www.ukbutterflies.co.uk

All

Now that I've finally cracked posting pics on this site can anyone explain to me how to improve my exhibits.....

Many of my pics are too large (too many Kbs) to be able to post and these are usually the ones which are most pleasing - is there a way of reducing the size other than just cropping the pic drastically? I prefer to see the butterfly in setting so as to include flora - rather than just a portrait.

I also find that although with some alteration i.e tone change, increasing shadow or sharpness (usually only once as the pic becomes too pixellated - if that's a word) it looks great in Picasa this is not always carried through to this site.

I'd be grateful for any tips from the experts - and yes this includes you Pete.

Mike

Try 800pixels across or 600 high, try an image or two in the test area.

Gruditch

Hi Mike,

"Many of my pics are too large (too many Kbs) to be able to post and these are usually the ones which are most pleasing - is there a way of reducing the size other than just cropping the pic drastically?"
Yes - don't crop the picture - resize it. Resizing "shrinks" the picture. Cropping removes elements of the picture. Do you have software to do this?

"I also find that although with some alteration i.e tone change, increasing shadow or sharpness (usually only once as the pic becomes too pixellated - if that's a word) it looks great in Picasa this is not always carried through to this site."
I have the same problem with Adobe Lightroom and your problem can be the same. The problem is that most web browsers *do not* respect any colour profile associated with the image, and assume a certain "colour space" that defines the range of colours available. Most web browsers ignore your colour space and use something called "sRGB". The closest match you'll get out of Picasa - if this is the problem - is to export your image as sRGB. If this is still no good, then you could try refining the resized and exported image in a tool that also ignores the colour profile (or at least allows you to switch if off) and so "what you see is what you get". My typical "workflow" is this:

1. Edit in Lightroom.
2. Export as sRGB.
3. Modify in Paint Shop Pro (with colour profiles turned off) - including recolouring and sharpening.
4. Resize.

Cheers,

- Pete

Sheesh Pete

It's no wonder even my best pics don't measure - I kinda get the feeling that bespoke software might be on my christmas list.
Thanks

Mike

Hi Mike,

All this paintshop and Lightroom are beyond me !
I just do basic editing and then right click on the image to resize to usually mediuum. If it has been cropped a lot, then you may need large.
This is medium
Denise

wavelea1 wrote:It looks great in Picasa this is not always carried through to this site.

Maybe I should have asked this first. But what is Picasa - is there somewhere I can go to see your photos if it's the Picasa web album?

And if so, it seems that you use a web-based system (Picasa) to do your editing? Rather than any software that came with your camera?

Cheers,

- Pete

I use Picasa first (it is the free Google image software, Pete) and I think it is marvellous. One of its great strengths, from my point of view, is that it doesn't change the original at all - it merely memorises changes made to a picture. Thus, all the originals are preserved in their original condition. For that reason, you must export out of Picasa to a new file for any colour changes &c. to remain (this applies to cropping too, so I guess you already have been exporting, Mike).

The sharpening instrument in Picasa is too blunt (i.e., the steps are too big) so I sharpen in Image Expert if I need to sharpen (I have a 15 year old free version of Image Expert that I transfer from computer to computer).

Or you could, of course, put some of this expensive software on your Christmas list!

Guy

I haven't heard of Picasa before, I am just as interested as Pete to know what it is all about.

However I use Photoshop Premium CS3 Extended, and it's great for all that stuff. Plus you can add the changes in numbers, which for me is fantastic as I can imagine what my photo looks like when I change it by a certain value more so than a distance along a bar or however you change it.
Plus I can do graphic editing, which I all do in numbers, colourising.. the lot. Especially with Illustator

Photoshop Elements is cheaper though!

if any one is interested I can do a print screen

Em

Picasa's a basic and very user-friendly programme, not a sophisticated image editing tool. It runs on your own computer, not on the web, and can be downloaded free from Google. It keeps track of all images anywhere on your computer, keeping permanent thumbnails of them all, and enables one-click emailing and exporting of selected batches of pictures. It also allows simple editing, cropping, colour adjusting &c., though as I mentioned, it doesn't write the changes to the image file until you export the result as a new file. Here's a screenshot:



Guy

Thanks Guy - do you have the same problems with using Picasa as Mike, when you transfer images to UKB?

Cheers,

- Pete

No - but I always do the final resize in Image Expert and then put the file on my own website. Apart from recent competition entries, all my pictures on this site are actually hosted on guypadfield.com.

Guy

Okay, I have the Adobe version of Picasa, and it is called 'Bridge' here is the print screen. I have turned off my high contrast theme for this, so please be kind about any mistakes!
Photoshop itself. I have shown you a menu as well, should show you some filter effects. I have no problem resizing for the website.
And as I mentioned it, here is Illustrator as well.
There you have it, in my opinion CS3 is amazing, I like Dreamweaver and flash as well!

Guy, what is this Image Expert?

Em

My copy of Image Expert was a free programme that came with a tiny, sub 1Megapixel, digital camera I got years and years ago. No good for butterflies, that camera!! There are updated versions of Image Expert - a free version comes with Dell computers, for example (but you then have to pay to get any useful features) - but I'm perfectly happy with the old version, which is fully featured. It does the basic editing I need.

My main interest is butterflies, and if I can record everything I see I am a happy puppy. Getting a podium position in UK Butts photo comps is just a bit of an extra!

Guy

That software sounds cool. But I think I can't be persuaded from CS3, I like playing with all the toys! And I do a bit of graphic design as well, so I don't get rusty on my skills! And it's great for web design. Fantastic.

Em

Many thanks Pete, Guy, Denise and Mouse.

As already stated by Guy - while software came with the camera Picasa is much more versatile and user-friendly but as a free package (just type in Picasa3 in Google) it is seriosly limited. I've been doing homework and I think Photoshop Elements might be a present in the not too distant future. I have over 2000 images stored on a seperate hard-drive and no Pete they are not posted on the web - although it wouldn't take much to do this. If you are interested I'll get to it.

Digital photography only really landed with me in 2006 and I'm running to catch up.

Denise - when you state you resize to Medium - when and where can you do this?

Thanks again to all of you.
Hope your cold's on the mend Guy

Mike

Hi Mike,

I have XP on my computer and I use Xp power tools.
You can download this for free at

http://download.microsoft.com/download/ ... ySetup.exe

Then you can look at any of your photo's and right click to (drop bar) resize to small, medium or large, or even custom.
I'm a real dumbo when it comes to computers, but thankfully hubby knows a thing or two!

Denise

This stuff all makes fascinating eading, especially for a newcomer to digital photography.

I have gone for Photoshop Elements. I take it this will have the same bells and whistles that are mentioned or should I be looking at something else.

Tom