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Resizing images for posting and losing quality (1 Viewer)

Will Eldred

Member
Hi,

When reducing the size of images to post in the gallery i am noticing a big reduction in quality and the images become a bit pixelated. When i look at other peoples images they don't seem to have this issue as much. Is it due to the way i am resizing (potoshop elements) or is it the original image quality may not have been that high to begin with? (Canon EOS 100D which is smaller than most dslrs so i assume it has a small sensor)

Cheers,

Will
 
The easiest way is to resize and crop all in one.
Use the crop tool in Elements, put in the image size in the tool bar, 1600x1200 is the current maximum and then select the area of the image you want. It constrain the area to those proportions and resize, check it looks OK at 100% and then Save As...
 
In elements, I believe you can set the quality of the jpg compression independently of the size in pixels. I would recommend never to go below 7 (I hope it still uses those units, it has been a very long time since I actually used any of the photoshop programs). Secondly, it is customary to sharpen a little after having reduced pixel size (unless you are able to get away with crop only, not needing any resize).

For an image uploaded to the gallery in Birdforum, my personal preference is to have max 1000 pixels on the longest side. Otherwise the software that shows the image seems to resize once more using an unfavorable algorithm to do so.

Niels
 
Otherwise the software that shows the image seems to resize once more using an unfavorable algorithm to do so.

I don't think so Niels.... I believe the only time the Gallery software struggles is if the file size is way too big.... then it generally tells me it can't do it!

I usually resize to 900 px, as that fits on my laptop screen without scrolling.
 
If you have Windows 10 (and I believe it works on earlier versions) find the picture you want to post then select it with a left click then right click it. Next choose 'Send to' and from the drop-down list choose 'Mail Recipient'. A window will come up labelled 'Attach Files' with the picture size 'Medium' selected. Click on the button on the right to open up the list of sizes and choose 'Large 1280x1024', then click 'Attach' underneath. Your Outlook programme will come to life so open it and you will find a blank email form with the pic attached to it. Select the pic with a left click then right click it and choose to 'Save As' and give it a title and save it in the folder of your choice. I usually leave the original jpeg number there and simply add Red, meaning 'reduced'.

This pic size is accepted by Birdforum and this method is easy and consistent.

Good luck.

Lee
 
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You don't give us a lot of information about how exactly you are resizing, apart from the program you use. How large are the files you end up with? What settings do you use? Do you do this starting with an in-camera jpg that has been adjusted in Photoshop, or are you working from raw? If you are taking jpgs, have you set your camera to the best image quality?

Certainly, as Mono says, if you are also going to crop the photo (how often do we end up with a bird close enough that it fills the image?) then you should crop and resize at the same time.

If you are working with jpgs then all adjustments you make will be lossy. If you are interested in only part of the image then crop first.

There are a lot of factors that could be at work here.

Andrea
 
I don't think so Niels.... I believe the only time the Gallery software struggles is if the file size is way too big.... then it generally tells me it can't do it!

I usually resize to 900 px, as that fits on my laptop screen without scrolling.
Uploading images to the gallery may trigger unfavorable "adjustments" if some conditions are not met.
This is from the gallery guidelines and worth to keep in mind when resizing images for posting:

"File Sizes and Dimensions
The gallery will not accept any photos over 500kb.
Dimensions:
The gallery will automatically reduce the dimensions of any photos above 1024 pixels width or 900 pixels height. However, it may also reduce the quality of the photo in the process, so if you can it would be a good idea to resize it in your chosen photo-editing software before you post it."
 
It's always good practice to use software at your end to size down to the final size, in this case the 1024x900 used by the gallery. Then sharpen-up the image a bit; down-sizing a photo always causes some amount of blur.

Most online resizers seem to be horrible at their job; don't rely on them.

If you have a choice of sharpening types, use Smart Sharpen or Unsharp Mask (counter-intuitive name but trust me on this one).

Done properly, you can sometimes improve iffy-quality larger images when reducing them, or bring-out key details on better quality photos.
 
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