There's actually quite a bit to know about how to do photographs.
We did the short form at the Guild meeting on Wednesday May 18, which I will repeat here.

Thanks again to Bob Peterson for generously offering to let us use the lab at Mesa State College Community Education Center, (this is a link to the pfd of their summer schedule. On the 5th page down are the Photography Classes.) Here's a link to purchase Photoshop Elements, for those of you who would like to get the software. It costs about $90 and works much the same as Photoshop.

Okay. Here we go.

The instructions here are for Photoshop, but they can be loosly translated for Photo Elements, or other photo software.

What we are doing is making the photo the size we want to see it on the web (no more than 5" wide or high). Then we will make the resolution (dpi = dots per inch) 72dpi. The goal is to get the "size" of the image to be 25 kb or less.

Make a folder for your photos

1. Once you have your photos on a CD rom or in a folder on your computer, make a folder on your desktop and call it Guild Photos. (windows users: right click on the desktop>new>folder) (mac users: righ click>new folder)

2. Copy all the photos you will be putting onto the web into this folder (drag them over from the CD/folder they are in). Notice once you open your folder called "Guild Photos" you will see that you can set the view to "details". Do this so you can see the size of the photos, ex: 1,456 KB.

3. Open the first photo in Photo Elements or Photoshop or whatever photo software you have.
   

Resize your photo

1. Start by looking at the blue title bar at the top of the photograph when you open it. (If the photo looks too big - over 5" on screen, do a "control -". This will make it smaller.) Now, whatever the percentage in the blue title bar says will be the number you use in the next step.
2. Go to your horizontal command bar at the top of the computer screen where it says Photoshop and go to the "image" menu. Go image>image size and in that window, change the resolution at the bottom of the options to say 72 if is isn't already 72.
3. Now, change the first two right hand drop down boxes (width and height) to "percentage" from "pixel".
4. Put in the number you had at the top of your photograph. For instance 33. Then say okay.
5. The photo will shrink on the screen. Do a "control +" as many times as you need to get the photo to 100% in the top blue bar. (At this point you may sharpen your photo if you want. Sharpening a photo should always be the LAST step before you save a photo.)
   
6. Save your photograph: file>save for web>under settings select: jpg, high resolution, and check the progressive box. (This will nicely compress your photograph.)

Very good! If you do this a few times you will be a pro!

Next step: Use Your Website: An Introduction to the Tools