Thursday 22 March 2012

Some flowers to say thank you

I have just learnt how to resize my photos on Apple Mac. So, for those of you with the same computer, who do not know how to do it, I thought it might be of interest.
I discovered this last few days that Blogger only allows you unlimited free storage on 15 minutes of video and up to 800x600 pixels per photograph. This requires resizing the photos, which initially I thought meant reducing the size of the photo when I uploaded it on Blogger; but no, it is the pixels.
I had a feeling that Apple must be able to do this, and that it would be unnecessary to go into Picasa, Photoshop, etc.
I visited one or two Apple forums on the Internet, and one said 'Yes, I do it all of the time by going into Preview, then Tools, and finally Adjustments'. Now, for a novice like me that is just not good enough.
I got absolutely nowhere with that information, and decided to visit my Apple centre yesterday. I was told, that was correct, but advised how to do it. Keeping the instructions in my head until I got home, I then Skyped my eldest son in Norway so that he could go through the process with me. I know this all sounds pretty pathetic, but just having him with me helped.
How to do it:-
First of all you open a new folder and give it a name. I call mine 'blog photos'.
Then you go into your iPhotos and highlight the photo/photos you want to reduce for Blogger and export them to your new folder.
At this stage you can then go in to Preview and open it. Then go to Tools - open that and then go in to Adjustments - size. You may have to change in Adjustments from inches to cms. You then have a choice of the various pixel sizes.
The photo above is from my old camera, so not as good as my new one. I have reduced it to the 800x600 and I do not think that the clarity has suffered too much. 
Hope this may be of assistance to someone.
Grateful thanks to all who helped - Olive, Gina, Perpetua, Christa, and Stardust, and others who offered valuable advice.

14 comments:

  1. Rosemary, you are very welcome. I'm glad you've got it sorted out to your satisfaction. What you describe is exactly what I do in Windows on a PC and it's so easy.

    There are also big advantages to resizing photos for your readers too, as it means your posts load quickly and don't use up much bandwidth, important for those of us in the remote countryside with poor broadband speed. We're almost at the end of the line from our local exchange and when everyone is online in the evenings, the contention is so great that our speed drops drastically to not much better than dial-up. Sigh....

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    1. I am pleased to learn that there are benefits to readers too. That is something else I had not realised. The same thing applies when I upload on Blogger, the uploader zooms across instead of taking a couple of minutes.

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  2. Thanks for explaining this, I have learnt something new, again....
    I have been using DroPic, a free little program to resize my photos.

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    1. So pleased that it is of help to you. I am sure there are lots of other tips out there that would help us.

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  3. Dear Rosemary, If you are not already acquainted with Susn of "Between Naps on the Porch" please check out her tutorials. Susan is amazing, she has all the right answers and explains each step in an easy to understand manner. You will find answers to many subjects.

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    1. Dear Gina - that is very helpful - I will check her out now, and bookmark it. Thank you.

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  4. Dear Rosemary, I would also note that in your process, you are actually reducing the memory size of the photographs, which is better for both your computer's functioning, and for accounts like Picasa.

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    1. Thanks Mark - all in all it seems that I have learnt a valuable lesson.

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  5. Dear Rosemary, oh it's so funny we all seem to have the same problems or meet them somewhere in our "blog lifes". I had the same problem with the sizes of the photographs and I also visited many forums till I got around. In the meantime I forgot. WIth your post I get good advice if ever I should face that problem again. AND isn't it wonderful to have "children" who are digital natives and can always help? Although one day you would have found out but with them it is definitely faster... Thank you so much for those beautiful flowers - I will save them on the desktop and enjoy their colors. Thank you also for your offer about the cementries - yes, that would be very interesting to see and read what you propose to me. But only if you feel like it and have time. I shall be leaving on March 31st. WIshing you a wonderful and relaxing evening, Christa

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    1. Dear Christa - Digital children really are wonderful. They just seem to know instantly where to go and how to activate parts of the computer that are alien to me. My son says that the trouble with me is that I do not understand how the computer works, which of course I don't. However, I do not particularly want to if I can get away without knowing!
      The post is already done and in my store of posts that I haven't got round to posting yet. I will be post it in good time before you go away just in case it is of interest to you.
      I have had a great evening having just returned from the ballet.

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  6. Well done Rosemary. It is a technical nightmare here sometimes.

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    1. Thanks Olive - a lot of what I learnt came from you.

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  7. Nice pot of flowers, and thanks, for helping me with Apple.

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    1. So pleased Bob that is was of help to you.

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