# Best looking 800x600 photo



## rjwolfe3 (Jul 24, 2008)

What is the easiest way to get the best looking 800x600 photo?  Right now I am losing quality.  I have a few programs available to mess with photos but none of the expensive ones.  Thanks.


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## gerryr (Jul 24, 2008)

What programs do you have?  Bear in mind that you will lose quality by resizing, not matter what.


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## rickstef (Jul 24, 2008)

quick answer would be, take the highest resolution picture you want(camera dependant)
and then using your favorite photo/graphics package, resize down to 800x640

longer answer, keep in mind what you are doing on a consistent basis, and like Gerry says, different programs will have at times different ways of reducing the resolution


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## BearToothWoods (Jul 24, 2008)

Try GIMP (GNU Image Manipulation Program) it is an open source graphics program that is pretty powerful. You can get more information here: http://www.gimp.org/

Ernie


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## IPD_Mrs (Jul 24, 2008)

Another thing to consider is file type.  Every time you save a change to a file under jpeg you will have a reduction in quality in most of the lesser expensive programs.  Take any old photo, crop it and size it to 800 x 600 then save the photo.  Close out open the saved photo then save it as something else and you will see that the size of the file is smaller yet.  The best way to avoid some of the photo degradation is to start with a higher quality photo to begin with.  If your camera has a tif or RAW option then use that to save the photo onto the camera.  Work with the photos in the tif format until you have exactly what you want and then save it as jpeg.  Another option if your camera does not allow for other types of files is to convert the files to tif right after they are downloaded.  Work with the photo as a tif then convert or save as jpeg as your last step.
 
Mike


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## rjwolfe3 (Jul 24, 2008)

Thank you for all the replies.  I have the software that came with my camera which is Kodak.  I have Snapfire.  I may have some more floating around that I have tried but didn't like.  Right now I take the highest quality shot I can with my POS camera which is around 2megs and it automatically saves to jpeg.  I then crop the photo.  I was saving it at 25% to allow me to post on the old forum but I noticed that the new photo album allows up to 500kb now.  I don't mind a smaller size picture as long as I still have some quality left.  With my skills I need all the help I can get, lol.  I will give GIMP a try, as well as seeing if my camera will save in anything but jpeg.


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## ldb2000 (Jul 24, 2008)

Rob , try Irfanview (www.irfanview.com) I use it to crop and resize most of my photos , its fast and easy and best of all ...it's FREE .
This program has been around for a long time and is updated regularly , it works with all forms of Windows (even Vista) and for simple photo editing it can't be beat .


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## wicook (Jul 25, 2008)

Google's Picassa is also free and works very well as a basic editor and a good, solid photo organizer. Pick it up from the Google homepage > More or just Google it.


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## gerryr (Jul 25, 2008)

Be sure to lock the aspect ratio of the image before resizing.  Then you only have to set the longest dimension to 800 and the other dimension will be automatically set.  If you force an image to be 800x640 and it doesn't already have that aspect ratio, it will look seriously screwed up after resizing.


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