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Category: Explain Digital Resolution

Photography Question 

BetterPhoto Member
 

Image Size and Optimising


 
 
Hi, I have a Pentax Optio 330GS 3.2 megapixel camera, and I want to make a website, which has streetscenes and historical building photos in it. I look at other sites, they have clearer photos, and are only about 30-50 kb in size. I try to get the same quality by reducing an image to 600X450 pixels, using 50% in the unsharp mask, then optimising in Image Ready. It usually ends up being 80+ kb, with slightly less quality. When I save in Photoshop, I put it on high quality. What am I doing wrong?

Thanks


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June 26, 2003

 

doug Nelson
  Are you shooting at the full resolution of which this fine camera is capable? Are these images starting off as JPEG's right out of the camera? If so, you have to handle them with digital kid gloves. In Photoshop, convert them to TIF's for doing your cropping, contrast/brightness (use Levels for this) and touching out electrical wires and such. Only when you have it ready to convert to JPEG for your web site do you downsize it, choose the degree of compression and save it as a JPEG. BTW, when you downsize, get your 600 x 450, but also don't let your resolution drop below about 72 ppi.

Why go through Image Ready at all?
On a JPEG this size, try 86, .6, and 2 for your Unsharp Mask settings in Photoshop. Don't use Sharpen, as it's a meataxe effect. You can lower your JPEG quality to 7, IF it preserves the integrity of your image. For this site, I do a 10.


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June 26, 2003

 
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