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I am having some problems when receiving photos through email. I have
a dial-up connection, as does a friend of mine and most of the time
when I get a picture from her it is often 700kb... 800kb or at times
well over a 1MB. It takes forever for it to download.

Isn't this too big for dial-up users? I was under the impression that
photos should be a much smaller file size, especially when dealing
with people who have a dial-up connection.

She often wonders if there could possibly be something my PC is doing
in the process to enlarge the file size because I have an older
machine but I told her that I thought that the file size was big
because she SENT it that way.

Any suggestions on what might be happening here?

Thanks in advance

DAVID

On Tue, 29 Jan 2008 16:39:06 -0800, Big.David.NJ wrote:

> I am having some problems when receiving photos through email. I have a
> dial-up connection, as does a friend of mine and most of the time when I
> get a picture from her it is often 700kb... 800kb or at times well over
> a 1MB. It takes forever for it to download.
>
> Isn't this too big for dial-up users? I was under the impression that
> photos should be a much smaller file size, especially when dealing with
> people who have a dial-up connection.
>
> She often wonders if there could possibly be something my PC is doing in
> the process to enlarge the file size because I have an older machine but
> I told her that I thought that the file size was big because she SENT it
> that way.
>
> Any suggestions on what might be happening here?
>
> Thanks in advance
>
> DAVID

Makes me wonder what you're sending! I'd recommend rescaling to 1024x768
or less, depending on what your monitor will do - what's the point of
anything larger than that? And use a higher compression when you create
the file. I should think 100k or less should be quite doable.

On Tue, 29 Jan 2008 16:39:06 -0800 (PST), in rec.photo.digital
wrote:

>I am having some problems when receiving photos through email. I have
>a dial-up connection, as does a friend of mine and most of the time
>when I get a picture from her it is often 700kb... 800kb or at times
>well over a 1MB. It takes forever for it to download.
>
>Isn't this too big for dial-up users? I was under the impression that
>photos should be a much smaller file size, especially when dealing
>with people who have a dial-up connection.
>
>She often wonders if there could possibly be something my PC is doing
>in the process to enlarge the file size because I have an older
>machine but I told her that I thought that the file size was big
>because she SENT it that way.
>
>Any suggestions on what might be happening here?

The first question, is what are you using these photos for? If you are just
viewing them, not printing, then you might ask her to resize the photos to
whatever screen resolution you are using before sending them to you.

wrote:
>I am having some problems when receiving photos through email. I have
>a dial-up connection, as does a friend of mine and most of the time
>when I get a picture from her it is often 700kb... 800kb or at times
>well over a 1MB. It takes forever for it to download.
>
>Isn't this too big for dial-up users? I was under the impression that
>photos should be a much smaller file size, especially when dealing
>with people who have a dial-up connection.
>
>She often wonders if there could possibly be something my PC is doing
>in the process to enlarge the file size because I have an older
>machine but I told her that I thought that the file size was big
>because she SENT it that way.
>
>Any suggestions on what might be happening here?

Actually it can be many things. And yes, the problem is on the sending side,
not the receiving side. There are several things the sender can do to reduce
the file size:
- First of all use a file format that is compressed. Most people do that
anyway by sending e.g. JPG, but maybe someone is actually trying to send BMP
or RAW.
- Second choose a picture dimension that is appropriate for the viewing
device. If viewing a photo on an old 800x600 monitor or even worse a 640x480
picture frame then there is no point in sending a 3900x2600 picture (unless
you expect to zoom in into that much more details).
- And third choose a lossy compression rate that is appropriate for the
purpose of the photo. If it's just a snapshot to look at and then forget it
then a compression setting with a high loss is probably quite acceptable. If
it's a picture you intend to print and frame then you may tolerate a larger
file size in favour of less loss due to compression.

Anyway, in case your friend is using Windows and Office then Outlook will
allow her reduce the picture dimensions and file size according to the
intended purpose when attaching the file to the email.
And of course any decend photo editor software will support exporting of
photos in different dimensions and compression rates.

jue

ray <> wrote:
>On Tue, 29 Jan 2008 16:39:06 -0800, Big.David.NJ wrote:
>
>> I am having some problems when receiving photos through email. I have a
>> dial-up connection, as does a friend of mine and most of the time when I
>> get a picture from her it is often 700kb... 800kb or at times well over
>> a 1MB. It takes forever for it to download.
>>
>> Isn't this too big for dial-up users? I was under the impression that
>> photos should be a much smaller file size, especially when dealing with
>> people who have a dial-up connection.
>>
>> She often wonders if there could possibly be something my PC is doing in
>> the process to enlarge the file size because I have an older machine but
>> I told her that I thought that the file size was big because she SENT it
>> that way.
>>
>> Any suggestions on what might be happening here?
>>
>> Thanks in advance
>>
>> DAVID
>
>Makes me wonder what you're sending! I'd recommend rescaling to 1024x768
>or less, depending on what your monitor will do - what's the point of
>anything larger than that? And use a higher compression when you create
>the file. I should think 100k or less should be quite doable.

Hmmm, sorry, there is nothing the OP can do. It's the _sender_ who needs to
take those steps.

jue