RED EYE

[Chris18]

When I remove red eye from my pics and resave, the file size changes (lowers) sometimes 200kb. Why is that? Is it changing my resolution?

[JohnMN]

Chris,

What software are you using to remove the redeye? Is the file format Jpeg? Are you changing the compression settings?

JohnMN

[Chris18]

Thank You John,
Yes they are JPEG's. I'm currently using Adobe Photo Deluxe 2.0. I'm new to the digital photo world. Really, 'm not doing anything to the file. Just open and remove the red eye, then save. Do you think this is messing with the resolution?

While we are on the subject, what is the best free software for beginners like myself for photo editing?

[JohnMN]

chris18,

I've never used Adobe Photo Deluxe 2.0. or don't understand how you manage to save 200kb while taking out redeye. But if it does stuff like cropping, brightening, darkening and maybe sharpening your images then that is probably all you need at the moment. I have used Adobe Photoshop and Paint shop Pro (you can download a 30 day trial of it - fully working from Jasc) and they are awesome programs with lots of features. I think one or both of them is used in movie production. I think photoshop was used in the making of Titanic. When you resave a Jpeg again, some more information is lost. Do your pictures look any grainier or have more 'noise' in them than before? Are you presented with any dialog boxes that allow you to downsize the resolution when resaving? Or did you type in some settings when you first saved your image?

JohnMN

[Longwatcher]

Chris18 wrote:
Thank You John,
Yes they are JPEG's. I'm currently using Adobe Photo Deluxe 2.0. I'm new to the digital photo world. Really, 'm not doing anything to the file. Just open and remove the red eye, then save. Do you think this is messing with the resolution?

While we are on the subject, what is the best free software for beginners like myself for photo editing?


If you are saving the file using the jpeg format of course this is messing with the resolution as the jpeg format is a lossy (meaning it loses bits of information). Depending on what the file size you started with and what the compression ratio is when you save the image is how much you could reduce the file size by. Note: if you have a complex image (meaning one with lots of small features of differing colors) it is entirely possible to save the file and have it increase in size from what you started with.

To minimize the loss of data save as Tif file (a loss less file format) or at least set your jpeg compression to level 9. ("advance" button that pops up in "save as" window if your version works like mine)

Trivia.............
From a practical standpoint, assuming a D60 for a moment. The camera seems to be compressing about 14:1 in large fine jpeg mode (meaning reducing the file from 35 meg to 2.5 meg) this is equivilant to setting jpeg to level 8 in my version of photo deluxe. Typically minimum compression with least loss is about 8:1 compression in jpeg,

Compression algorithms with no loss of any image data typically achieve 4 or 5:1 with the best I have heard of for a complex scene being at 8:1 and 12:1 theoretical mathematically loss less compression. Note: I know of conditions where it is possible to exceed 100:1 loss less compression (Think of a shot of the Artic in the night time with no lights)

I once had to sit through a 2-day bandwidth compression tutorial followed by jpeg and NITF tutorials and have been an USAF Imagery Analyst for over 20 years so I have a pretty good handle on this stuff.

[oops]

Great question, Chris! I did lots of experiments several years ago with a "test" photo and several image editing programs. Man, did I get lots of differing results!

I learned the following:
1.) Use the largest rez your camera and/or storage card can support. This can be a juggling act. You want to "shoot" the largest number of pixels you can afford from the start because the more you play with it, the worse it gets. Just a fact of life.
2.) Some photo editing programs (like PhotoShop) will give you a much better "save-after-editing" pixel count if you use their .*** (eg .psd) format to save and later convert to .jpg. You can actually see an increase in file size with the right strokes.
3.) The strokes are really yours to make, are a hell of a lot of fun to do, and will teach you lots about resolution.

Have fun with this.:)

Chris (too)

[Chris18]

Thanks everyone for the information. I'll try everything you said.

Two more things:

Will WalMart and online dig photo developers take any format?

Who has the lowest prices?

Thanks,
Chris18

[feivel]

If you want FREE software for photoimaging and retouching, I think everyone would agree: Irfanview. They just released a new version.