Help needed please!

[pfevrier]

I need some help when it comes to formatting actual FSX screenshots to the format required by SimV's forums.
What is the best way to get a 1024 max width, 150K image that isn't getting killed by compression?
So far all I've been doing is open the screenshot with paint, resize the pic to 65% of its original dimension, and save it as jpeg... I'm not very happy with the end quality.
I've been messing with the freeware version of IrfanView but I always end up above 150K.
I just got Adobe Photoshop CS2, but I've never used it before, the learning curve will be pretty long...

Can someone give me a play-by-play of how to compress a FSX screenshot to obtain the best quality possible? Thank you for your help!

[patchz]

I'm not familiar with Photo Shop but I'll give you a tip. Don't just resize the image. Crop it first. In my experience, this will lower the file size when you do compress it. But that only works with terrain and buildings. Ocean and cloudless sky don't have much effect. I imagine Photoshop has a means to adjust the amount of compression and you will find the sweet spot with trial and error. Hope this helps.

[Hagar]

You might like to check out my Resizing tutes here --> http://205.252.250.26/cgi-bin/yabb2/YaBB.pl?num=1268695162

The method for saving images after resizing varies slightly but the principle is the same whichever software you use. I think using complex & expensive software like Photoshop just for resizing screenshots is overdoing it a bit.

[olderndirt]

Back when this was a previous question, Hagar mentioned leaving the shot in .bmp until you've completed all your adjustments - cropping, enhancements, resizing etc.

[eno]

In photoshop the easiest and best way of getting your shot looking good and the right size is the following.

Do any work on your shot with it full size..........

Resize to the desired size in the IMAGE menu.

Then click on FILE / SAVE FOR WEB.

In the box that opens look for something that when rolled over says optimise menu it could be two small arrow heads pointing to the right (it is in CS it could be different in later versions) click on this and enter the desired file size (make it just under the limit as those right on it sometimes won't upload)

Once optimised click on save ......... add your file name and the location you want it saved in.

Job done.