Technical question: How do you get your photos to retain their quality when resizing them? I usually use photoshop because I have to enhance something, then I have to resize them using some downloaded program, because photoshop files are insanely huge, but then the photo becomes dull. Which program do you use?
The GIMP doesn't tend to put quite as much gunk into image files. It's a free alternative to photoshop, and is quite powerful, although not always as intuative if you are used to photoshop.
use photoshop's "File->Save To Web" option. The nice thing about this is that you can see the original and the compressed version side by side. The resulting file will be "optimized" for the web, and not include the preview information used by Windows Explorer or Mac OS Finder.
I also tend to work with my images at a very high resolution and with a deep colour depth, until I am ready to save the version that I am going to put on my web site. Photoshop CS2 allows you to work with images in 16bit (per colour channel), and if you are using curves or levels in particular, this allows you to keep the quality and reduces the "comb" effect. Older versions of Photoshop had very limited or no support for 16bit. I can't remember if good support was introduces in CS1 or CS2. (Use "Image->Mode->8/16 Bits/Channel" to set the colour depth)
It's also best to avoid using JPG until your final save. JPG is a lossy format, so each generation get progressively worse as more and more information is lost. If you are saving as JPG from photoshop and then using a second tool to compress that JPG, you might try saving as PNG or TIFF from Photoshop and the compressing that with the second tool to get your JPG (assuming it supports either of those formats). Configure your camera to produce RAW or TIFF files if you can, for the same reason. Unfortunately, you will need a big memory card for that :/
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timeasmymeasure
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Date: 2006-08-25 02:51 pm (UTC)I usually use photoshop because I have to enhance something, then I have to resize them using some downloaded program, because photoshop files are insanely huge, but then the photo becomes dull. Which program do you use?
no subject
Date: 2006-08-25 10:31 pm (UTC)- The GIMP doesn't tend to put quite as much gunk into image files. It's a free alternative to photoshop, and is quite powerful, although not always as intuative if you are used to photoshop.
- use photoshop's "File->Save To Web" option. The nice thing about this is that you can see the original and the compressed version side by side. The resulting file will be "optimized" for the web, and not include the preview information used by Windows Explorer or Mac OS Finder.
I also tend to work with my images at a very high resolution and with a deep colour depth, until I am ready to save the version that I am going to put on my web site. Photoshop CS2 allows you to work with images in 16bit (per colour channel), and if you are using curves or levels in particular, this allows you to keep the quality and reduces the "comb" effect. Older versions of Photoshop had very limited or no support for 16bit. I can't remember if good support was introduces in CS1 or CS2. (Use "Image->Mode->8/16 Bits/Channel" to set the colour depth)It's also best to avoid using JPG until your final save. JPG is a lossy format, so each generation get progressively worse as more and more information is lost. If you are saving as JPG from photoshop and then using a second tool to compress that JPG, you might try saving as PNG or TIFF from Photoshop and the compressing that with the second tool to get your JPG (assuming it supports either of those formats). Configure your camera to produce RAW or TIFF files if you can, for the same reason. Unfortunately, you will need a big memory card for that :/
no subject
Date: 2006-08-26 07:09 pm (UTC)