Getting Images to Reproduce Better on This Site

<p>I am a beginner when it comes to digital photography. I have one camera, a cheap Canon P&S. When I

shoot pictures that can be loaded on this site they reproduce badly. I notice that such is not the case for the more

experienced digital photographers. If I adjust the camera for better quality the site will not accept them. Why is this a

nd what may be done about it? Is it a matter of having a better camera or is it something else?</p>�

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<p>hey bruce,</p>

<p>are the colors not coming out right? you need to be a little more specific.</p>

 

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<p>When you say that they don't reproduce well, are you referring to color, brightness, contrast... or the detail, sharpness, "smoothness" etc? If you're trying to size the image down to a size that's appropriate for this venue (say, 800 pixels or so wide for your gallery here, and no more than 700 pixels on the longest side if you're including the image in a discussion thread), then you need to do that resizing with a piece of software that can do it well, and then use a bit of sharpening AFTER you've sized it down.<br /><br />If you don't have such software, try something free, like Picasa, from Google. <br /><br />DO NOT resize your original file. Work on a copy of it! Keep the original ... original.</p>

<p>If you are refering to forums, we probably all photoshop the camera file save it, then flatten the image, resize to 72 or 100 ppi and 610 wide, do final sharpening at 100 ppi and 610 pixels wide and post. Go back to the .psd file for other size JPEGS using it a master. Sharpen them at final size also.<br>

Any camera should be the same and a P&S digi will look as good as a $5000 camera at that size although some dymanic range will be shorter. </p>

<p>You also need a monitor calibrated so that what you see is what you get.</p>

<p>-- "If I adjust the camera for better quality the site will not accept them"</p>

<p>From this, I gather that you use your camera and shoot in probably lowest resolution in order to be able to upload those images to Photo.net? ... If that's the case, it is (not too unlikely) one possible reason.</p>

<p>Select a better quality in the camera ... and adjust the size in postprocessing (in your computer).</p>

<p>-- "Is it a matter of having a better camera or is it something else?"<br>

Unlikely ... albeit a good camera certainly doesn't harm ... even with a P&S you should get decent results (within the limits such a camera has). Postprocessing is something to be learned.</p>

<p>Thanks guys you gave me the answer. I need to work on the image after shooting it. That is not likely to happen, so I guess I am stuck with so so digital pictures. The problem is sharpness. They look almost as sloppy as if they were shot on a cellphone. If you want to see one, I posted it this afternoon on a thread about what you saw from your window today. There is another of one of my paintings in my bio on this site.</p>

<p>I need to work on the image after shooting it. That is not likely to happen, so I guess I am stuck with so so digital pictures<br /><br />I think, Bruce, that you're greatly overestimating the effort required to grab a better quality shot from your (or any) digital camera, and cleanly resize it down to a photo.net-friendly format. Really, just a few mouseclicks. With very simple tools. Nothing to it. The results are well worth the few minutes it will take to download and install the free software needed, and the few more minutes needed to understand how to save-as to a new JPG of the right specs. You're an eBay guy, so these are basic skills you'll want to master anyway.</p>

<p>Thanks Matt: I will have a chat with myself about it. When I get some time maybe I should follow your suggestion.</p>

<p>Bruce:</p>

<p>I shoot at full resolution with my 30D and most files are far larger than p.n allows in the forums. My JPEGs run from 2.5 to almost 5 mega bytes depending on what I am shooting and they are 3504 x 2336 pixels in size.</p>

<p>I use a free program called GIMP to scale the image to 1440 x 960 pixels. This gets me under the 1.2 mega byte files size restriction (for the No Words forum anyway) 99% of the time. Some forums require much smaller file sizes so you will have to experiment.</p>

<p>If you are trying to upload small files from your camera by choosing to shoot low quality JPEGs this is almost certainly the cause of your trouble.</p>

<p>Shoot fine mode JPEGs and adjust the image size after the fact; but make sure to save your original pics for posterity!</p>

<p>Does this information help?</p>

<p>Mark</p>

<p>Bruce, the photo of the painting on your bio page looks fine on my monitor. I checked the EXIF data and it seems okay - set to sRGB, which should work well with most browsers on most web sites. Color, resolution, etc., all seem fine.</p>

<p>You might need to check your browser settings, monitor calibration, all the irritating stuff that goes with the digital photography world. Remember all the tedious stuff we had to master while becoming competent and comfortable with film photography? Same stuff all over again with digital.</p>