reducing pixels

A forum to ask questions, post setups, and generally discuss anything having to do with photomacrography and photomicroscopy.

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Mo Vaughan
Posts: 70
Joined: Sun Aug 12, 2007 3:16 am
Location: Cambridgeshire UK

reducing pixels

Post by Mo Vaughan »

Hi members,
I have been going through my photographs of beekeeping and looking at the size and ammount of pixels in each photograph. The majority of shots are in the region of Width 2560 pixels, Height 1920 pixels and 14.1 MB.
You can tell I am really knew at this game, but I am willing to learn.
The acceptance for our site is 1/3 of my shots. I know how to reduce the size of photo but I feel it losses the sharpness and detail from the original.
Advice please.
Many thanks,
Mo. #-o
Thebeeman

salden
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Location: Pennsylvania
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Post by salden »

What software program are you using to edit your images?
Sue Alden

Mo Vaughan
Posts: 70
Joined: Sun Aug 12, 2007 3:16 am
Location: Cambridgeshire UK

Software

Post by Mo Vaughan »

Hi Sue,
The software came with the camera its called DiMAGE Viewer, and the camera is a Konica A1 DiMAGE 5mp.
I am afraid the only thing I know about photography is you point the camera and press the button.
Mo. :oops:
Thebeeman

salden
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Location: Pennsylvania
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Post by salden »

I am not familiar with this software. I use Photoshop CS3. Perhaps one of the members can help you out with this.
Sue Alden

Epidic
Posts: 137
Joined: Fri Aug 04, 2006 10:06 pm
Location: Maine

Post by Epidic »

Mo, if you pm me and send me your e-mail address, I can send you a DiMAGE Viewer pdf manual. If you can get me the version number, that will also help. (ps don't put you e-mail address in this thread - public forums are not a private space).

But I can tell you how to do it as well.

One the tool bar, the top row should have a button second from the right that looks like a arrow pointing from a dark rectangle to a grey rectangle - if you place your mouse over it, the status bar at the bottom of the application window should indicate its function. Click the button and the resize window should open.

Enter the new pixel dimensions in the window and choose the interpolation method. Bicubic would most likely be the one you want.

Click OK then save the image using the save-as option in the file menu. Don't use the save option as that will write over the original file.
Will

Epidic
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Joined: Fri Aug 04, 2006 10:06 pm
Location: Maine

Post by Epidic »

BTW, your DiMAGE Viewer CD-ROM should have a manual. If it is version 2.3, the resizing is on page 40.
Will

rjlittlefield
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Re: reducing pixels

Post by rjlittlefield »

Mo Vaughan wrote:I know how to reduce the size of photo but I feel it losses the sharpness and detail from the original.
Advice please.
Mo, you're quite correct -- reducing the number of pixels reduces the amount of detail you can show. If your images look sharp at full size, then they'll still look sharp when reduced, but they won't contain as much detail. At some point, all you can do is get used to that fact. However, there are some things you can do to mitigate it. These include
  • Use the full 800 pixels that the forum allows. Do not be worried if your full size pictures are not a nice multiple of 800 to start with -- image processing software knows how to convert anything to anything by interpolating.
  • After reducing your image to 800 pixels, "sharpen" it as much as you can without getting rings and halos around sharp edges. This will increase the contrast of fine detail, making it easier for viewers to see.
  • Crop as tightly as you can without messing up the composition.
  • Consider posting two versions of a photo -- one showing the full frame at 800 pixels, and a second showing a much tighter crop of whatever detail you want to show, but again using the full 800 pixels for posting.
There are a few other techniques too, like hosting a full resolution image on some server besides photomacrography2, then linking to that image in your photomacrography2 posting using [url] instead of [img]. But of course that requires that you can post on another server. The bulleted list of techniques are what most people use.

--Rik

DaveW
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Joined: Fri Aug 04, 2006 4:29 am
Location: Nottingham, UK

Post by DaveW »

The point is Mo, though we buy all these wonderful high Megapixel cameras their image quality can only really be seen in a print. If you are using the images for viewing on a computer monitor, TV screen, or for digital projection the resolution of the monitor or projection screen will show nothing like what your camera is capable of.

As I understand it that is the reason TV Natural History photography seems to have more depth of field than we can get in a print because the screen resolution blurs the really pin sharp parts and makes them look similar to the slightly less sharp ones, so both look identical and being the sharpest parts on the screen they therefore all look in perfect focus.

A friend of mine gives quite a few talks using digital projection and says the resolution loss is such on the screen that you can not tell the difference between a cheap low pixel point and shoot camera or a top of the range Canon or Nikon, both images look equally good!

Only in printing out will you really see the difference, so keep your originals at full size and just make copies for projection or Web use and I doubt you will tell which are which when you view them on your computer monitor. In fact it is only when you make large prints or extreme crops from a quality high Megapixel camera that you can see the difference.

DaveW

Mike B in OKlahoma
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Joined: Fri Aug 04, 2006 10:32 pm
Location: Oklahoma City

Post by Mike B in OKlahoma »

But if he keeps 'em full size, he can't share 'em with us here! (unles he follow's Rik's suggestion and posts a full-sized one off on his own website--And if he did that, his images would be popping up stolen everywhere. :?
Mike Broderick
Oklahoma City, OK, USA

Constructive critiques of my pictures, and reposts in this forum for purposes of critique are welcome

"I must obey the inscrutable exhortations of my soul....My mandate includes weird bugs."
--Calvin

DaveW
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Joined: Fri Aug 04, 2006 4:29 am
Location: Nottingham, UK

Post by DaveW »

You only use a resized copy for the web surely, never the originals? Are your images RAW or JPEG's Mo?

Images can always get stolen and misused virtually whatever you do if you post them on the web. See:-

http://www.thesmokinggun.com/archive/ye ... lara1.html

http://www.thepoorhouse.org.uk/again_be ... ou_publish

DaveW

Mo Vaughan
Posts: 70
Joined: Sun Aug 12, 2007 3:16 am
Location: Cambridgeshire UK

Pixels

Post by Mo Vaughan »

Hi Dave W,
I do use a resized copy from the original, and the images are JPEG.
I will follow advice from members as I really am new to this game. By the way the camera DiMAGE A1 was given to me by a beekeeping friend, as he wanted something better.
:?: I notice some of you have your photograph on the Auther heading, how do we place a photo (not of me I might scare people away) under the heading?
Thanks to everyone who has contributed to my questions, its been of invaluable help.
Mo. :wink:
Thebeeman

DaveW
Posts: 1702
Joined: Fri Aug 04, 2006 4:29 am
Location: Nottingham, UK

Post by DaveW »

Mo,

The little picture is known as an Avatar. I wondered what people were talking about when they kept referring to these at first! All the other stuff under the post, such as what equipment you have or a quotation etc is called a Signature I believe.

Now you know it is called an Avatar go to the right hand side of the page top where there is a little square like an Avatar that says "Profile" next to it, click on this and then scroll down the page until you come to "Avatar Control Panel" and there are instructions for maximum size of the picture to post and you load it same as an ordinary image using that control panel browser to get it off your computer.

Obviously make a copy of your original before resizing etc, never modify the original as that is the equivalent of your negative, then you can always go back and get a new copy if you muck things up.

DaveW

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