images quality

[tscheung]

Hello everybody,

I just uploaded some pictures to :www.freewebs.com/magicfoto, (that is a test website), please advice and

comments

[jo_dinning]

You need to sort out the font used for copy - or really, how you've optimised the copy for web. You seem to have designed the pages (including the text) in an image editing program (such as PS) and then optimised the pages for web. Only trouble is, either the copy has been saved at less than 72dpi (leaving it less than clear); or more likely you have optimised the pages as GIF's using too few colours. Either way, you have text that looks less than professional.

 

The design that surrounds photography is often underestimated; good font use and text layout are key to a professional website.

[keithdunlop]

In general, your composition and exposures are fine. I didn't look at all the sample album pages, but picked out a few at random. In some instances you could provide a little more fill, and at times your subject positioning is very centered, but all-in-all it's quite nice.

 

The problem I had is when you view the album pages enlarged in "slideshow" mode everything looks extremely soft and pixelated on my monitor. I agree with Jo that something went wrong when you optimized the files for web viewing. More details from you about your post-processing and album page design steps are needed.

 

The other thing that I found distracting was your choice of album page backgrounds and borders. You have created pages with very bright colors, including lime greens, blues, pinks, and reds, that I feel distract from the actual images. If you could tone down these colors to hues that compliment your images, the overall presentation quality would increase dramatically. But first we have to figure out what went wrong with your final page resolutions.

[tscheung]

Thank you for your advices very much indeed. The images are soft or blur, the reasons I didn't know, it could be the resolution is too high (300 dpi), will set down to 72 dpi.

[jo_dinning]

I think that it's very unlikely your resolution is too high, Tak. But it could be that your image files have been saved at

less than 72dpi for the viewing size at 100%, which would then have the text shapes break up. You can easily see

what I mean if you create a JPEG file including text and images at 640x480 pixels at 72dpi in PhotoShop, and then

use the navigator slide to view the file at say 110%. Alternatively, create a file with text and take it into ImageReady -

then select the 'Optimized' tab. Go to the optimize palette and play about with the differences between GIF (and try 2

colours and 16 colours options) and JPEG. The quality will change with your selections.

 

As a general rule, save your files using text at 72dpi at the final viewing size, and make sure that if you use GIF

options that you have enough colours to stop the letter shapes breaking up. For images, optimize as JPEG at a

quality of around 40 (medium).

 

Hope that helps.

[tscheung]

Jo,

All the photos is done by CS2 @72 dpi or 300 dpi, I tried again and again but the images still look soft, I do not know why?

Maybe, that is a free website, it could be auto resize the files?

Many thanks indeed.

[jo_dinning]

Hi Tak, I've been looking again at your site.

 

I opened your homepage jpeg image from your site in photoshop and the quality certainly seems to be better than

online. And I also notice you seem to have sorted out the text issues on the pages where you have only text! I see

that you have entered the text directly in html rather than uploading the page as a jpeg image - a wise move.

 

In the photo gallery, the images are looking fine - still a bit compressed, but I think that this is beyond your control

and that the images will have been compressed to make for quicker upload. I think that most people understand that

sites prioritise speed over quality online.

 

So this really just leaves your home page. Some suggestions:

 

If you still wish to upload an image:

 

1. Redesign your homepage to fit the online frame - it looks like about 750x500 pixels.

 

2. Separate clearly areas of graphics (text and logo etc) from photographic image in your design - in other words, try

to avoid text placed on top of images. Limit the number of colours in graphics and logos.

 

3. Take your new PSD design into ImageReady and slice the areas up and optimize like this:

i) graphics and text areas - gifs, using at least 16 colours;

ii) images - jpegs at a quality of 60%

 

Alternatively, just create your home page as part of the supplied template, keeping text and image areas completely

separate.

 

If you are still having problems, then you could always contact the company and ask them for advice on upload

specifications to ensure that images reproduce properly.

 

Let us know how you get on.

[tscheung]

Jo,

will try again.

Any comments about the new imagePro web site, by photo.net?

thank you for your help indeed again.