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thereallara
thereallara
Participant
April 29, 2020
Question

What's happening with image size? HELP I'm so confused

  • April 29, 2020
  • 4 replies
  • 1217 views

Uploaded (copy/pasted using a usb cable plugged into the windows 10 pc) photos from my phone to my computer to edit the colors. They seem to be getting automatically resized in really wierd ways and I have no idea what to do about it. From within Photoshop CC, I choose ''open'', go to the folder the photo is in, and when I hover the mouse over it I can see that the file is a jpg, 3088x3088 pixels and 2.47mb size. After opening with photoshop, I check the image size (Image>Image Size) and WHAT the heck? It is still 3088x3088 px, but it is 42.889 inches in height and width, it is now 27.3 M and only 72 resolution. I have unchecked the ''resample'' box hoping that would make a difference. I can't find anyplace in preferences that a setting could have been changed to something so weird! This has only happened to me since I started with Photoshop CC, it never happened in older program versions. I need simple photos with a min 2000px and max of 3000px and 1M to put on my etsy shop, view on instagram and pinterest, and I don't know how to do that now without making the photos look worse than they already do. Obviously I don't have detailed knowlege about photoshop and I am at a loss. Please HELP.

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4 replies

Per Berntsen
Community Expert
Per BerntsenCommunity Expert
Community Expert
April 30, 2020
Maybe there is a better way? But this is what I was able to figure out on my own.

You did exactly the right thing.

Jpg uses lossy (destructive ) compression, and image quality will deteriorate every time you save it.

If you save a jpg repeatedly, it will eventually begin to disintegrate.

Using Camera raw for editing will to some extent eliminate this problem, since the edits are applied to a new file.

Derek Cross
Community Expert
Derek CrossCommunity Expert
Community Expert
April 30, 2020

If you have a number of images to process and you want small file sizes for your website, it might be worth you investing in Tiny PNG/JPG – it works as a plugin for Photoshop and it makes really small files in a choice of PNG or JPG. https://tinyjpg.com

 

Resize the images first of course, and if you have lots to do you can automate the process with Image Processor, which you'll find in Photoshop under Image > Scripts.

 

Derek Cross
Community Expert
Derek CrossCommunity Expert
Community Expert
April 30, 2020

3088px divided by 72PPI equals 42.88 inches.

If you need your images to be 2000 x 2000px resize them in Photoshop: Image > Image Size with Resample ticked.

Per Berntsen
Community Expert
Per BerntsenCommunity Expert
Community Expert
April 29, 2020

Digital images don't have physical dimensions, they have pixel dimensions.

The ppi (pixels per inch) value in the Resolution field is used to calculate printed dimensions.

Your image is 3088 pixels, and 3088/72 = 42.88 – it will print at 42.88 inches with the ppi set to 72.

With the ppi set to 300, the printed size will be 10.29 inches.

For screen viewing, the ppi value is irrelevant, it only affects printing.

 

The jpg format uses compression to create smaller files, and when they open in Photoshop, they must be decompressed.

Photoshop shows you the decompressed file size, which in this case is 27 MB.

 

For more information, see

What is a digital image?

File formats

    thereallara
    thereallaraAuthor
    Participant
    April 30, 2020

    Thank you, I appreciate your explanation. I am getting a better understanding of that process now. I was still having trouble getting my pics where they needed to be. I was trying to open them at the best quality possible from the camera, in order to color correct and then size down to my Etsy shop requirments. They are already pretty terrible phone pics and I was just afraid of having them look worse as listing photos.

    My final solution: Opened original pic letting camera raw handle the jpg and it opened at resolution of 300 without me changing and settings. The image size was still at about 27M.  In the Image Size box, edited the px height and width to 2000px (the min etsy wants), and that brought the file size down to 11.4M, still too large of a file (?). Then used ''save for web'' legacy tool, chose high quality jpg, which brought the file size down to about 1M, wich is what was needed, and the pic doesn't look horrible or too grainy. Maybe there is a better way? But this is what I was able to figure out on my own.

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