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Some of you may have experienced web pages where the digital photos take forever to load. Like me, some of you have also received emails with a digital photo attached that takes forever for it to download. Hopefully some of my experiences with digital photography will help you. Camera settings are very important, especially "Resolution" and "Quality". These options and the terminology used will very depending on the brand and quality of the camera. Most digital cameras allow you to change "Resolution" and "Quality" settings.

If you are going to use your digital photos to make the quality prints you will need to use the best "Quality" setting possible. The "Resolution" can vary depending on size of the pictures you plan on printing. The quality of your printer will also have a direct effect on quality of the of the digital photos you print from your camera.

This help page will deal mostly with preparing the digital photos you wish to share with friends via email, or in  web pages or Internet photo albums. If you are not sure whether or not you will be using your digital photos for Internet sharing or for printing, always use the best "Quality" setting on your camera. You can later change your photos so that they are more compatible with Internet sharing. 

It is important to understand the terminology used in software and camera settings.

Resolution Settings:
You need to think of Resolution in terms of the dimensions. What is the width and height of the picture you are dealing with. The dimensions can be any number of pixels, inches or parts of an inch. Click Here to see three digital photos with three different resolutions. Notice the comparison of pixels to inches.

There is no reason to send a photo that is larger than the screen area of the end user. A Resolution width of 480 or 640 is probably the best in most instances.  It will work well with most monitors and is large enough for comfortable viewing. There is nothing worse than having to use the scroll bars so that you can view an entire picture.

Quality Settings:
Compression and Quality are one in the same. The quality of a digital photo does not need to be all that good for viewing on a computer monitor. The best quality digital photo will not look any better than a low quality digital photo on a computer monitor.

Before you use the two links below, let me give you some instructions. This will only work once unless you empty your temporary Internet files and then try it again. 

Special Note: When using the AOL browser, AOL may convert JPG picture files to what is called "ART" files before they are loaded in the AOL browser. The file stored in your cache may be an ART file instead of a JPG.  

If you are using MS Internet Explorer or Netscape, click on the first link and be ready count the seconds it takes to load the digital photo on that page. Minimize that browser window and click on the next link. Again, count the seconds it takes to load the digital photo on that page. These are identical photos, with the same "Resolution". There should be a noticeable difference in the time they take to load because of the "Quality" or compression. This may not be so evident now that high speed Internet access is the norm.

Click Here and you will see a fully compressed or low quality photo load. When you are done, close the browser window and you will return to this page. 

Click here and you will see an uncompressed or high quality photo load. When you are done, close the browser window and you will return to this page.

Next, compare the two digital photos. You should see little or no difference. This should help you understand that the quality of a digital photo viewed on a computer monitor need not be of the best quality.

The same holds true when preparing a digital photo for email. A low "Quality" digital photo will upload so much faster than a high "Quality" photo. 

 Preparing Digital Photos For Email & Internet Use:

There are two ways to change the compression/quality of a digital photo. 

1. (Not recommended) You can set your camera to the lowest quality or compression settings. Depending on the camera, this may produce a digital photo that is of a reasonable file size to send in email or use on a web page. (Remember, when you print a lower quality photo, you may not achieve the best results. As I stated before, if you plan to use your digital photos for printing purposes, you will want to use the best "Quality".)

2. If you have your camera's "Quality" and "Resolution" settings at their maximum, there are several software applications that you can use to reduce the "Quality" and "Resolution" of a digital photo for email and web purposes.

Personally, I always set my camera to take pictures at the best "Quality" and highest "Resolution" JPG setting. Granted, it takes a lot of disk space but you always have the best quality picture possible.

I then use a digital photo software application to prepare the photo for email or use on my web pages if necessary. One should first resize the photo to 480 or 640. The height should automatically be proportionate.

You will then want to save the photo in a compressed form to reduce the file size. Every software uses different settings for this. Some may use "Best, Medium, Poor" quality. Some may have a sliding scale from 1 to 100. You will need to see how your software does this and experiment.

Example: With the camera's Resolution setting at "2240x1680" (large physical size) and the Quality setting at "Best" or 1/2.7 (low compression) the digital photo could be as big as 3 meg or more.

Using Jasc Paint Shop Photo Album or similar photo editing software, I open the digital photo that I wish to change. 

I then change the Resolution (physical dimensions) to 480 or 640 wide using the "Resize" menu item. 

I then save the digital photo using "Save As". At this point you should make sure that you change the file name of the digital photo that you are working on.  This should be done so that I do not overwrite the original file. (I have a tendency to keep all my digital photos in their original state.)  Jasc Paint Shop Photo Album will automatically change the file name for you.

Once the file name is changed, note that Jasc Paint Shop Photo Album gives a choice as to how much compression we want to give the photo. I always choose the something less that the highest quality setting for email or web use. Again, depending on the photo editing software, it will differ as to how you set the compression or quality settings.

Now that I resized and set the compression, I can save the photos. Pay close attention to where you store the new photo. Please note "Filing Digital Photos" later on this page.

Now you will note that the photo will have the following properties:

Resolution: 480 or 640 wide and a file size is about 25 to 75 kb (this will vary from photo to photo because of the colors contained in the photo) 

Note: With a little experimentation, you will you will find out what works best for you. The camera and software you use will determine exactly what is best for you.

Filing Digital Photos

I am sure there are as many ways to file your digital photos as there are photos. I have tried several methods for filing digital photos. The  following method has seemed to work best for me. I first create a folder called "Photo 1" within the "My Documents" folder on my hard drive. In the "Photo 1" folder I create separate folders by date and subject. I then have two subfolders, one for the originals and the other for edited photos from the adjacent original folder.

C:\
...My Documents
......Photo 1
.........010100 New Years Party
............Originals
............Edited
.........021400 Valentines Party
............Originals
............Edited
.........040100 April fool's Joke
............Originals
............Edited
.........122400 Christmas Eve
............Originals
............Edited
.........122500 Christmas Day
......Photo 2 

There are several reasons for using this method. First, you will have a chronological order by date of when the photos were taken. You will also have an idea of the subject matter in that folder.

I then create a subfolder called "Originals". This is where I place the photos, exactly as they come off the camera. The "Edited" subfolder is used for photos that have been edited.

Longevity of hard drives, CD and DVDs is not know.

Once the content of "Photo 1" reaches the point where there are enough photos to fill a CD or DVD, I then copy them to a CD or DVD. The photo folders can be copied to the CD or DVD's can be done as they are being created in case you have a computer crash. At some point, I create a second copy of the CD or DVDs. I am also using an external hard drive.

You can then start with "Photo 2" in the "My Documents" folder if this method works for you.