It’s time to learn how to correctly size your digital photos for emails and the web. Digital cameras have been in the mainstream for years now, but too many people have never read the manual that came with their camera to learn how to size photos correctly as they take them, or learned how to resize them on their computer after taking them. I receive too many photos that have a file size of 2,000,000kb (2megs) where I have to reduce them to 25kb or 30kb to upload to a website.

The easy recommendation is to set your digital camera to take photos at the lowest resolution for emailing and the web. That is usually 640 pixels wide by 480 pixels high.

If you are planning on printing your photos, set your camera to a higher resolution, closer to 2048 by 1536 pixels. If you are also going to email these photos, it is best to learn how to resize them on your computer so that you will have two versions of the photo–a low resolution one for emailing and the web, and a high resolution one for printing.

Here are two easy to understand explanations on the Loyola University Chicago website that I think are very helpful. Each one takes only about 5 mnutes to read.
Adjusting Picture Size in Your Digital Camera
Resizing Your Digital Photos in Windows XP [for emailing]

For resizing photos on your computer for future use, I recommend this handy little, free program that can sit right on your desktop. You only have to drag your photo files over the icon to make new versions that are resized. The pixel width of the resized photo is determined by the file name. To change the pixel width of your resized photos, just use the rename feature to change the number in the file name.
For example, if the file is named, PhotoResize400.exe, the photos will be resized to 400 px wide. If the file is renamed to PhotoResize300.exe, the photos will be resized to 300 px wide.
Download PhotoResize400.exe (Save to your Desktop)
Go to PhotoResize Website for more detailed information.