Is This In Focus?

[ilovelucydog]

Man... I have been having horrid headaches and my eyes are wack... I cannot tell if photos are in focus. I look at this and I think it is... then I look at it and can't tell.

Is it, or no?

[rob marshall]

I think it's in focus. But the file is only 38K in size, with dimmensions of 700px on the long side. It probably looks rough as it's such a small file.

[Shadowman]

It looks fine.

[ilovelucydog]

I think it's in focus. But the file is only 38K in size, with dimmensions of 700px on the long side. It probably looks rough as it's such a small file.

I thought I was suppose to reduce the file size when I upload to here?

[purplehaze]

Hi Mary,

I'll try to be useful and attempt an answer here.

I think image dimension is the thing to pay attention to when submitting photos. If you look at the picture that Chris just submitted to the mono mini-comp, it is 700px on the long side, but something like 257K in file size, as compared to your 38. Is your image a crop? That might explain the smaller file size.

I'll leave it to someone more erudite to explain the relationship between bytes and pixels, so that we can both learn.

[ilovelucydog]

Hi Mary,

I'll try to be useful and attempt an answer here.

I think image dimension is the thing to pay attention to when submitting photos. If you look at the picture that Chris just submitted to the mono mini-comp, it is 700px on the long side, but something like 257K in file size, as compared to your 38. Is your image a crop? That might explain the smaller file size.

I'll leave it to someone more erudite to explain the relationship between bytes and pixels, so that we can both learn.

Sigh... and here, I thought I was doing things the proper way for so long... and once again... am not. Yes, it is a crop... it is reduced... it's the whole shrinking-file-size works!

[ilovelucydog]

Here is a larger file... I hope. My word... if I can't see I just need to give up.

[MiniChris]

You can read Unites States Air Force down the side of each plane at 700 x so I'd have to say they are in focus...Personally, I would leave just a little more space in front of the planes to give them an easier exit from the frame...they be a bit too close for my tastes.

[ilovelucydog]

You can read Unites States Air Force down the side of each plane at 700 x so I'd have to say they are in focus...Personally, I would leave just a little more space in front of the planes to give them an easier exit from the frame...they be a bit too close for my tastes.

Thanks, Chris. I wasn't being specific with the crop... just wanted to know if it was focused or not. I will re-crop though... just for you... I'd hate to look at it, and forever hear in my head that the planes can't exit from the photo.

[rob marshall]

I thought I was suppose to reduce the file size when I upload to here?

No. Or rather, you are, but only up to a point. A file size of 38K is very low, and you will notice a drop in image quality even on a screen. A file size of 150-300k will produce a better screen image. I know someone's going to disagree with that, so I did an example below. The second version you posted is larger, but only very slightly. It's still not large enough.

Here's an example.

I took this original shot and created a JPEG using 'save for web' in Photoshop. It's 700px wide and I used 92% quality which created a file that is 276k in size. This is it.



I also created another version that was only 40k (like your shot) I had to reduce the image quality to 20% to get down to that size. I then blew each shot to 450% and did a screen print, and you can see the difference with the eye.

Screen capture at 450% 40K file


Screen capture at 450% 276K file

[ilovelucydog]

No. Or rather, you are, but only up to a point. A file size of 38K is very low, and you will notice a drop in image quality even on a screen. A file size of 150-300k will produce a better screen image. I know someone's going to disagree with that, so I did an example below. The second version you posted is larger, but only very slightly. It's still not large enough.

Here's an example.

I took this original shot and created a JPEG using 'save for web' in Photoshop. It's 700px wide and I used 92% quality which created a file that is 276k in size. This is it.



I also created another version that was only 40k (like your shot) I had to reduce the image quality to 20% to get down to that size. I then blew each shot to 450% and did a screen print, and you can see the difference with the eye.

Screen capture at 450% 40K file


Screen capture at 450% 276K file

Thank you, Rob. I thought on the second one, I was doing it correctly... again... could you tell me step by step how to get it sized properly? Hi, my name is Mary and I am dumber than I look.

[ilovelucydog]

I forgot to say... your image of the 'boat houses' is great. The remind me of what we would see on the lake. They are covered slips/dock/moorings, right?

[rob marshall]

Thank you, Rob. I thought on the second one, I was doing it correctly... again... could you tell me step by step how to get it sized properly?

Are you using Photoshop to create your images for upload? Do you post them to Flickr to host - or do you use the Tinypics upload link at the bottom of each post?

[rob marshall]

I forgot to say... your image of the 'boat houses' is great. The remind me of what we would see on the lake. They are covered slips/dock/moorings, right?

They are general buildings built on a small lake in the National Botanic garden of Wales, near where I live. My wife used to work there as a gardener.

[ilovelucydog]

Are you using Photoshop to create your images for upload? Do you post them to Flickr to host - or do you use the Tinypics upload link at the bottom of each post?

I use photoshop and use the 'manage attchements' method at the bottom.

[rob marshall]

I use photoshop and use the 'manage attchements' method at the bottom.

I use 'save for web' from within Photoshop. Load your full sized image (JPEG, TIFF, or PSD) and select FILE/SAVE FOR WEB AND DEVICES.

You should get a screen similar (it may be slightly different) to the one below.

1. Type in the pixel dimensions you want in the box (mine below says 700) Ignore any msg about 'image exceeds file size...'
2. Press enter and under the image preview it should tell you the file size in KB. You want about 250k.
3. Make sure 'bicubic sharpen' is set as that will sharpen the downsized image better.
4. If the file size is too much, or too little (your shot was only 38K) the adjust the slider for quality at the top until the size is about 250k.
5. Save the output file. But you may need to sharpen the output JPEG (the 250k one not the original) some more. Have a look at it first on your screen to see how it looks. Most members on here don't do this, and their images look soft.

There are other ways of resizing for web, and others may have something to suggest.

[ilovelucydog]

I use 'save for web' from within Photoshop. Load your full sized image (JPEG, TIFF, or PSD) and select FILE/SAVE FOR WEB AND DEVICES.

You should get a screen similar (it may be slightly different) to the one below.

1. Type in the pixel dimensions you want in the box (mine below says 700) Ignore any msg about 'image exceeds file size...'
2. Press enter and under the image preview it should tell you the file size in KB. You want about 250k.
3. Make sure 'bicubic sharpen' is set as that will sharpen the downsized image better.
4. If the file size is too much, or too little (your shot was only 38K) the adjust the slider for quality at the top until the size is about 250k.
5. Save the output file. But you may need to sharpen the output JPEG (the 250k one not the original) some more. Have a look at it first on your screen to see how it looks. Most members on here don't do this, and their images look soft.

There are other ways of resizing for web, and others may have something to suggest.

Thank you, Rob. I appreciate it... a bunch.

[rob marshall]

Thank you, Rob. I appreciate it... a bunch.

I meant to post this too. Explains it quite well.

[Nass]

One thing to bear in mind, "save for web" destroys EXIF info. "Save as" and use JPEG preserves it.

[ilovelucydog]

I meant to post this too. Explains it quite well.

That helps a lot. Thank you.