25 replies to this topic

[Cometchaser66]

Hello everyone, It has been many years since I was on the Cloudy Nights website, I'm having trouble posting any photos, every time I try it says the file is too big, even after I have cropped the photo as much as possible, I'm using my mobile phone to post, does anyone have any idea what I'm doing wrong?, any help is greatly appreciated, thank you. 

[Illinois]

Only way I did is email photo to me and it said what size and I reduce it then I got email and take that photo for CN.  

[daveco2]

Hello everyone, It has been many years since I was on the Cloudy Nights website, I'm having trouble posting any photos, every time I try it says the file is too big, even after I have cropped the photo as much as possible, I'm using my mobile phone to post, does anyone have any idea what I'm doing wrong?, any help is greatly appreciated, thank you. 

If you've cropped as much as possible, the only thing left is to reduce resolution to get the file size smaller.

[marvyyk]

@Cometchaser66, Welcome back to CN! 

 

In a post, you can upload up to 500KB of files only. But:

 

You can add images to your gallery and use them in a post afterward. The limit per upload is 50mb.

 

You can also use a "link" to post an image, if it is posted somewhere else, ie Astrobin... or Flickr like I do. 

 

 

 

 

[scanner97]

In Photos, which I believe works with both Windows and iCloud, you can choose "See More" (...) and "Resize Image".  Then choose "Pixels" rather than "Percentage".  This allows you to both reduce the pixel size and choose a jpg compression level in one place,  and it shows the file size at the currently selected compression level.  This also works with "Percentage", except that you will need to adjust the percentage until you get an acceptable pixel size rather than entering it directly.

 

This will keep your original photo's FoV without cropping anything.  I'm sure there are other paint and photo editing apps that will do the same thing.  I just happen to use Photos from a Win 11 machine.

Edited by scanner97, 02 October 2024 - 07:42 AM.

[Cometchaser66]

Thank you all for your help, it seems complicated and ridiculous that you have to go through so much hassle to add a photo to a post, maybe I'll stick to just txt. 

[JOEinCO]

It's not really a hassle. You just aren't familiar with the process. Literally takes a few seconds once you've done it a few times.  

[Echolight]

Take photos at a farther distance so you can crop them more.

You should be able to see the size in kb or mb of the cropped photo on your phone somehow.

[UnityLover]

I search up "image compressor", use one, and go on with my day.

[scanner97]

Thank you all for your help, it seems complicated and ridiculous that you have to go through so much hassle to add a photo to a post, maybe I'll stick to just txt. 

I think it's not a stretch to say that, if you find this process too much effort, you are probably not going to enjoy AP.  Adjusting photos to post here is literally the fastest and easiest part of image processing...by a very wide margin.  I don't mean to be rude; I hope you decide to stick with it.  But it's good to have the right expectations going in.

[tea_bird]

I search up "image compressor", use one, and go on with my day.

This is what I do. They usually can compress it to half the original file size, and the quality loss is negligible.

[BlueRidgeSky]

On my latest phone, the easiest way i have found to resize a picture is to text the photo to myself. Best of luck.

[Echolight]

I think it's not a stretch to say that, if you find this process too much effort, you are probably not going to enjoy AP.  Adjusting photos to post here is literally the fastest and easiest part of image processing...by a very wide margin.  I don't mean to be rude; I hope you decide to stick with it.  But it's good to have the right expectations going in.

I saw no mention of AP.

 

This is after all the beginners forum where AP is not allowed.

[TOMDEY]

I use plain old vanilla MS Paint to get the file size under 500K --- which is almost always fine for presentation on anyone else's computer monitor with satisfying resolution and size. It's easy, quick, intuitive, and almost fun to do... with a little practice. By analogy/similarity --- think of it as part of the editing process. Some folks submit blatheringly unnecessarily long comment text that rambles on and on --- then wonder why no one is reading it. Edit down and you will get more action. Same goes for pictures and images. It's on your side of the fence --- not the receiver's.    Tom

 

P.S. I tend to blather, bloviate --- and use a lot of images!

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[WillR]

Hello everyone, It has been many years since I was on the Cloudy Nights website, I'm having trouble posting any photos, every time I try it says the file is too big, even after I have cropped the photo as much as possible, I'm using my mobile phone to post, does anyone have any idea what I'm doing wrong?, any help is greatly appreciated, thank you. 

Everyone  has pretty much answered this, but I’ll reiterate. Cropping does little to reduce file size. You need to reduce the over all image size and compress the file size. Many of the larger sites that people post to do this for you, but Cloudy Nights doesn‘t.  The native file size of a smart phone photo is quite large.

 

I have Photoshop, so I am all set. But I still have to move the image from my phone to my computer, open the file in Photoshop, and reduce the size and jpeg quality to get it under 500 k- a pain for sure. There are a number of free web applications that do this for you.

 

I would suppose there are phone apps as well, but I haven’t looked for one.

Edited by WillR, 02 October 2024 - 08:44 AM.

[hyiger]

The easiest for me is to bring the photo up on my desktop and then use a screen clip application (I use Skitch on MacOS) to take a snapshot and save it reduced. It doesn't take long to get something under 500k. 

[44maurer]

If you don’t want to pay for astrobin, you can use https://telescopius.com to post your larger image and link to that.

[sevenofnine]

Some of the ways members suggested did not work for me either. Maybe because of my antique computer? Anyway, when I discovered Picresize.com it all worked out. Sometimes the standard 50% reduction works and other times 75%. Good luck! 

 

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Edited by sevenofnine, 02 October 2024 - 03:38 PM.

[Don W]

There’s a web based resizes that I like:

 

imageresizer

 

just google it. I keep the link handy.

[dnrmilspec]

In addition there is an app called Imagesize available.  It is free for IPhone.  I am sure there are others for android. 

 

You could also post in the beginning astrophotography forum and see what folks there to.

[tcifani]

In addition there is an app called Imagesize available.  It is free for IPhone.  I am sure there are others for android. 

 

You could also post in the beginning astrophotography forum and see what folks there to.

I use this free app sometimes and it's super simple. Just plug in maximum file size (500kb) or max pixel dimensions (1600 I believe for CN) and resave image on your phone and upload the new file. And it sounds like the OP would rather stick with Cloudy Nights mobile and not deal with transferring files to a PC and figuring out image software.

[marvyyk]

Hey!

 

I'm not sure I understand where it's complicated... 

 

Here's an example of post where I used a image published in flickr: https://www.cloudyni...a-polluted-sky/

 

 

And here's picture posted on my library on CN : https://www.cloudyni...nebula-sh2-132/

 

Obviously, it is more than a cut and paste think... but it is for less than two hours soup recipe! 

[WillR]

Hey!

 

I'm not sure I understand where it's complicated... 

 

Here's an example of post where I used a image published in flickr: https://www.cloudyni...a-polluted-sky/

 

 

And here's picture posted on my library on CN : https://www.cloudyni...nebula-sh2-132/

 

Obviously, it is more than a cut and paste think... but it is for less than two hours soup recipe! 

He’s having trouble resizing them.

[BrentKnight]

On your mobile phone, you can switch to Full Version.  This will give you access to your Gallery under your profile (top right of the screen). 

 

Pick Upload, Create an Album and follow the screens from there.  Once you have a picture in your gallery, you can add it to a post by choosing My Media > Gallery Images and picking the picture.

 

Occasionally I have had it put a picture in there sideways.  Making a very minor crop of the original picture and reposting it usually fixes that issue.

 

Much easier to do this with a large screen PC, but it is possible on a mobile phone.

[Noto]

Hello everyone, It has been many years since I was on the Cloudy Nights website, I'm having trouble posting any photos, every time I try it says the file is too big, even after I have cropped the photo as much as possible, I'm using my mobile phone to post, does anyone have any idea what I'm doing wrong?, any help is greatly appreciated, thank you. 

Could you provide what equipment/OS/version you're using? If you have the same phone as someone here, they could give you step by step directions. I don't post from my phone, so I can't help, but I do now the native images from my iPhone are always multiple megabytes (I import those to my MacBook and resize using the native Preview program; I only post using my MacBook).