Corel Paintshop Pro problem

[HEATHROW DIRECTOR]

I use Paintshop Pro for post-processing and have done for sometime with two different cameras. I upload pics to ABPics, which requires file size of no more than 500kb. Paintshop Pro enables me to reduce file size very quickly and easily...... until the last few days when I have had several pics rejected by AB. The problem is pixelation, i.e. you can see pixels on the compressed pics. Also, sky scenes are not smooth, but have clumps of varying colours where the clouds should be. Here's a typical example:

http://i1286.photobucket.com/albums/a610/brendan_mccartney/Aircraft/N156SB_2_zpstepieeoj.jpg

Any ideas, please?

[Mac the Knife]

21171 colors. A jpeg file.

Too much compression?

Mac

:confused:

[HEATHROW DIRECTOR]

Thanks Mac. I'm going to experiment by taking pics at a lower resolution so that the file leaving the camera is smaller. Fingers X!

[jethro15]

Towards the bottom of the resize dialog window, make sure 'Resample using' is checked, then select 'Smart size'. See if that works for you.

[Bushfiva]

You've got a whopping compression ratio of 83:1 and a very low 0.39 bits per pixel. Perhaps you slid the compression/quality slider too far when saving the processed image? For comparison, images tend to have compression ratios of around 3 to 15:1 and something like 4 bits per pixel, which equate to quality settings around 80 -90.

[HEATHROW DIRECTOR]

Thanks everyone for your help. Much appreciated.

[Guest 112233]

Just a quick nudge:

I take it you are on Windows ? - If you are on Ubuntu you can try Simple Image Reducer its in the Ubuntu software centre.

Just a thought how big are the original images ?

CAT III