t forget to sharpen your pics after the resize. The best methode is LAB sharpening. ( can be found on the web). I’m doing these things with cs5 but works whith elements as well…. or cs4.. cs3. And yes…. i’ve got the Fro hat too .

Greetzzz From the Netherlands.

Geert, ( amateur photographer)
Baggy March 5, 2011 at 8:34 am -

I use Lightroom for basically everything that has to do with my RAW files and I use it also for my photo collections in JPEG. Lightroom is just the best program for photography IMHO.
Steve March 6, 2011 at 7:57 pm -

In LR you can specify “Long Edge” in the drop down where you had “Width & Height” selected and just specify the one dimension for the longest side and it will automatically scale the short side accordingly.
jkar March 7, 2011 at 10:35 am -

I use LR3 for all the processing including resizing. I never had a printed photo and all is going to flickr and facebook. Thanks for the info.