You "got" a $600 program and don’t even understand the basics?
I advise you to read the Help files and the PDF manual before trying to use it for productive work.
Upload one of your blurry images to flickr.com (or a similar photo hosting site) and we’ll have a look at it.
yo wait a second…instead of being sarcastic, why can’t you just be nice and help me out??? yeah i "got" a $600 program so what? i said i was new here didnt I? and i didnt mean to double post, i didnt know if this one went through!!!
understand how to use the program…but when i save the image as a jpg or gif, the first time i preview it, its fine but when i close it out and then reopen my pictures to preview it again, its all blurry!
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http://i96.photobucket.com/albums/l179/braun1884/LOSTBOYSPOS TER1.jpg>
was just making a movie poster for fun and look how blurry it is…it isnt supposed to look like that, and thats from saving it twice.
when i saved it the first time, using red lighting effects on the ppl, just the little preview pic in the mypictures folder was blurry but when you open it up it looked normal, but i uploaded it to myspace and it was blurry, very blurry…i dont get it.
This one looks pretty sharp. If the problem is that the letters get blurry when you upload it, myspace lowers the quality of your images to save space. The solution might be to save your image in a different format, such as Compuserve gif, and see if that looks better on myspace.
Not a bad looking image, BTW. Don’t be put off if people are not always helpful here. I got it too when I first started here. It’s something in the water that makes people cranky.
thanks :)…ya that guy was rude for no reason…ya its def blurry..i wish you could see it before i upload the pics or preview them bc they honestly look nothing like their suppose to when i upload them or preview them for a second time
Are you saving your work in progress as a Jpeg? If so the quality will degrade each time you save, this however isn’t reflected on screen and will only become apparent when you re-open the file.
Save as a Photoshop (which is a lossless) file, then when the image is complete save out as a jpeg or whatever.
I sometimes get tired of advising people who apparently haven’t bothered to learn even the basics. And we get a lot of people asking questions who have not bought the software legally.
If the above doesn’t apply to you there’s no need to be upset.
On Fri, 4 Jul 2008 01:24:03 -0700, "John Joslin" wrote:
I sometimes get tired of advising people who apparently haven’t bothered to learn even the basics.
Then don’t! Simple as that.
Braun1884,
You might want to give a review of your workflow, with details on what you are starting with, how you are manipulating the images and then your process for Save/Save_As, before you are uploading to the Web. Take us, step-by-step where you start from and how you get to Save.
When the output differs from the input, there is usually a very good reason for this.
General tip: it’s wise to start with the best input possible (original image) and keep it at its best until the final step – outputting.
Once you give us your workflow, people can make recommendations on how to help, the best we can.
Hunt
On a technical point of view I think you need to make sure the dark background matches the black behind the text….even if it looks fine on your screen check the colour values as they are different.
Just use the eyedrop tool to pick up the colour and paint bucket it in.
Apart from that it looks fine my side.
alright ill take ya step by step 🙂
upload the image from my cell phone which is a jpg. then i open up photoshop CS3….click open, then i open the image.
then i go to filter, and render, lighting effects and make a red lighting effect which i do tweak alot. then i used the brush tool, overlay to make my eyes red to give it a vampire effect.
then i save it as a jpg and i rename it bc i wanna keep the original image as well.
then the pic saves in the my pictures folder. when i first open the folder, the lil square pic of it looks crystal clear. then i x out the my pictures folder and reopen it and the lil square preview pic looks really blurry. it changes drastically. but when i preview the pic it looks regular, but when i uploaded it to myspace it got really blurry and when i uploaded it to photobucket it did the same thing it looked very choppy….i tried messing with the color settings in photoshop and nothing….please i wanna get this straightned out lol its killin me.
Thanks for taking the time to give us your workflow.
The first thing that I see is that you are starting with an image that is small to begin with, shot with a less than ideal lens and that is already compressed, i.e. JPG.
You’re working on the image in PS, and then doing a Save, that is compressing the image data some more. I do not know about MySpace, but assume that they possibly compress it some more.
Given the starting image, there probably is not a great deal, that you can do to improve the image that much. I doubt that your cellphone can handle images in any other format, but a compressed JPG. You might want to look at the manual, and choose TIFF, if at all possible. Note: images will be much larger, so many fewer will fit on the cellphone’s memory chip/card. Save_As PSD after you have done your editing, and then from that, prepare for the upload. Check the MySpace requirements for exact size requirements and use Save_For_Web, setting those exact specs. This last step will help insure that an additional JPG compression will not take place. You might also explore doing one of two things, prior to this last Save – play with Sharpen (starting with SmartSharpen, Filters>Sharpen>SmartSharpen, and make sure you are looking at the image at 100% magnification. Judge your efforts at that magnification. Be critical. If nothing makes it look better here, try the other route, Blur. Go back to the unsharpened image and choose Filter>Blur>Gaussian Blur. Start about 0.5 on the scale and see if the "choppiness" dissapates some. Unfortunately, your eyes will be the best test.
Now, what you have to remember is that the Thumbnail image is tiny. It will appear much sharper, than an enlarged original. Experiment: reduce the original to the size of the Thumbnail and judge it at that reduction. Also, the Thumbnail might have been generated early on and not replaced, when you did your Save processes. Even if the Thumbnail is current, the size will make it appear much better, but it’s just too small for you to use, right?
Best solution would be to borrow a camera, not a cellphone, or a video camera, that does stills too. Reshoot with that, and set its size and quality to the highest possible. Work with those images, and follow the steps above. You want to have a big image to begin with, with as little, or no, compression, as possible. Compression throws away data from the image. It cannot be recovered later. Each compression step reduces the data by some degree.
You can also let Photoshop create pixels for you to work with. In Image>Image Size, check Resample Image and twirl the drop-down to Bicubic Smoother. Using small increments, divisible by 4, increase your Image Size. Same settings and that "divisible by 4," do it again, and again. Remember, Photoshop is "creating" pixels, so you need to monitor the results closely and then be prepared to use a slightly different artistic approach, than what you’d planned. It will not create an image that is equal to using a real camera to begin with, but if you’re flexible in your design, you might end up with "art."
Or you can change the concept a bit and design in a bit more of a "distressed" look to the photographs.
An analogy of what you are doing is, having a friend take an image from a magazine, one that will have been "screened" to print with. Have them FAX it to you. You take the FAX, and put it into a copier, only to take that copy and run IT back through the copier. Now, take your copy of a copy of a FAX of a screened photograph, and compare it to the original photograph that was used to print in the magazine in the first place.
Sorry to be the bearer of bad news. Other than streamline your workflow and maybe "improve" the image a little (the two directions of Filtering I mentioned, Sharpen or Blur), just before you send it off, you’re pretty much stuck with what you’ve ended up with.
Hunt
man that stinks lol…ehh oh well, what can ya do right? thanks for all the great info i really appreciate it 🙂 i still dont get how when i preview the picture on my comp after its saved as a jpeg, it looks normal but myspace compresses it that much?
As for the Preview looking good issue [from post #12]
"Now, what you have to remember is that the Thumbnail image is tiny. It will appear much sharper, than an enlarged original. Experiment: reduce the original to the size of the Thumbnail and judge it at that reduction. Also, the Thumbnail might have been generated early on and not replaced, when you did your Save processes. Even if the Thumbnail is current, the size will make it appear much better, but it’s just too small for you to use, right?"
Try this, and look carefully at the two. You might have to have both PS and, say Windows Explorer open next to each other, but just hit the Ctrl- "-" to zoom out, until they are the same size. Compare.
Hunt
