Reducing pixels to fit size

I've been having some trouble with reducing the pixels in the images without loosing quality. I've attached my photo of a common bronzewing and would like some help with uploading it and keeping the quality.

thanks,
Simone

Hi Simone,

Could you let us know what program/method you are using for your resizing, so we can better describe what to do?

Cheers,

les

Thanks Les,

I really don't know much about computers but this is what I have been doing.
First I upload the image to the computer Then I review the image and crop it until its pixels are reduced, but this method sacrifices the quality.

simone

So does that mean you're using the Windows Media Player to look at your pictures? And what type of camera is it?

Dum questions I know, but this will help us answer you..

Hi Les,

to view my images, I use the file explorer. To get a closer look or to edit, I double click on the image.

Simone

Hi Simone,

Sorry that I've been away from my computer for a while.

The Windows explorer page usually opens the Windows Photo viewer, which is a very unhandy program for changing image size. If I recall correctly, you can specify various pixel sizes to send in an email by right clicking on the image and that's about it.

Most folk use programs that are designed with image processing in mind, rather than just for viewing them . The popular ones are Lightroom, Photoshop (which I use myself) , DXO and Photo Ninja. Cameras generally come with a free program like Nikon's Capture NX-D or Canon's Photo Processing software. and these are free. There are other good free programs and I recommend that you download a free program like Gimp , a program which photographers like Peter Gower swear by, and I understand isn't difficult to use.

Our main site has lots of info on how to resize images, both in terms of their pixel size and the quality settings. Our illustrious web master, Rob Parker, has a section entitled Resizing and Cropping your Image which explains the principles very well. I'm having trouble finding it in the library at the moment, but will keep looking. i seem to be having a bad hair day.

If we're lucky, maybe Rob will jump in and give us its web address. I'll post it myself when I find it.