here I go again...

Hello,

I took the image that you sent me, resized it (bicubic) in Photoshop CS, applied a USM of 100/0.3/0 followed by 100/0.2/0. I then saved it at JPEG level 10. Here's what that looks like (281 KB):

Straight from my photobucket account

And just to show that you can get nice sharp images with low file sizes, this one is 150kb exactly. Just resized 800 pixels on the longest side, and then my standard USM settings applied and the quality adjusted when I saved it.

[QUOTE=Moppie]Straight from my photobucket account



And just to show that you can get nice sharp images with low file sizes, this one is 150kb exactly. Just resized 800 pixels on the longest side, and then my standard USM settings applied and the quality adjusted when I saved it.

dmp-potn wrote:
Hello,

I took the image that you sent me, resized it (bicubic) in Photoshop CS, applied a USM of 100/0.3/0 followed by 100/0.2/0. I then saved it at JPEG level 10. Here's what that looks like (281 KB):

Here's a version that was resized and sharpend the same way after I blurred the background a bit (204 KB):

Finally, here's the same image, but cropped to move the subject so that she is facing into the center of the frame. Hopefully this will help illustrate what I was talking about regarding the tension in the original composition when the subject is facing the edge of the frame (189 KB):

These images are straight out of Photoshop (my website does not do any post-processing of the image, no matter how large they are). If your website hosting company does not re-process images that are below 512K, most 800x533 images saved at JPEG level 10 should fit and therefore not require additional processing.

After looking at the oringal image, I noticed that the focus was a bit short of the subject. When I first got my Rebel, I had focus consistancy problems with that EF-S 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 as well. Shortly after, I upgraded to the EF 24-85mm f/3.5-4.5 USM, which made a big difference for me.

Hope this helps.

thank you , I learned a lot today, the work you did with my picture is excellent. I appreciate the time you put into it.

Here are my suggestions for sizing images for posting in Critique Corner:
Size your image to not larger than 800 pixels in either direction (that's the guideline max.).
In Photoshop use Image->Image Size and enable Resampling (this will downsample your larger image to the new smaller size by throwing away some of the information, so save this smaller version under a different name from your original or you may lose your original).

Do not be confused by the dimensions in inches or the DPI value - those are irrelevant. The size of the image on a monitor depends only on the screen resolution of that monitor and the number of pixels in your image. For example, most monitors are set for screen resolution of 70 to 100 pixels per inch. That means that an 800 pixel image dimension will actually be from 8" to 11" on the monitor.

In order to stay under the 100kB limit on file size, use JPG compression quality low enough to get under 100kB by watching the file size change as you adjust the quality slider. It may be a little in error, so stay under 90 kB to be safe.

If the file size limit poses problems, you may want to host on another site and place a link to the image hosted elsewhere, but the 800 pixel maximum still applies. Since you are using PhotoBucket, I recommend that you upload to them a file that is as described above with only one difference - save the JPG using maximum quality and don't worry about file size, unless PhotoBucket has a limit.

You will not have an issue about EXIF data, because your EXIF data is coming through fine from PhotoBucket.

I also notice, as someone else pointed out that you have an Exposure Compensation of + 1/3 f-stop in the posted image. That is of no concern.

Another thing that is worth repeating. Never save consecutively in JPG, because each save in jpg accumulates more degradation. Ideally, if you have the tools in Elements 2 for doing it, keep your image in 16 bit mode during all processing and only convert to 8 bits and to JPG format as you do the one and only save to the jpg format.

Well thats 6 years of useing basicly the same camera


Have a read of what has been posted above, by myself and others and try following those steps with some of your photos.

Then when your taking photos remember 3 important things:
Exposure
Focus
Composition.

The few times you get all 3 right means you have a much less work to do in post processing, which all contributes to having a better looking image.

Then when Editing I follow a few very basic rules:

Only save to .JPEG once, at the end. All other saves are to .TIFF
Only do what needs to be done, you can over process an image.
Resize second to last.
Add USM last.