With PhotoShop open, click on File heading at the top left of the menu bar and select Open. You will be directed to the most recent location of images or folders last used to open a file. Navigate to the folder location or image you wish to open. If files are arranged in a list format, you can change to thumbnail view to see a mini version of each image. Make your selection and click on the Open button.
Most often, the reason for resizing an image is to use it for another purpose such as an attachment in an email. Sending an original image from your 6-8 megapixel camera is prohibitive in size and some email recipients cannot receive them (file size limitation), open, view or print them. Resizinging them in PhotoShop so they can be viewed or printed is really the best way to share images.
By the way, this same thing is often done for you automatically with some of these online image share web sites that are now so common. When you upload your photos to share with friends and family, they automatically resize the images for web viewing. This ratio is based on 72 pixels per inch, an important fact to remember anytime you are dealing with web images.
Okay, so your original image is now open in front of you... pay attention here since you do NOT want to ruin your original image by throwing away detail information for the sake of resizing the image!
Adobe® Photoshop Class #1
As we get ready to understand just what Photoshop is capable of, we will soon get used to the tools of what millions of Adobe users around the world understand... a powerful and endless software that can accomplish just about anything relating to image manipulation and creativity.
Clicking on the Image heading of the menu bar, you will see a list of selections for you to choose from. Clicking on Image Size... will take you to your picture's size specifications in both pixels and inches.
Since we are working on your original image, the digital camera it came from may have any number of size proportions available to you for modification. Some cameras create files at full size based on 72 pixels per inch while others rate their images at 250 or 300 pixels per inch. It is best to open the Image Size menu to view how your camera creates files. The menu at left shows the image is based on 300 pixels at a width of 7 inches or 2100 pixels.
It is very important to understand what the Resample Image checkbox provides for the user. Normally this box is checked and the width and height of the image in inches is locked together... leaving the resolution unlocked. If you change either the width or height, the resolution remains the same. If, on the other hand, the Resample Image box is unchecked, the resolution and dimensions are all locked together. So, if you change the resolution size down, the image size enlarges. And if the image dimensions are changed the resolution changes as well... it is like a see-saw; push down on one side and the other side goes up!s in both pixels and inches.
The reason to grasp the importance of this simple concept is the following: If you forget to lock the three elements together by unchecking the Resample Image box and change either the resolution or size of the image, you risk throwing away the original quality of the image, especially if you Save the image by the exact same name.
To help always prevent this, just give the changed file a new name. If you are creating an email-sized image, choose the File / Save As menu and add an ending of "-email" in the name. This also helps you identify the image and the reason for the new name. If you are intentionally changing the original file and don't care about changing the resolution or losing file integrity, just Save the file as it is.
So, as you can see between the two menus at left, the top one has a larger file size of over 8 mb, while the lower one is tiny at 43.7 k or kilobytes.
By understanding this one important feature, you will be well on your way to resizing your digital camera images and sending them to your friends saying, "I did this all by myself!"
Our next lesson will take us a little further into renaming files and how to start managing your mountain of images. Before long, you will find yourself flying through the day-to-day reasons to use Adobe PhotoShop! Read on....