How to send high resolution photos via email

Most modern digital cameras take pictures at a much higher resolution than can be reasonably sent through email. Even if bandwidth is not an issue, your business client or employee may not appreciate an exceedingly high resolution photo that only displays a portion of the image in his email window. If you have an email program installed on your Windows 7 computer, resizing and attaching the image is automated through the right-click menu. However, for online email accounts, you need to resize the image in the native Paint program.

Send To

  1. Click the Start button and click "Computer" to open Windows Explorer. Locate the picture you wish to resize.

  2. Right-click the picture, point to "Send to" and select "Mail Recipient."

  3. Click the "Picture Size" drop-down menu and select your preferred resolution. Selecting "Small: 640 x 480" minimizes the file and resolution sizes.

  4. Click "Attach" to resize the image and open a new email composition window with the file automatically attached.

Paint

  1. Right-click the picture in Windows Explorer, point to "Open With" and select "Paint."

  2. Click "Resize" in the Image group, or press "Ctrl-W."

  3. Enter a percentage in the "Horizontal" or "Vertical" field to reduce the image to a percentage of the original. Alternatively, click "Pixels" and enter a specific resolution size in the "Horizontal" or "Vertical" field. As long as "Maintain Aspect Ratio" is checked, entering a figure on one field automatically adjusts the other field.

  4. Click "OK" to resize the picture.

  5. Press "Ctrl-S" to overwrite the original picture with the resized image. Alternatively, click the blue "Paint" menu and select "Save as" to choose a new name, so you don't overwrite the original.

How to send high resolution photos via email

If you want to send high quality original photos to your friends and family, then there’s really only one good way to do it: with a cloud storage provider. Social networks like Facebook and Instagram don’t store the original files; they reduce the quality, so pages load faster. Even good, dedicated photo services like 500px do it.

This isn’t an issue if you’re just posting photos so people can view them on their smartphones or computers, but if you want them to be able to print the images, you need to give them high-quality files.

RELATED: Why Do Photos Look Different When I Print Them?

What Counts as “High-Quality” Files?

The photos your smartphone camera—or any proper camera—can take are far bigger and of higher quality than social media sites can handle. If every image on your Instagram feed were 2 MBs and 12 megapixels, you’d burn through your data cap in no time. The thing is, these, high-resolution, 2 MB files are exactly what you want if you’re going to print them, set them as your desktop background, or do anything except view them in the correct size box on social media.

Here’s a photo of mine I uploaded to Facebook—it was 2.7 MB and 5166×3444 pixels. When I downloaded it from my Timeline, it was 74 KB and 860×640 pixels. You could barely print that on a postage stamp!

How to send high resolution photos via email

In general, when we talk about high-quality files, what we mean are the original photos straight from your phone or camera or, if you’ve made any edits, a saved copy in full resolution. If you shoot RAW, you can send exported full-resolution JPEGs; full-size RAW files can be a bit unwieldy, especially if the other person doesn’t have the apps to deal with them. These are the kind of files from which they’ll be able to print nice prints.

RELATED: How Big of a Photo Can I Print from My Phone or Camera?

Don’t just download the photos you want to share with people from your Facebook page. Get them from your computer or smartphone.

Cloud Sharing: The Best, Simplest, and Cheapest Solution

A few years ago, cloud storage was a competitive marketplace. Now it’s a commodity: there are heaps of services willing to offer you gigabytes of free storage space. The three we generally recommend are Dropbox, Google Drive, and Microsoft OneDrive.

Which of the three you use doesn’t matter. They’re all pretty similar, and they all have desktop and mobile apps.

  • Dropbox has the worst free tier at 2 GB. Unless you already use Dropbox, it’s probably not the one to go with.
  • You probably already have Google Drive; you get 15GB of free storage with a Gmail account. If you’re not sure which to use, it’s a safe choice.
  • If you use a PC, you also have Microsoft OneDrive. Like Google Drive, you get 5 GB for free. The best thing about it is that for $100/year (the same price Dropbox and Google charge for 1 TB of storage) Office 365 gives you 1 TB of storage each for six Microsoft accounts and access to Microsoft Office. If you’re going to pay, it’s the best option.

How to send high resolution photos via email

Put all the high-quality files you want to send in a single folder in your cloud storage app of choice and let it upload. Unless you’re sharing thousands of DSLR photos, you won’t come anywhere close to hitting the limits of your free storage. Right click on the folder and choose the relevant share option. Check out our full guide to sharing files and folders with cloud storage apps for more.

RELATED: How to Share Files and Folders From Your Cloud Storage Folder

Share the link and now anyone who has it will be able to go in and download the high quality images.

How to send high resolution photos via email

No more going around to your friends’ house and seeing a very blurry version of a photo you took on their fridge.

A Note for Professionals

If you’re a professional photographer looking to share photos with clients, the cloud storage method above will work but can be a bit awkward to manage. Instead, you should check out dedicated online client galleries and proofing services like PhotoProofPro and PixieSet. The extra features they offer, however, are far beyond the needs of regular people.

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Can you email a high resolution photo?

You could try to send the image file as an attachment; however, some high-resolution images might be too large for that. To be sure that you can send your image without losing quality, compress it/them into an archive first. Right-click the image file on your computer. Click “Send to” and “Compressed (zipped) folder.

What is the best way to send photos without losing quality?

Google Photos. If you need a quick method of sharing high-quality photos for free, then Google Photos is your solution. ... .
AirDrop. It is another great way of sharing a picture with your friends. ... .
Facebook's Moments App. This is another great way of sharing photos amongst friends. ... .
Why Select Cloud Storage?.

Does emailing pictures lose quality?

If you email a photo from your phone or computer, it won't be compressed, either. Some email clients automatically adapt files for the Internet. To avoid this, just uncheck the appropriate box before transferring. Then you can send photos in their original size and quality.

How do I email high resolution photos from my iPhone?

If you want to send photos in full-resolution, the Mail app followed by Messages are the best options (we do cover another online service below, however). To get started, open the Photos app on your iPhone, tap “Select,” and then choose the photos you want to share. Next, tap the Share button.