Help With Poor Image Quality on My Website

[adrienne_fox]

<p>Hello Everyone,<br>

I've invested in a website to get my photography biz off the ground, but the image quality seems REALLY bad to me. Am I crazy? I'm using a photoidentities template at:<br>

www.adriennefoxphotography.com<br>

I've been told by customer service that the images are sized to 600 pixels high and less than 150kb in file size by the software, but when I try to make this happen in Photoshop I sometime have to use a low quality setting of 3, 4, or 5. What am I doing wrong?<br>

My photos look very sharp in their original format, but they look very... fragmented...on my site. Some photos are great, but some are not. The first image of my engagement photo page is an excellent example. Her chin has a big old pixel fragment or something on it. (Again, am I crazy?) The provider says they have never had a complaint about this, so I'm thinking it's something I'm doing wrong.<br>

The problem is especially true for photos I've sharpened. Again, they look great in Photoshop with a high quality jpg, but some photos look much worse on my site. Is there anything I can do? Sharpened photos look so much better on the web, and I really want to achieve that "really really sharp" look. Perhaps a different template/provide is an option? However, if it's something I'm doing that won't help.</p>

<p>Thanks in advance for your help!<br>

-Adrienne</p>

<p>P.S. While you're looking at the site, I always LOVE feedback on my website and/or photography. Feel free to provide some critique.</p>

<p> </p>

[heather_p1]

<p>Hi Adrienne,<br>

I personally think your images look just great from my end! I'm on an HP laptop at the moment and the images look pretty clear. I always export my finished images from Lightroom, sharpening a little extra for web in the process. Others may make suggestions, but from my eyes things look great.<br>

I'm curious too what others may think (I may use their suggestions too!)</p>

[mark_t5]

<p>hmm..they look fine to me</p>

[adrienne_fox]

<p>Ok, perhaps I am crazy...or it's my computer. Did you look at the first engagement photo? I really do see is a pixelation problem with the chin that's not there in the original image. It's really slight, but I see it. Perhaps the quality loss is only visible if you stare at the photos for a long time (which I do) and compare them to the original quality (which I do).</p>

[adrienne_fox]

<p>I'm attaching an example of what I'm talking about. It looks like there are weird artifacts. I guess I'm the only one bothered by it, but it seems these should not be there.</p><div></div>

[neilambrose]

<p>I bet you're using 'save as jpg' in Photoshop.</p>

<p>That's not designed for web use, as you may have discovered. Instead, use 'File > Export> save for web'. It will give you optimal results - embedded colour profile, no compression artefacts, small file size. I save most of my images at a quality threshold of 80% - which is considerably better than the 30% - 40% you say you're using.</p>

<p>If you want to sharpen images, best to do that after you've resized them, not at the original size. If you run your preferred sharpening process on a duplicate layer you can fade the opacity of that layer until the image looks natural, not over-sharpened, and then save/flatten as needed.</p>

<p>If you're still getting quality problems then you may have to look at what's happening in your site template. For example, if the images are scaled by software then they will become degraded.</p>

[adrienne_fox]

<p>You right, I was using 'save as jpg' in Photoshop. It's much better now, THANK YOU. I am still having a hard time getting to 150kb at 80%. I had to go to 60. Does anyone know if a limited file size is typical, and at such a low rate? If I just had an extra 20kb or so I could get the quality up. Oh well, the web trick does make it much better. Now I have to go re-size all of my images.</p>

[markonestudios]

Adrienne, I've only skimmed through your wedding shots. Some really nice images you've got there. Maybe I've visited after you rectified the issue as Neil suggested. If not, I don't think you have anything to worry about.

[stephanie_w]

<p>Wow, thanks Neil, I was using save as jpg too.... Whoops! Now I can't wait to get home and re-save all my web images :) Luckily I haven't built my galleries yet.</p>

[ed_te_pas]

<p>Don't'forget to convert your color profile first to sRgb.</p>

[dave_wilson1]

<p>I think it looks real nice. And, thanks also Neil, another tip for "dummies" like me.</p>

[StuartMoxham]

<p>Neil that is a great tip about save for web. I've always use save as JPG. I had never really considered the save for web option.</p>

[wedding-photography-denver]

<p>Cnrtl + shift + Alt + S on a PC<br>

Cmd + shift + Alt + S on a Mac.</p>

[linda_hayes]

<p>So glad I came to the forum today! I was getting ready to publish my website and wasn't completely happy with my images either. Now I know why. I'm assuming that this is the shortcut for "save for web"?? Thanks Neil and everyone else. This is my first time talking on the forum.</p>