Reduction of image for projection Competition

[BrianHarvey2]

Hi,
Can you advise what is the best way to reduce an image to 1024 x 768 max as our club competition requires us to do. Some members get really sharp images on projection while others seem too soft. Image size is also 500kb max.

[MattUK]

What software do you have available? Photoshop? Elements?

[BrianHarvey2]

Hi MAtt,
I have PS Elements 9.

[MattUK]

Ok, so the best way is probably using File > Save for web (which I recall Elements has).

You might get a warning that the image size exceeds recommended size, but if your computer is half decent you can just ignore it. On the right you'll see some width & height dimensions - change the width to 1024 then click in another box to make it happen. The image should resize.

From here, making sure that JPG is selected as the image type, you should be able to play with the quality setting while keeping an eye on the file size. A quality of 10 is usually optimal - any higher won't really make a visible difference, it will just unnecessarily increase file size

[Cathus]

Does Elements have a crop tool, if so just put the sizes in the tool bar 1024 by 768 dpi 72 & crop it, press enter & your image is the correct size for your club display.

If the image is already cropped for you, just select the whole image with the crop tool & press enter.

[MattUK]

That's a fair point Cathus - our friend from East 17 didn't mention if he wanted to re-size or crop. I assumed however that it was a re-size, as he mentions losing sharpness etc.

Cropping, as Cathus describes won't re-size the image though, it will just make the visible area of the image smaller.

[GeoffWessex]

I wouldn't agree with using 'Save for Web' when you're using the picture for projection in a competition. It would need to be at 72ppi, though, as it would be projected via a computer - and it cannot display more than 72ppi (OK, 96ppi on some monitors). But the danger is that newbies may just over-compress the image with Save for Web.... and end up with that loss of sharpness mentioned.
Additionally, some competitions are so strict that they want to be able to see the exif (which is lost in Save for Web). I'd go for an alteration of pixel dimensions in Image/Resize, with 1024 max width and 768 max height (whichever way the pic is orientated).

[Cathus]

yeah it does resize the image down to the width & height & also the dpi, you can input the pixel size in the crop tool or just use it to crop without having set width/height.

I do it for my sports shots for submission to the papers, they want a 30cm by 20cm 300dpi print at around 1mb.

I have that set up as my crop tool settings & just whack the crop tool on it, press enter & it's resized. I then 'save as' at around 8-9 quality for a 1mb image.

[MattUK]

Originally Posted by GeoffWessex

I wouldn't agree with using 'Save for Web' when you're using the picture for projection in a competition. It would need to be at 72ppi, though, as it would be projected via a computer - and it cannot display more than 72ppi (OK, 96ppi on some monitors). But the danger is that newbies may just over-compress the image with Save for Web.... and end up with that loss of sharpness mentioned.
Additionally, some competitions are so strict that they want to be able to see the exif (which is lost in Save for Web). I'd go for an alteration of pixel dimensions in Image/Resize, with 1024 max width and 768 max height (whichever way the pic is orientated).

He states he wants it 1024 x 768 and under 500k. This is a web-only specification, not a 600dpi lossless print spec.

Save for web is absolutely fine, and as I stated, setting the quality around 10 will ensure that any loss of quality will never be notiecable at such a low resolution anyway. Besides, Save for web uses exactly the same bicubic resizing algorithm that Save as JPG uses, just in a more manageable preview.

[MattUK]

Originally Posted by Cathus

yeah it does resize the image down to the width & height & also the dpi, you can input the pixel size in the crop tool or just use it to crop without having set width/height.

I do it for my sports shots for submission to the papers, they want a 30cm by 20cm 300dpi print at around 1mb.

I have that set up as my crop tool settings & just whack the crop tool on it, press enter & it's resized. I then 'save as' at around 8-9 quality for a 1mb image.

Ah, interesting - I've never tried that method before. I stand corrected