How to take photographs with your computer - Image Sizes and Editing

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GraphicsAcademy.com > Tutorials > Take Photographs With Your Computer > Chapter 4

How To Take Photographs With Your Computer

Chapter 4: Image Sizes and Editing

When you get your image into the computer, you may need to resize it (for example, if you plan to use your image on the web, you will want to make sure it comes out at your intended size in people's web browsers) or perhaps even edit it.

As mentioned in the previous chapter, if you do plan on editing, it's best to use a lossless file format initially (such as BMP or PNG) and then (if you want) convert to JPEG only after your edits are all complete.

Resizing Tips:

Computer images are measured in pixels which are dots on a computer screen. For example, many Windows computers have a screen which is 800 pixels by 600 pixels.

However, when you take a picture with a scanner or digital camera, very often you will be asked to choose the size of the image in inches (or centimeters) and the resolution (measured in DPI - Dots Per Inch). You can convert this to pixels by multiplying the image size in inches by the resolution DPI.

If you want your photograph to appear larger or smaller on the computer screen, you could experiment with different resolution DPI settings. A lower DPI will result in a smaller picture on screen, and a higher DPI will result in a larger picture on screen.

If after, experimenting with different resolutions, you still can't make the image the correct size on screen, you could use good quality Photo Editing Software to modify the image:

Most Photo Editing programs have an option called "Crop" (or perhaps "Trim") which allows you to cut the edges (hopefully just containing the background!) off images.
Most Photo Editing programs also have an option called "Scale" or "Resize" which will stretch or shrink the image to a larger or smaller size:
- You should try to avoid stretching images, as this can cause lots of distortion. Instead, if you need a larger image, retake your photograph at a higher resolution.
- It's okay to shrink images, provided you have a good quality Photo Editing program - but poor quality programs can distort images even when shrinking an image. If you do shrink an image, be sure to shrink it by the same proportion in both the horizontal and vertical dimensions so as to preserve its aspect ratio

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