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|| SportsShooter.com: Member Message Board
Picture quality question-
Sarah Coward, Photographer
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Pt.Charlotte | FL | USA | Posted: 10:50 AM on 02.22.03 |
| ->> When you guys re-size a picture for web viewing, how do you get it to look like the original file? Whether I change the resolution or the # of pixels, it still doesn't look as good as the original shot. I'm trying to update my ss page, and I'd really like the pics to look like they did when I took them- |
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Chris Ditto, Student/Intern
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Austin | TX | USA | Posted: 12:53 PM on 02.22.03 |
| ->> Import the original into PS 7, then click on Help, then on the bottom, resize image. Then click resize for online, then make the photo a reasonable size. I usually make my horizontals 400x700 or so and the verticals 450x900. Argh, those numbers are probably wrong, but just resize them in PS and they look good. |
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Steven E. Frischling, Photographer
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Amherst | MA | USA | Posted: 1:01 PM on 02.22.03 |
->> Normally I take my original photo, double click it open from Photo Mechanic Pro into Photoshop v4.0.1 (also have v6.0, but like 4.0.1....and clicking the image open into Pshop is exactly the same as opening the image directly in Pshop), once in Pshop I crop the image, alter my levels/curves to get the image to look the way I want it to, then resize it. I resize my images to 72dpi X 620pixels (on the long side), then use unsharp mask to eliminate the natural softness which occurs with digital camera. The photo is then saved as a size 5 (in Pshop v4.0.1, on Win 2000) JPEG.
My images come off of a D1x, D1 and DCS520 (I should have had two 1D bodies about a month ago...but that is something I don't want to get into). |
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Lester Kuhn, Photographer
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Punta Gorda | FL | USA | Posted: 10:58 AM on 02.24.03 |
| ->> Sarah, I just joined this website and saw your photo quality question. As I do a lot of photos for the web think I know what you're doing wrong. Work from your original image. If digital (and I know it is) change it from JPEG to Tiff to adjust your image. I think your resolution is 200 dpi at the paper. Adjust your image size first. Probably 350 to 600 wide depending on the image. Adjust your pixels next to 72 dpi. Check and make sure photoshop didn't change the image size and readjust if necessary. I'm familiar with the version of photoshop you use and as I recall it readjusts the image size when you change the dpi. Finally save as a jpeg. Its a tossup what size file to use between quality and size. I usually go for the quality of 7 or 8 even though it would load faster at 6. |
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Sarah Coward, Photographer
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Pt.Charlotte | FL | USA | Posted: 1:58 PM on 02.24.03 |
->> Lester! It's about time you coughed up the cash and joined SS. For those of you that don't know it, Lester has made approximately 4 billion dollars from SportsShooter.com- a friend (Mike McLoone) joined last year, and a few days later got a call from someone who saw his stuff on SS and needed a shooter
(film only) for a local fantasy baseball camp. Mike could only work limited hours, so he brought in Lester. Lester's been rakin' in the bucks ever since.
Okay, back to the problem- I work on a Mac at work, and a PC (WinXP) at home. Whenever I transfer work files to my computer, my home PC won't recognize the TIFF files (we must save them as TIFF's at work), so I use a file-converting program (XnView) to batch convert the files to jpg.
That being done, if I go to Photoshop (I only have the limited edition version) image size and change the dimensions to the recommended 620 or less, the pic's okay size-wise, but it's still the slow-loading 200 resolution.
If I only change the file size to 72 dpi. and leave the pixel dimensions alone, sometimes I'll get an acceptable file, sometimes I won't- usually still too big.
If I change the pixels AND the resolution to recommended levels (620 on the long side, 72 dpi), the finished file is about 2 inches at 100% on the longest side, too small to view properly. And even if I get lucky and guess at the right pixels that would give me an acceptable web-viewed size file at 72 dpi., the finished product seems- I don't know- thin? The file just doesn't look like the original, quality-wise.
Have I confused everyone properly? What am I doing wrong, or what steps am I leaving out? |
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Richard Orr, Photographer
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Longmeadow | MA | USA | Posted: 2:01 PM on 02.24.03 |
| ->> The other thing you can do is "save for web." This option converts the colors to web only colors (usually not a problem) and really cuts down on the file size. You lose some quality (which is adjustable) but, for the most part, the pictures are acceptable. |
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Lester Kuhn, Photographer
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Punta Gorda | FL | USA | Posted: 3:11 PM on 02.24.03 |
->> Sarah, it's not a billion bucks but the "got it thru a friend" story continues. Last weekend the photog that hired Mike and Myself for the fantasy camps contacted me from Calif. to assist another photog from "Sporting News" in photographing baseball player Torii Hunter. Requirements being ability to manuever studio lighting and reload Hasselblads. It was with Sporting News Staff Photog Robert Seale and it was a lot of fun. So I figured I was doing so well with Sportsshooter's websites that it was worth the $25 to join.
I know what you're doing wrong now. We crop the images to 54 or 40 picas at the newspaper. That' why its best to start with your original image. You also don't have to convert your images from the paper. Just rename the images with a .tiff extension and your PC will recognize them. Don't you have a drive for your cf card? Work from that if possible. I think you're trying to make the images larger than what we use at the paper and you're loosing resolution and quality the way you're doing it. |
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Sarah Coward, Photographer
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Pt.Charlotte | FL | USA | Posted: 6:42 PM on 02.24.03 |
->> I wish I had a Photoshop other than Limited Edition, Chris, I can't find any of the buttons you guys say you use for re-sizing- on the plus side, I may have figured out the problem. Between Lester's and Steven's using the original file advice for the picture quality issue, I discovered the little "resample image" button, unchecked it, and now the file stays the same size when I change it from 200 to 72. Man, I really gotta get me a PS 6 or 7 with some damn instructions.
P.S. Thanks Jason B., your e-mail made it a lot easier to resize, saved me a few steps. |
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