http://www.downhillbattle.org/

So many people ask for photos, so many people send photos, and nearly everyone does it wrong. (ha!).



So here are a few tips to help you.



First, you need to understand that most cameras store photos in amazingly higher resolution and definition than you need. These photos are 3, 5, or even 8 or 10 Megs a piece. It is very difficult to email photos that are this big. These are often JPEG's, and if you use a camera that stores them as something else than you shouldn't need this primer.



First, understand the _Dimensions_ of the photo. This is also the resolution, and is often 800x600, 1024x768, or something similar.



These resolutions are very low and if you try to print or blow up a photo of these lower resolutions, it will look like crap. Higher resolutions, like 3000x2000, or 1600x1200, are better in all manners except one: the file size is larger.



So when you send photos to someone, you want to maximize the resolution, and minimize the filesize. You want as much bang for your buck as you can get.



If you just copy those photos right off your camera, you get large files. These are good to keep if you ever want to do photo manipulation or other hokey stuff, but if you want to send photos in emails, that doesn't work.



There are alot of programs out there that resize photos. These programs will take the 2711x2343 sized photos from your camera and make them 1600x1200, or some such. That will reduce the filesize. However, you should try to send the largest resolution photo you can. So rather than reducing the dimensions, you should use a better compression for JPEGs.



I use the Windows XP PowerToys "Image Resizer"



This program lets you resize photos from the right-click context-menu of windows Explorer. So, much like any other program it will resize photos.



However, its jpeg compression is awesome. So what I do is I check the normal resolution of my photos, and I resize the photo to the same resolution.



That keeps the resolution the same great big size, but lets the resizer program compress the Jpeg to the smallest possible file size. I commonly turn 8M photos into .5M photos without losing any resolution.



2-3M photos becomes 2-300 K!



I could emnail 20 photos that size and they'd all be that rediculously large resolution!



The secret is that it actually compresses and removed alot of information from the file, however, you can't tell the difference. This is definitely one of the best ways to get the most from your pictures while keeping the file size managable.

I'm going to turkey. I'm excited. The 6 year regret of mine of not going to Jordan to visit my friend Pete when he was there is finally coming full circle. Now, 6 years later, I will go visit Pete in Turkey.



Yee haw.



I didn't have the $$ to go, but my good friend Garrett fronted me the 1k+ plane ticket. Thanks G!

Are here.

Well, I finally broke down and made myself a website.



If you're reading this you're probably on it right now... or perhaps reading my tribe.net page which gets syndication from my blog.