Reducing Image File Size From Cellphone Cameras

[Wild Bill]

For those of us that use cellphone images for posts on this forum, try out the apps available that reduce the file size.  These images from the cellphone camera are very large, often many megabytes which is great for printing but unnecessary for online and can slow down the forum.  The image app I downloaded to my phone was free and so I tried it out on my last post here with several images.  
 

Hopefully it helped.  Didn’t mean to post the crystal image twice, that was a mistake.  Anyway, I strongly encourage the use of an app.  Take a screenshot of the original image, crop as needed and put that image through the app and reduce those file sizes.  

[Steve Herschbach]

24 minutes ago, Wild Bill said:

Hopefully it helped.  Didn’t mean to post the crystal image twice, that was a mistake.  Anyway, I strongly encourage the use of an app.

It does help Bill, thanks, and thanks for posting this. Which app were you using? I use Image Size:

https://apps.apple.com/us/app/image-size/id670766542?platform=iphone

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=de.vsmedia.imagesize&hl=en_US&pli=1

Another trick for resizing images is that emailing huge images is also an issue. So if you email yourself an image on an iPhone, it gives you reduced size options that you can then save and use. I assume Android does something similar.

For those that know how to do it converting to jpg can result in huge file size reductions for photos.

As far as mistakes go, click the three little dots in upper right of your post, edit away. I already deleted the extra image. Full Members can edit posts for up to 90 days. New members are unable to use the edit function as it has been abused to add spam to posts a weeks later.

[Wild Bill]

Steve, I used Image Size as well.  Downloaded it last night and gave it a try.  Fairly user friendly and for a single $20.00 fee, you can permanently eliminate adds.  Years ago when I covered NHRA drag racing, I used pro cameras and Photoshop 7.  Big files for prints and small files for websites.  I got used to that but I’m using my cellphone as my PC is shut down for replacement.  It has a ton of geologic data on it but has become outdated.  Using a cellphone is a different world for me so I’m still learning.  It’s very handy as we often carry it with us in the field detecting taking digital images.  It’s great and that file size problem is easily solved.  

[Steve Herschbach]

We have come a long way. When I first started making websites back in 1998 image optimization was critical. Very critical. Limited storage space and bandwidth were show stoppers. Now we are blessed with vastly increased resources so it is less an issue. However, the new phones do take superb photos that have huge file sizes, and it can trip up people who try and upload them to the forum if they have poor connections. I have a lot of server space, but even then I have to do some weed whacking now and then looking for ridiculously large files that have been uploaded by somebody. But mainly people will find things go easier and faster if they are not accidently trying to upload oversize images. When people report problems posting that is a number one cause.

My first website in 1998/1999. The entire site probably took less space than some single large images on this forum.

[GotAU?]

1 hour ago, Wild Bill said:

Steve, I used Image Size as well.  Downloaded it last night and gave it a try.  Fairly user friendly and for a single $20.00 fee, you can permanently eliminate adds.  Years ago when I covered NHRA drag racing, I used pro cameras and Photoshop 7.  Big files for prints and small files for websites.  I got used to that but I’m using my cellphone as my PC is shut down for replacement.  It has a ton of geologic data on it but has become outdated.  Using a cellphone is a different world for me so I’m still learning.  It’s very handy as we often carry it with us in the field detecting taking digital images.  It’s great and that file size problem is easily solved.  

Good pointers, Bill.  Another trick I use to easily reduce the size and even to erase Date and GPS data (if you didn’t select “do not save location data” in your phone setup first) from an image for emailing, texting or posting it elsewhere is to simply take a screenshot of the image while viewing it in your photo directory. You can then crop out the screenshot edges, or quickly edit a cover mask over sensitive parts of it, then save it for posting.  As Steve pointed out previously, this website doesn’t save the location data with posted photos, but reducing the size of the images would help with saving room on the servers and helping the site run more smoothly.

[Gold Seeker]

Steve on Bill's old forum which is the same Invision software that it seem is used here we had a tech set something in the software that automatically downsized all photos to a reasonable size as they were posted, not sure where to find that setting in the AP.

[Glenn in CO]

I use PIXresizer it's free and easy to use.

 

[F350Platinum]

I have a Samsung Galaxy Z-Flip, I have been downsizing my images from Megabytes to mere kilobytes for a long time now, since Steve asked us to do it.

The gallery app has resize built in. 👍

I post a lot of pics, so I try to keep 'em small, unless detail dictates.

[Steve Herschbach]

On 7/18/2025 at 12:35 PM, Gold Seeker said:

Steve on Bill's old forum which is the same Invision software that it seem is used here we had a tech set something in the software that automatically downsized all photos to a reasonable size as they were posted, not sure where to find that setting in the AP.

I’m comfortable with my settings and space. This is mainly to help people with uploads that are stalling or timing out due to poor connections or data limits on their plans.