Digital Photography

Learn about organizing pictures, memory cards, and viewing specifications

Many of us have either received email with pictures or have tried to send pictures via email. Sometimes the pictures do not send and are bounced back to us by our Internet Service Provider. Other times the email with pictures can be sent, but the pictures look huge and the recipient complains that the picture(s) are extremely large and unwieldy. Typically, it is best to keep the size of pictures to under 100kb and preferably closer to 50kb when transporting them via email or when they are viewed on the web.

You can send the photos via email, use an application to package multiple pictures together, or you can show the pictures on a website.

There are a few techniques that will help us email photos that are not bounced back and which look great to the recipient. One method is by using some built-in features of WinXP. The other method is to utilize a photo editing program, which in turn gives us more options and methods of enhancing photos.

WinXp has a wonderful built in feature that allows us to send pictures via email. All we need to do is remember where we saved our edited pictures and use the send via email function. How does one do this?

Locate the picture(s) you wish to send, highlight them, right click on the highlighted pictures, click on send to, then on mail recipient.
 

Figure 5.0 Send via email Highlight and Send to

You will receive a prompt pertaining to the size of picture you wish to send. It is best to leave it at the default setting (make my pictures smaller) as you will experience success in sending an enjoyable picture. Once your selection is made (preferably the default) click OK. At this point your default email application will open. Fill out the recipient’s email address, change the subject to one more applicable to your pictures then click send. You have now successfully sent a picture that will be easy to view.
 

5.1 Windows picture resize

Another technique, which can be utilized with other operating systems as well as WinXP, would be to use a photo editing application. Most digital cameras come with a CD that includes photo-editing applications. One of the easier and most flexible programs is Adobe PhotoShop Elements 2.0.  If it does not come with the Digital Camera, it is relatively inexpensive, easy to use and it has a great built-in tutorial.

Once you have the resized photo, you may open your favorite email application (Outlook, Outlook Express, etc) and choose to attach the file. 

Or you can use the 'Insert file" feature of your email application. Open your email application, such as Outlook.  Click on New->Insert->Picture->From File.

Figure 5.2 Open Email application - Insert Picture from File

If you wish to send more than one photo, you may attach more than one picture to the email – keeping in mind the email size limitations most ISPs have (2MB – 5MB). You may also use a compression program, such as WinZip,  which is typically packaged with most systems. http://www.winzip.com/.

Figure 5.3 Winzip

You can either zip and email, zip the files and email later via the Send to process or you can utilize the Insert Picture as per Figure 5.2.