One of the things I am frequently asked for help with is resizing photos..and rightfully so!

This is one of those little things that is really simple, and really necessary, but also really tricky to figure out. None of the typical image editing applications have a resize feature. (Not even Picasa, which shocks me.) Here's the good news -- I'm gonna show you in six super simple steps how to use a FREE online app that can adjust the size (and do lots of other cool things) with any photo or image file on your computer then save it OR send it to your favorite sharing site like Flickr, Facebook, MySpace, Picasa, etc.

Click on any of the screenshots below to enlarge them.

STEP 1

Go to:  www.picnik.com
You don't have to register, but you have access to more features if you do. For this tutorial, it isn't necessary.

STEP 2 

Click "Get Started Now" then click the "Upload a photo" button.

STEP 3

Navigate through the pop up to find the photo you would like to edit. Click "Open". I chose a photo of my mom that she wanted to use on her real estate website. (Go Steelers!)

You can see it automatically took us to the "Edit" tab.

STEP 4

Any guesses what we are going to click next?? Yep, you got it: "Resize".  From there we can enter in new dimentions (that's in pixels, btw) or check the "Use Percentages" box to just do, say 75% size, or whatever. Since this image is just going to go at the bottom of her site, I reduced the width to 150. Because "Keep Proportions" is checked, it automatically sets the height.

Notice there is also a slider on the bottom left if you want to zoom in or out.

Click "OK"

STEP 5

There are lots of other fun things to play with, like "Red-Eye" or the magical "Auto-fix" button, but I didn't promise any of that, now did I?  ;)  

Click the "Save & Share" tab. 

You can see (marked in red below) there are multiple options for what you want to do with your image now,  but I am going to just use the default "Save to Computer". In the "Format" dropdown box, you can select the file type you would like including JPG, which you are probably familiar with. This will be a good choice for any online use, emailing, posting to a website, etc. You can also choose PDF or TIFF which are better for printing.

Use the slider to select your Compression Quality. 8 will probably do for most uses.

STEP 6

Click "Save Photo" and navigate to where you would like to keep your new image.

That's it! You're done!

From that point you can click "Continue Editing" if you would like to go back in and try some other things. When you are finished, just click "Save & Share" again. From there you have the same options as Step 5: Email it to someone, upload it to Facebook, etc.

Have fun and let me know if you need help!