e-mailing crisp images

[mapgirl]

Somehow I've managed not to have used the "attach to email" function on my Photoshop Elements 4.0 before. It seemed easy enough, but one of the recipients asked why the full-screen images looked grainy. OK, I get that the program does something (compresses?) to make the images load more quickly, but I tried upping the number of pixels when the prompt asked and that didn't make all that much of a difference. And when I tried attaching the file as is, it was, of course, WAY too big.
So what is the best way to email images without sacrificing quality?

 

[goodoneian]

using gmail i can email full size pictures at 4288X2848 (roughly 5-7 megabytes) with no noticeable quality loss.

 

[Overread]

when I have sent them I just use attach file (hotmail) rather than attach photo - they seem to send easier

 

[mapgirl]

Thank you both for responding so fast. My files are a bit over 3 megabytes, and I'm using Gmail. But when I tried sending the file itself, the resulting image was really huge. A minor detail took up practically the entire screen. Is there a way to resize before sending without loss?

 

[Overread]

I don't get you - if you just save the image as a file type (lets say Tiff) and then go to your e-mail make a new message and attach the Tiff as a file (not as a photo) and it should send. Hotmail (free) lets me send 10mb files at most which gets most of my photos transfered without problems

 

[goodoneian]

yeah, don't click "attach photo" use the attach file, it's right below where you add the recipient on gmail..

 

[mapgirl]

I don't get you - if you just save the image as a file type (lets say Tiff) and then go to your e-mail make a new message and attach the Tiff as a file (not as a photo) and it should send. Hotmail (free) lets me send 10mb files at most which gets most of my photos transfered without problems

I'm not saying I can't send them. But if I send them as the files I've saved, they arrive too big for the screen and then the recipient has to zoom out many times to even begin to see the entire photo.

 

[Overread]

ahh sorry I get you now!
hmm what editing software do you have?
resize image and then a small sharpen to restore lost sharpness in the resizing should help

 

[goodoneian]

so the person you're sending them to doesn't have to zoom out, for the average monitor i would probably re size to around 1200px wide or less

 

[smithphoto]

I'm in agreement with overread. I shoot in RAW/Ljpg, I usually just import the highquality jpg, resize and send with little issue. A sharping mask is a good idea but I find even with the compression of jpg you can usualy simply resize and send with little to no noticable loss of quality.

 

[mapgirl]

so the person you're sending them to doesn't have to zoom out, for the average monitor i would probably re size to around 1200px wide or less

Thank you, goodoneian ! :hail: This was exactly the info I needed.
And just for my own education, what happens when you use the "attach to email" function on Photoshop Elements? Why does the image get grainy and lose focus?

 

[Overread]

I suspect its compressing the image to make it smaller - and so you are losing out on quality (ergo the shot goes very soft). Changes are there are some settings you can change to improve on this. Personally though if you want to send smaller files use the "Save for Web" option and then adjust settings so as the file size is smaller, but your quality is kept and then just email as a file attachment