Resize and Rename Images On a Mac without Lightroom

by David Terao and Tanya Riseman, 2025

Other articles discuss how to resize and rename projected-images for SSCC competitions using Adobe’s Lightroom and, for non-Adobe users, using a free software called Irfanview.  Although Lightroom may be used by both Mac and PC users, the instructions for using Irfanview are only for PC users.

This tutorial is intended for those Mac users who do not use Lightroom.  The program we will use is called Preview; it is Mac’s flagship OS program for viewing photos. (The flagship Mac photo cataloging and minor editing program is Photos.) Preview can view photos directly from a digital camera or iPhone and is a useful tool for resizing and renaming images to meet SSCC competition requirements, as well as converting images to other formats, cropping, and adding text if desired. 

When you open an image in Preview, you will get a screen like this one:

In the top bar on the right, find the icon that looks like an upward pointing marker.  If you hover over it, it will say, “Show Markup Toolbar” (It’s the icon to the left of the Search box).  When you click on that icon, you will get a choice of tools in a drop-down bar as shown in the picture below:

To resize your image, click on the tool that looks like several nested boxes. You will now see a dialog box called Image Dimensions (shown here for two images, one with a landscape aspect ratio, the other portrait.

Click on the box with the widest dimension.  For an image in landscape orientation, it will be Width – type 1920.  For an image in portrait orientation, it will be Height. – type 1440. Be sure the dimensions are in “pixels;” not “inches.”  Also, make sure both boxes named “Scale proportionally” and “Resample image” are checked. 

Look at the bottom of the box, it will tell you the resulting size of the image.  It should be less than 1000 KB to meet SSCC competition rules.   If it is slightly over, you can correct at the next step. Click OK when done.

Now, to change the file name to meet SSCC projected-image requirements, the file name should be in the proper format:  Class~Your Name~Image Title.jpg.  The Class is either “Novice”, “Intermediate”, or “Advanced.”  NOTE: Your name must be consistent in each competition.  For example, don’t use “Robert Smith” one month and “Bob Smith” in another month.  Otherwise, the database will assume you are two different people.

Select from the menu “File” and then “Export.”

You will now get a dialog box for 

• the name (edit it from “20220318-IMG_3254” to the SSCC requirement like “Novice~First Lastname~Dog.jpg”);
• the directory where you store your other SSCC competition images; 
• the format (select JPEG); and
•  a final, last chance to adjust the size to be below 1000Kb using the quality slider.

WAIT! Finally, when you close the file in Preview, don’t “Save” the changes – it will shrink the original file. Select “Revert Changes” instead.

The file is now ready to be sent by email to the competition email address: competition@ssccphotography.org.