Loss of detail

[poledark]

Probably a silly question, but is it possible to retain all the detail of the original (3264X2448, 6.4MB) when reducing to 800X600? Just asked 'cos the comp pics I post seem to lose a lot of sharpness and won't stand any sort of zooming in.

 

I use PS and/or photosuite, and simply resize down to 800x600 for comp.

 

Den

[nursejudy]

Probably a silly question, but is it possible to retain all the detail of the original (3264X2448, 6.4MB) when reducing to 800X600? Just asked 'cos the comp pics I post seem to lose a lot of sharpness and won't stand any sort of zooming in.

 

I use PS and/or photosuite, and simply resize down to 800x600 for comp.

 

Den

 

i have just re sized 2 pics on piccassa and there was a box to click for the quality

[poledark]

I do save for highest quality in PS Judy, but the pics still don't compare to the originals.

 

My simple test involves zooming in on both the original and then the resized image. If you "save as" the pics in the comp, you will find that they pixelate very quickly when trying to enlarge.

 

Den

[MrWiggly]

Hi Den ..

 

When loaded into Photoshop, or other progs, a lot of pictures are set at a very low resolution, often as low as 75 PPI (Pixels Per Inch).

 

When re-sizing I often set the PPI to 150 .. Then set my longest edge at 800 for dropping onto AN. Also bear in mind that on-line photo hosters, i.e. "Photobucket", may have limitations on file sizes that they can handle, and will possibly degrade the original image.

 

If I'm working on an "archive" picture I may go as far as 350 PPI ... And save in "TIFF" format. JPEG produces smaller files .. and lower quality.

 

Also .. Everytime you save, and re-save, a JPEG image it loses some quality everytime the process is gone through. So the less you save .. the better the quality. This is why it is vital to rename, or "Save As" your picture .. and never work directly on your original.

 

Give it a go .. and see if you get better quality.

Edited March 30, 2007 by MrWiggly

[Colin Brett]

Den,

 

As an addition to Mr Wiggly's post, saving as a PSD file is also lossless.

The important thing is to save the originals and work on your copies as Mr Wiggly says!

 

Colin

[Peter Sharpe]

Probably a silly question, but is it possible to retain all the detail of the original (3264X2448, 6.4MB) when reducing to 800X600? Just asked 'cos the comp pics I post seem to lose a lot of sharpness and won't stand any sort of zooming in.

 

I use PS and/or photosuite, and simply resize down to 800x600 for comp.

 

Den

 

What you are asking isn't really possible. If it was, nobody would ever bother taking a photo in the larger size. It should be possible to resize it so that it looks reasonably sharp when viewed at the reduced size, but it is inevitable that pixellation will occur when you zoom in. One rule is that if you applying any processes to improve the photo, you should always add the sharpening as the last change that you make.

[poledark]

Peter, I do that

 

Colin and Wiggly, I do save as and use TIFF at times, but I will try the ppi thing

 

 

Just checked out PShop, loaded the full pic, reduced to 800x600 and quality is shown as set at 300 (it does this automatically with all my pics), so that won't help me

 

 

Why can't we/I simply reduce the size of the pic but still retain all the little pixels (make them smaller)

 

Den

Edited March 30, 2007 by poledark

[poledark]

Den

Edited April 2, 2007 by poledark

[Gray-Catchpole]

Peter, I do that

 

Why can't we/I simply reduce the size of the pic but still retain all the little pixels (make them smaller)

 

Den

 

 

refering to your above question Den, Its a size thing im afraid, if i take a pic on my camera at full quality that gives me a picture size of 2560x1920 and that equals 4915200 pixels, if you then reduce this to 800x600 that only equals 480000 pixels, so its inevitable that some detail is going to be lost in all that quishing up.