Loosing detail in photos

I was wondering.. How do you all keep the detail in your photos? I need to send a bunch of images out through email, and they need to be original size.. but when I upload them to PS at the original size, they loose a lot of detail compared to when they are at a smaller size.. They also look a bit fuzzy.

What do I do? They really need to be crisp and clear. Help!

I also changed them to 300 dpi (they need to be that for the person I'm sending them to) and that doesn't seem to help either.

Thanks in advance!

Anybody who insists on 300dpi doesn't really know what they're doing, but that's not the issue.

I don't really understand your question. Are you shrinking (resizing) your photos to email them, or simply saving as jpeg (with compression)?

Damo77 wrote in post #5288518
Anybody who insists on 300dpi doesn't really know what they're doing

wow! thats a sweeping statement! i insist that people supply me with 300DPI images for publication purposes, saves me having to mess around when i import a 72dpi JPG into InDesign and its bigger than my pasteboard!

Yeah, fair call. I withdraw the statement.

I use picasa to edit my photos, and when you export them, you can choose to export them at original size.. so I guess, no I am not resizing them. But when I export them at the original size, they loose a lot of their detail... I don't think they are getting compressed, but I am not good at this stuff... so I guess I sound confusing lol..

Anyway, does that sound better?

Billiie wrote in post #5288470
I also changed them to 300 dpi (they need to be that for the person I'm sending them to) and that doesn't seem to help either.

ok when you change the image size, you'll see a check box on the bottom right of the image size dialogue that says Resample Image, uncheck it, because if you don't you are infact increasing the amount of pixels instead of adjusting just the DPI of the original

Bobster wrote in post #5288595
ok when you change the image size, you'll see a check box on the bottom right of the image size dialogue that says Resample Image, uncheck it, because if you don't you are infact increasing the amount of pixels instead of adjusting just the DPI of the original

Yes, I do that, thank you I wish that would solve my problem.

OK here is an example...

resized photo:

When you resize an image smaller and then sharpen it will look sharper on a monitor than a full size image that is appropriately sharpened for its size.

Print them at a large size, and the full resolution image will be a lot sharper in print.

View them at 100% and the full resolution image will appear sharper.

you didn't sharpen enough

Thanks for the help guys Believe me, I sharpened the larger one a lot, and it really did no good.. and I find it just more fuzzy... Hopefully you're right Jeffrey! The person I'm sending them too is using these photos for a manual, and they need to be crisp, I'm just really hoping when she prints them, they turn out better compared to what is on my monitor

Billiie wrote in post #5288815
Thanks for the help guys Believe me, I sharpened the larger one a lot, and it really did no good.. and I find it just more fuzzy... Hopefully you're right Jeffrey! The person I'm sending them too is using these photos for a manual, and they need to be crisp, I'm just really hoping when she prints them, they turn out better compared to what is on my monitor

Send the full res and resized images to Costco and get them each printed as 8x12 for $1.49 and see for yourself. Be sure to mark the images in some way so that you can be sure which is which.

If the full res image is not to your liking this turns into a great exercise where you can try different sharpening on the monitor and then see how it prints.

Billiie wrote in post #5288470
but when I upload them to PS at the original size, they loose a lot of detail compared to when they are at a smaller size.. They also look a bit fuzzy.

I still don't understand what you are doing. Are you sizing the images smaller, then re-sizing them larger later? Or are you just viewing them at a smaller magnification, then at larger magnification?. When were they a smaller size before "uploading to PS"? If you sized them smaller, you threw away pixels that cannot be recovered later. Re-sizing lto their original size later just adds "filler" and of course you would lose detail... Changing the dpi number does nothing for the image quality or detail, or size.

ah ha! i think your on to something Jim! so Billie, u've resized all your pics and are trying to make them the original size agian?