Preparing Images for a Portfolio

 

Image Guidelines:

  • 180 pixels wide by 220 pixels high
  • Any extra space should be white
  • Saved in RGB as a .jpg (low or medium quality)
  • properly named (no spaces, or special characters)

 

Tutorial for scaling an image using Photoshop:

 

Step 1:

The image should already be in RGB format at 72 pixels/inch.

The first thing to do is to change the 'Image Size' so that one of the dimensions equals the finished size.

Wide Images:

  • make the width 180 pixels

Tall Images:

  • make the height 220

 

 

 


Step 2:

Since this image is wide, we'll want to change the width to 180 pixels:

Step 3:

Reset the Background color in Photoshop to white

Step 4:

Change the 'Canvas Size' to the proper finished size: 180 Wide X 220 High

Because your Background color is set to white, any added space will be white.

Step 5:

Newer versions of Photoshop have a 'Save for Web' feature that is perfect for saving web-ready images.

If you don't have this feature, save your image as a 'low' to 'medium' quality .jpg and skip to Step 7. The file size will most likely be small enough to upload with no problem.

Step 6:

When you select 'Save for Web', you will see a Preview image that shows you exactly how your image will appear on the web.

Select JPEG Medium from the Settings pull-down.

Check the file size in the lower left, as you can see this image is only 3K, well within our file size limit of 15K.

Smaller is better, this image will only take 2 sec. to load from a phone modem, so art directors won't have to wait to see your Portfolio.

Step 7:

Finally, save your image with a simple file name like: 1.jpg Ninety percent of all uploading problems are caused by improper file names.

File naming guidelines:

  • Do not leave spaces in your file name
  • Do not use more than one period
  • Do not use punctuation or special characters like ",'&%
  • Always end your name .jpg (if saved in jpg format)

If you follow these instructions, you should have no problem creating portfolio images and uploading them anytime you wish.