pics at low resolution?

[Bolerus]

Is there any way to get a decent quailty picture at small size and still have decent quality.

As part of my job I have to photgraph some items (ceramics) and amongst other things have to put a copy of the photograph on our website. Which has to be reduce to 300 x (watever) resolution.

By taking the pics with our dynax 7d (which has 3000x watever resolution at extra fine) and reducing them, I am often seeing a really bad imaged degregation.

Lots of items are ok, but some are going really pixalated.

Any suggestions at all?

 

[divine`]

how are you shrinking them?

I find the 'Image Size' tool in Photoshop works well

 

[Bolerus]

havent got photoshop unfortuntly.

we are using mgi photosuite 3 SE

there is a resize option there. and we just put 300 (pixels) in the Width box, and have keep proportions ticked.

Also have a AceeDeecee (probably spelled that wrong) but that only seems to be able to resize via inches and not pixels

Lots of items are still ok, obviously they are going to lose some detail. but some things shrink really badly. Would taking the picture at a low resolution in the first place help (so they dont has as far to shrink)

 

[rpstewart]

Sounds like it's the JPEG compression that's causing the problem rather than the small pixel dimensions. When you do the resize in Photosuite is there an option to alter the compression ratio?

 

[Bolerus]

nope there isnt an option in the resize bit to alter the compression, I will have a look in options to see if there is one.

what compression ratio shoudl i be looking for?

 

[Amp34]

There's a resizing powertool for XP on the microsoft website that I use, its almost as good as PS, completly free and really easy to use.

http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/downloads/powertoys/xppowertoys.mspx

It's the Image reizer one near the bottom.

 

[Bolerus]

great stuff

Thank you amp34

 

[Pho]

I recomend http://www.getpaint.net/index.html as a Photoshop alternative, free too .

 

[stuart38]

There's a resizing powertool for XP on the microsoft website that I use, its almost as good as PS, completly free and really easy to use.

http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/downloads/powertoys/xppowertoys.mspx

It's the Image reizer one near the bottom.

I use this a lot for quick resizes, but i have to say it is definitly not anywhere near as good as PS... not in my experience anyway

 

[Dr.EM]

I use this and find it good but then I don't use it professionally or anything. Very nice utility anyhow;

www.irfanview.com

 

[feriso]

I use this and find it good but then I don't use it professionally or anything. Very nice utility anyhow;

www.irfanview.com

f t w - used this for nearly 10 yrs now and still find it v good

 

[Bolerus]

I have downloaded infa view over the weekend, pretty happy so far,

except the way the zoom in / out works is a bit strange, but that is just a getting used to it thing i guess

 

[D.P.]

I use the GIMP, never any problems.

 

[Bolerus]

tried to install the getpaint.net one aswell, but it wanted all sorts of things installed first.

then finally it said. You must have service pack 2....

I hate service pack 2 lol.

It is probably about time I swallowed the old bullet(yes i know the phrase is bite the bullet) and installed it again i guess (purposely didnt after last re-format)

 

[Bolerus]

very impressed with getpaint now i have used it for a couple of weeks, thanks for that

 

[A.N.Other]

I use the GIMP, never any problems.

Ditto. I've used the GIMP for years and it rocks. I've now got photoshop though, which is better (unsurprisingly).

Saying that though, it's a little overkill (think tank to squash an ant) for what you actually need. The powertoy should suit you nicely.

 

[SDK^]

When you resize an image down you have to sharpen it to get the detail back.
Photoshop -> Filter -> Unsharp Mask