The Villages Loc: The Villages, Florida

So, I have had AOL for many years. No problem in attaching a number of pics and having them transmitted under their previous set-up. Some months ago got notice that the "free" program I had was being discontinued and was offered AOL Gold for a low price. Under this new set-up, I'm restricted to attachments not exceeding 25MP which can be easily reached as I shoot Jpeg Large - Fine.

I've found a way to "resize" so I wouldn't have to send multiple e-mails, but its a pain to deal with (I don't speak computer). It would appear that if I start shooting in Medium or Small (rather then Large) that the file would therefore be smaller, thereby allowing me to attach more pics (when needed) before reaching the 25MP threshold.

Most of my pictures are in my computer. Don't send many out to friends/relatives, nor do I do a lot of printing.

The questions - For the type of environment I deal with, is there any big negative to start shooting in Medium or Small (all sizes seem to look the same on the monitor) ? If was to print a 4x6 or 8x10 would I see a big difference?
Would moving from Fine to either Norm or Basis make much of a difference?

As always, I look forward to your responses and thank you for your time.

Linda From Maine Loc: Yakima, Washington

Why not do some controlled tests and decide that way? Opinions given here will relate to people's own cameras, shooting expertise, possibly subject matter and light, quality of viewing monitors (as you already mentioned), eyesight...on and on.

The Villages Loc: The Villages, Florida

Thanks. All input is welcome.

brucewells Loc: Central Kentucky

As an alternative, open a free Dropbox account and sync those images there. It’s secure. Then, copy a link to those images and email the link. Any recipient of that link can view, and optionally for you, download the image, despite its size.

Church Key Loc: Inwood, WV

The software for your PC that's provided with the camera usually can be used to change the photo pixel amounts. As an example, I use a Pentax K-S2 and its software allows me to right click on a photo (in a folder on my PC) and adjust the quality which it then saves as another picture with a different name. Just did it tonight as I also use AOL, which for me seems to have a >10MB limit; otherwise I get a "failed try again" message. Max picture quality for me is **** or 11MB; * is about 2MB. You will have to hunt a bit to find out how it works with your software, but once figured out it becomes easy.

Church Key

jerryc41 Loc: Catskill Mts of NY

That's annoying, but not surprising. Companies have started charging for what used to be free. If only another company offered email services.

I love the way Gmail works. You can also use something like Dropbox or Google Drive to send lots of large pictures.

The Villages Loc: The Villages, Florida

Thanks Church Key -Yes, I can now see how things are starting to come together. I was resizing, but found that duplicates were made, and further in the process was mixing up the order of some of my saved pictures. Following your comments, I see that while the duplicates have the same number assigned....they also note the numerical size of the pic. With this in mind, I guess I can attach the "resized copy" to the e-mail, and then delete the copy when done. I don't send pics that often, but I think this would work better the lowering the quality/size of the original shot in case I need that better quality for a print.

nimbushopper Loc: Tampa, FL

Go to the website wetransfer.com and you can send up to 2 GB of photos to any email address. They have 7 days to download the files and you get notified when they do. This eliminates having to send multiple emails of photos to someone. It's free!

pithydoug Loc: Catskill Mountains, NY

Paying for a mailer seems strange with so many free ones. I assume you are locked into the email address and don't want to change.

Don't alter your photography to deliver pictures. There are products like dropbox that give you a terabyte of free space. You just create a directory in dropbox, lo

mrtaxi Loc: Old Westbury NY, Fort Lauderdale, FL

I also use aol, and can’t send pictures anymore due to their size, as I shoot with a 5DS ,& 5DIV. I use Dropbox and share. Works great.

TomV Loc: Annapolis, Maryland

Similarly, I use Flickr. I also have FastStone Photo Resizer to batch reduce files and store them in a 'Resized for email' folder for those files I wish to share via email.

When sharing via email I am assuming that the photo will be viewed on the screen so the resolution is not critical. The jpeg compression can be rather aggressive. As has been suggested, try various settings and determine what works for you.

jccash Loc: Longwood, Florida

You can use programs like You Send It it We Transfer I used We Transfer to send 4000 people ctures RAW to an editor in England after a Photo trip to South Africa Kruger Park Safari

https://wetransfer.com/?gclid=CjwKCAiAo9_QBRACEiwASknDweVJpuFnhsCBAMoI4c3t5AjonBRhFsS2ganogmm39T14fF5k3oE2zhoC4KQQAvD_BwE

russelray Loc: La Mesa CA

Interesting.
I have been using AOL since 1994 (which is why I don't change; way too much hassle to inform the world that I have a new email address), and the free version since 2010.
I have not received that message yet.

LarryFitz Loc: Beacon NY

There are many different approaches, I download freeware program Image Resizer for Windows (http://www.bricelam.net/ImageResizer/). I select one or more image, then right click and resize. The resized images will be rename XXXX-Med.jpg. You can select different resize sizes. Now you can email so viewing.

JD750 Loc: SoCal

I have a friend who uses AOL and he has been very frustrated by the new AOL software, mainly that he cannot resize pics in the AOL mail tool. He travels and shares travel photos and he to be able to send smaller pics because larger pics = more $. He is now using Facebook instead of AOL to share his images.

Keep in mind 25MB is a huge file to send via email. Many email systems limit the size of messages to 10MB. Now, regarding your questions.

Large, Medium and small are image sizes. For viewing on a monitor, small and medium size pics will look about the same quality but will be different sizes on the monitor. Printing is another story. You need about 300 dpi for a high quality print and for 8 x 10 that means the image size would be about (8 x 300) x (10 x 300) = 2400 x 3000 Pixels and for 4 x 6 about 1200 x 1800 Pixels. So look at the image sizes for your S and M pictures and you will have your answer for which to use for printing.

As far as Fine - Norm - Basic these are compression settings. Fine will give you higher quality results but a larger file size. On a monitor you may not see much difference.

Here is an experiment you can do that will give you a lot of information. Put you camera on a tripod and take the same picture, in the same light, using Large-Fine, Large-Norm, and Large-Basic, then repeat for Medium-Fine, Medium-Norm, Medium-Basic and finally Small-Fine, Small-Norm, Small-Basic. You will have 9 images. Download them and look at them on screen. Compare them. Then print all 9. You will have your answers.