Picture sizes, cropping advice? (1 Viewer)

Hi everyone,

I've just started taking birding photos and I'm left wondering about technique for editing the photos...

Do you guys make sure all your photos are the same size (pixels h and w?) or do you just crop and not worry about that? What size do you store your photos in? What is a standard size to share on the web, etc.? How important is it to do a watermarking on the photo?

Just a few questions, anybody got a few answers?

Hi eva001,

I tend to crop a photo to the proportions I want to use e.g. 1600x1200, 1600x1600 and then resize to a standard dimensions for use on the web such as 800x600 or 650x650 for square format.

I then do whatever processing I think it needs, sometimes a bit of sharpening or adjusting levels and then save that photo as a copy. I always retain the orginal and usually just add an 'a' to the filename so the copy stays along side the orginal in the same folder on the computer. The copy usually needs the file size reducing as on Bird Forum there are maximum limits you can upload - 800x800 pixels and 200kb.

I don't bother with watermarking my photos - most don't warrant it and really if it's a photo to share on a web site then it's in the public domain already. If it's not for public display then I think it's best not to upload it. You can place a bold watermark on the photo but I don't see the point as it detracts from the subject.

I think you should primarily try to crop to give you the best photographic composition - i.e. crop to produce the most esthetically pleasing picture. If you have certain requirements as far as aspect ratio (height vs width) to say fit a frame you already have, you can take this into consideration.

Once you have cropped for esthetics, you can resize/resample A COPY for the web to 800x600 or perhaps somewhat smaller. Of course, save the original because you can't usefully print these downsized web-ready versions.

Eva,
First off, I store all my originals after reviewing them. Whenever I post process an image I save is as a different name. I normally append a suffix to the IMG #. Like IMG_8272a. I'd recommend that you never lose you originals by re-saving after post processing, or downsizing.

As Ian mentions, 600x800 is the accepted size for posting on forums and web galleries. You can upload larger size images to your gallery, but it is sort of frowned upon in forums. Many folks still have dial-up connections and they have to wait much longer for large images to appear.

RAH's cropping advice is spot on. If you find there's really not much to compose. Say, a flying bird against a clear sky. Try to get the eye in one of the compositional "thirds" of the frame. Try not to center your subject. Sometimes though, it's unavoidable. Another point to keep in mind is whether you, or others, will be printing these images. If so, you will want to crop or re-size to the appropriate print ratio (4x6, 5x7, 8x10, etc...) FWIW, I crop and then re-size (bi-cubic resample) to 800x600 if posting on the web

I'm with Ian on water-marking. If the shot is that valuable to you, it shouldn't be posted anywhere on the web. Water-marking is very distracting. I have viewed what I consider to be works of art, pretty much on a daily basis. Most are signed, almost none are water-marked. I'd advise you to add a copyright statement in your web galley instead.

Steve