I mean ya I know HOW to do it, and in time I'll redo my 2 web sites so I can post much better quality pictures here,
but for instance I took a few today but WAY TOO SUNNY, and I used a way to Hi Res setting, so by the time I shrunk them down from 3.5 megs to few hundred K, it seems all was lost.
I especially notice it in the background such as the blue sky,
and in the overall reflection, which is taken down to nothing
when you shrink them.

 

For instance in this last picture, on the original it is absolutely
amazing, you can see each and every grain of the marble tower,
and count my sons filling all the way up there. Plus the sky is
a beautiful multi color blue, but now it's all screwed up ???

I think I had better luck last week shooting on a less HI Res ?

It was a bad spot to shoot, a lot of shadows and I couldn't get the sun behind me where I was parked.

Any tips, I'm open for sugestions ???

 

There are two different things going on here -- resizing and compression. In each case, it's all about the software used.

Resizing: There are many algorithms for shrinking -- they each have pros and cons. But the basic idea remains the same -- to figure out what should be left once the "extra" pixels are discarded. What software are you using? Please don't tell me that you are resizing in the camera.

Compressing: JPEG format is a "lossy" compression method. The more that you compress the image, the more that you will lose detail and introduce artifacts (ghosts, ringing, speckles, weird colors, etc).

Do not confuse shrinking and image and compressing it. While both reduce the image size, they operate very differently.

For instance, one can take a 2000X1000 TIFF (uncompressed image format) and resize it to 1000X500. The size in now 1/4 because you reduced the pixel count.

Now, take that 1000X500 TIFF and convert it to JPEG. It shrinks again, but now the pixel count is the same, it's just that the JPEG format tries to eliminate redundant information to save space.

A 1000X1000 TIFF of a perfectly white surface will have about 1,000,000 pixels. A 1000X1000 JPEG of that same perfect white surface might have only 1,000 pixels. Why? Because the easiest way to reduce the file size is to not waste space on unneeded information. So the JPEG file will record the value for white only once, then simply state that it is repeated a million times, rather than trying to map out the whole image pixel-by-pixel.

Now take a photograph of a blue sky that gets deeper blue in the horizon. A TIFF would have a perfectly seamless transition in those colors. A very-high-quality JPEG (i.e., low compression) will also have a very nice transition. But as the compression selected increases (i.e., lower "quality" setting), the sky will turn into distinct bands of color because the JPEG algorithm is discarding more and more information for the sake of space.

Bottom line: get a good software program like Paint Shop Pro and do the resizing on that. High quality programs allow you to play with the image until you are happy, then specify the tradeoff between image quality and file size when you save.

 

Tim I'm taking the easy path and simply opening up the
LARGE ORIG PIC with Adobe Photo Shop, hitting "image size",
and then no matter WHAT SIZE IT WAS, I simply do "800 wide"
(that seems to be the best for at least keeping the entire picture
viewable in a 19" monitor (the hell with everyone smaller) hehehe


When I do that, they actually look great
(if I host it elsewhere)
See


Now here's the same shot posted here on F-150

Hmm, actually that one didn't come out to bad, hehehehehe
(prob cause it's a close up)

This is another hosted on my reg web site


I DON'T KNOW MAN................. ?????????

 

Hey Rob, that first pic looks familiar

 

SWEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEET
How the hell did you get the whole Tower in
I was like in the bushes on the floor and still couldn't, hehehe
I guess I got to try harder next time

Nice Shot's Sal

 

Rob,
Try this app..... I use it for all of my photo resizing and image processing....it works pretty good and best of all....it's free!!

http://www.irfanview.com/

Mike

 

That's what I do as well (although I usually spend some time with cropping, levels, and sharpening).

Are you doing an "unsharp mask" after resizing? Moderate use of that adds nice "snap" to most photos.

What "quality" setting are you using on your JPEG saves? Below 7 usually starts giving visible artifacts. But 6 or 7 seems to be the best compromise for most images (5 okay for photos that are are just conveying info).

 

U DA MAN
OR MEN (hehehe) TIM + shelpdoggSVT
Tim I'm not using that 1/2 of Photo Shop
I'm using Adobe Photoshop 6.0 ME
But there's another whole Side I've only messed with
once or twice --> ADOBE IMAGEREADY 3.0 ME
That has that mask thing you speak about (I know I'm hopeless)
hehehehehe

I truly think I'm better off at a less Res, and I think the sun
was messing me up.

Looksy here, now it's 8:00 pm, the suns low in the sky
and I just set the Camera on the 2nd from lowest setting
and snapped this on my front lawn
MUCH BETTER
(how cool is that, you can see me naked babe hanging from the rear view, WOO HOO)



Then I took the dogg's advice and downloaded that program
THANKS DOGG, and me likey me likey, nice and simple, yet effective.

Here's the same pic @ 800 width (and then of course cut down more when you put it on the F-150 Gallery)


I guess I can't expect it to be the same quality


Now here's the identical picture you see above from the F-150 Gallery, except this one I hosted on my rob02 site.
Same Pic, uploaded to 2 diff places.


Somewhere there's a compromise I'll find THANKS GUYS....

 

Sorry, Rob. I misunderstood your issue.

The problem is probably not solveable. It appears that your beef is what F150online does to your photos. I'm sure that it resizes and compresses the hell out of them.

The only workaround that I can think of is to upload in a size that the F150online site won't mess with.

But I strongly recommend spending some quality time with Photoshop. IMHO, the work has just begun when the image is recorded on the camera -- the real artistry comes in "the digital darkroom." I only use about 10% of Photoshop's capabilities. But that 10% yields about 90% of the ultimate image quality. The rest is a mystery to me.

I always shoot at max res/max quality and do everything in Photoshop. When you shoot at anything less, you are at the mercy of your camera's built-in software, which can be horrible.

 

I agree with tim, your beef is with what the F150online gallery does to the pics.

Rob, dump that 6.0 ME photoshop and step up to the full Adobe Photoshop 7.0, the full regular normal version with EVERYTHING, not the neutured stuff that cameras come with.

EDIT: What kind of dad has **** hanging from his rear view mirror for his kid to see? Great example there.

I just noticed that, thats really disturbing man.

 

At least the handicapped tag is gone.

 

**** ?

Geeze, give me a brake Bro, I aint that f- up,
and JFTR, I think he bought it for me

OK I did said naked, BUT SHE'S NOT, just wearing a REAL SEXY
Bathing Suite WOO HOO, a real hottie too, my GF gives me a hard time about it too

It's nothing worse than the Britney, Christina A, and Angelina Jolie
posters he has up stairs

Thats weird that you say you use the highest Res Tim,
these last shots are at three settings lower than the orig ones
from this morning (1 setting from the smallest res),
and they seem to have came out much better.
Thanks for everyones help, I guess I'll figure this camera and
software out in time.

I'll look for a free copy of full Adobe Photoshop 7.0, thanks
gadget, and don't worry, I may be f- up, but NO **** in the kids face

Do you know the FILE NAME for Adobe PS 7.0 ?
I can get pretty much any program for free, but I need the actual
file name

 

Hey Rob,

Like someone said before about the "unsharp mask". Each time I knock my images down a size (say from 1000by... to 800by...) I hit the sharpen command to try and "regain" some of those lost pixels.

Lemme see if I can show you with a couple of your images...

Here's your orignal image:


Here's your image that I sharpened:


Sharpened one more step so you can see what a little too much sharpening does(grainy look):

 

Thats cool Rob. Now he can develop some taste in the ladies dept.

I got mine off kazaa with a crack for it. Retail is close to 1k I think so screw that.

try file names like photoshop7 or adobephotoshop7