How to resize and save your pictures for the web

With Adobe Photoshop Elements 2, you can very easily resize and save your pictures for displaying on the web or sending in an email.

First, open the picture you want to use in PE2, and go ahead and adjust the picture how you like. Then, go to FILE-SAVE FOR WEB and you should get a box like this:

This box lets you see your picture before and after. You will not notice a big difference on the screen when you have a lower quality (settings box) selected. Where you would notice a BIG difference is when you would try to print the lower quality picture.

Anyway, on the right you have a few options. The default under SETTINGS is usually good enough. Where you might like to make a change is in the IMAGE SIZE area under NEW SIZE. Leave the CONTRAIN PROPORTIONS box checked and only change the top WIDTH box and you picture will not become stretched. Usually a WIDTH of 600 or 800 is fine. Click on APPLY to see the results on the left including the new file size. When done, click on OK and then you will get the SAVE box. Rename the picture to whatever you like. CAUTION: NEVER leave the name the same as you will overwrite your original, which would NOT be a good thing.

This method works well for most things. Sometimes, however, you would like to “sharpen” the picture after re-sizing. To do that we will need to do things a bit different. In this case open the picture you want to use and make your adjustments. By the way, this would be a good time to save your picture under a new name. What I like to do is add what I did after the file name (example: img_0362.jpg becomes img_0362-levels-usm200-5.jpg). By doing this after you get the adjustments you like, you still have the original and a adjusted copy, which you can always call up to do other things to. Anyway, once that is done, go to IMAGE-RESIZE-IMAGE SIZE and you will get a box like this:

Again, leave the 2 boxes checked, and change just the top WIDTH number (again, usually 600 or 800 will do fine). Then click OK. You will notice your picture gets smaller. Then you can go and do your sharpening( see my page on sharpening a picture). Now, go to FILE-SAVE AS and you should get this box:

Change the folder and name to what you like and click on SAVE and you should get this box:

In the above example it is set for MEDIUM and 5, which will result in a 75k file. On screen it will look good, but will print like dog crap! Change the QUALITY settings to what you want and click OK and you have a copy of a re-sized file you can add to a web page or attach to an email.

As always, these are just guidelines and your results may vary.