Picture size/resolution on web sites

[pete00]

Howdy all

Trying to figure out what the best procedure for posting pictures on my web site or any web site actually. Havn't been able to figure out what to do. Ive been looking at different web sites to get an idea of what other sites do, But they all seem to be different.

After reading lots of postings, and trying different resolutions and picture sizes, im even more confused. So this is what i think i should do.

Take a picture at the max resolution of my camera(sony)...thats it.. thats all i know...lol And the next step would be..

oops forgot to tell you, i ended up croping and resizing to 640 x 480 but i lost the sharpness of the photo.

photo challenged pete

 

[dfurlano]

What I do is set the largest size of the picture to 640 pixels (so that the other dimension is less then 640) and then save as a jpg and adjust the quality to about 100kb file size. Most photo programs have an adjustment for quality when saving as a jpg file type. If yours does not you may want to try another program.

A number of variables effect the file size of an image. Just by setting your camera to a higher or lower resulotion does not mean you get a fixed or known file size. It effects the overall quality of the final image.

BTW: I always shoot at max resolution in RAW format.

 

[nilsatcraft]

I'm with Dan. Shoot at the highest resolution possible then compress it and output it via software. Although I love using Adobe Photoshop, one of my favorite quick programs is Picasa from Google. It's free and does a pretty good job with compression. You choose the output size and quality, it'll export the finished pics to a folder and they're ready to go. I'm a big fan of the program for viewing photos and quickly preparing them for the eBay or emails.

 

[pete00]

dan and nils
Ill try your suggestions.....thanks pete

btw i have photoshop(course dont know how to use it yet)

 

[Fangar]

I shoot at 5 mega pixel at a 2560 x 1920 resolution. The file sizes are near to 2 MB most of the time. Then I use a program to size them to 640 x 480 (Which is the same ratio as 2560 x 1920, only smaller). I don't crop the photos at all, just resize. I make sure I frame the items (pens) the way that I want them at the time of the photo. This way can have a consistent web page where all of the photos are the exact same size.

File size and image size are two different things. Compression is the term for what allows you to maintain a large image size while pushing the file size down. The smaller the file size the better. However, the more compression, the more clarity loss in the photo. There are some programs that work this angle better than others. For example, I like photoshop for certain things, but don't use it to resize and compress my web page photos. Some programs install artifacts into the file that result in large file sizes.

I use a free program called Image Expert. It is basically a photo viewer that allows for resizing and preset image compression. I use a high setting which shows no signs of compression artifacts (pixelation) to the eye and results in a file size of usually 50kb to 90 kb depending amount of color range in the photos. There are programs that allow you to set a percentage of compression as well. This allows you to tweek the settings to get the smallest file size possible with the least amount of compression that you can tolerate. I have tried many different programs, and they are not even close tot he same.

Hope that helps.

Fangar

 

[pete00]

FAngar, thanks ill try a few of what you mentioned...pete

 

[pen-turners]

You should always shoot your photos at the max resolution your camera will take.

If you are just putting the photos on your website, the maximum DPI you need it 97. This is the highest resolution of computer monitors. Any higher is just a waste. From there, you can size the picture to whatever looks best on your page.

Chris

 

[btboone]

I've read that 72 DPI is good for websites. A smaller file size will load faster, so it's a balance on crispness versus fast loading. I usually do slightly smaller pictures and have them come out somewhere around 35K or so. The compression I use is usually around 85% or so. On most pictures, I can't see any degradation of the picture at that compression. Going further will start to show some artifacts in the picture at sharp edges.

 

[RussFairfield]

Always keep the user in mind, and always remember that over half of your viewers will not have a high-speed Internet access. You want a site that downloads quickly. Nobody likes a site that is slow, and you will have more folks staying around to see what you have to offer if it downloads quickly.

Small photo files will download faster than big ones, and that means you should be using the lowest pixel count per inch that will give you an acceptable image on the screen. 72dpi is good, and you can get away with less for some photos. Try to keep your file size at 30k or less, as Bruce recommended.