reducing pixel size to view on computer

[littleone]

Using Canon A80 Powershot 4MP camera, taking photos on high resolution, superfine compression

when we transfer the pictures to the computer, they look fine if viewed zoomed in ie 1:1, but since there are +-2000 pixels, you only see a small part of the picture like this. If I try to resize it, so that you can see the whole picture, the picture seems to become fuzzy, with loss of clarity eg hair has silvery/glittery look about it. Looking at other photos on PBASE at various sizes they still look very clear. What resolution and compression should I be using to take them? Is there a better program to resize / reduce pixel size without loss of clarity.

I would appreciate any advice you could offer me please.

kind regards
Sarah Ella

[bobtrips]

Reducing photo files for the web or email.

If you use a PC, I highly suggest you download a free copy of Irfanview

www/irfanview.com (If you like it, register and send Irfran $10US.)

Under 'File'
'Batch Conversion/Rename'
'Advanced Options'
'Preserve aspect ratio' (if you desire, and you probably do)
'Use resample' (better quality output)
Set either pixel or percentage size (*)
'OK'

Add photos
'Copy input files to output directory' (**)
‘Start’

* A 640 pixels wide file usually fills up an email, 100 makes a decent ‘thumbnail’ – experiment to find your ideal size. If you post smaller sizes to pBase, etc. you don’t have to worry about people ‘stealing’ your photos and making great big prints for sale.

** I often create a sub-folder named something such as ‘xxx/800 wide’ inside the original ‘xxx’ folder.

Please pardon the ‘cut & paste’. I get tired of typing the same old ‘same old’….

[malifor]

well i use photoshop 7
i use it for everything, when i get pics, they work fine for me. this probably wasnt much of a help but anyway, photoshop is a beast

[bobtrips]

Photoshop is a great editing program but the full feature version really is a beast. I'll agree with that opinion. I use Photoshop Elements for editing. It has almost all the relevant tools for photo editing but not the graphics tools which I wouldn't use.

Irfanview is a different type of software. It will do rapid re-sizings and file conversions that PS won't easily do. It's also great for sorting images into files, renaming, and a few other things that are either impossible or awkward to do with PS. And since it's free....

[joseju]

A computer monitor only displays 72dpi so anything higher than that will not really make a difference. If you make your image anything smaller than 72dpi you will notice some pixilation. I use photoshop to resize my images. I will usually convert to 72dpi and I like to use a 640x480 resolution. There are a lot of other photo programs out there that will export web ready photos for you. You can look at iView Media Pro (both Mac n PC).

[lschell]

If you make your image anything smaller than 72dpi you will notice some pixilation.

Sorry, but this is simply not true. Try to save the same pic as 1000 dpi and then a copy as 1 dpi and see if you notice any difference. dpi has nothing to do with how a pic looks on screen.

[neovolatile]

Okay, I think mine look pretty good on screen so here goes:

1. Crop the picture with an 8.5 X 11 in. frame size (600 dpi)
2. Do all the normal things like layers and color correction. (also 600 dpi)
3. Sharpen using Unsharp Mask
4. Save the altered picture with a different name as a JPG at the highest quality (12, I think)
5. Open that saved altered photo
6. Image size (600 pixels for the smaller sized dimension with proportional resizing on)
7. Save at the quality setting that will get about 140K - 190K (8-9 setting) with the same name but something on the end of it to designate it as smaller. (example: gullsm.jpg for the larger photo gull.jpg)
8. That should give you an apparent image size of 1 inch by 1.27 maybe
9. Add a border by Image Canvas Size (add 0.3 inches)
10. Save again

That should get you pretty much there.

Anybody else want to wade in?
Ellsworth Weaver
http://www.pbase.com/neovolatile