Reduction of image for projection Competition

[mabbutt]

Originally Posted by MattUK

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

That's what I use and as Carhus says it is very efficient.

[GeoffWessex]

Originally Posted by MattUK

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.

I run an online competition for my club and ask for shots of 1024x768 @ 72ppi. That should (and does) easily give you less than 300kb in file size, as long as you select a 'quality level' of around 8 or 9. I also want Exif info from the pictures (checking dates etc), and that rules out 'Save for Web'.

[BrianHarvey2]

Thanks Guys for the different thoughts.
Our images have to have maximum of 1024 width and max of 768 height and max 500kb.

So if I have a portrait of say 1536 width by 3072 height this will be resized to 384 x 768 to retain proportion. NOT cropped as then the composition will be lost.

I normally resize image to say max width of 1024 or max height of 768 as required by the rules and the proportion of the file. Resizing to 1024 x 1024 IS NOT allowed and rejected by the judges.
This means entrants putting in portrait style entries are greatly reducing the image compared to landscape entries. Some of us now are shooting / composing square format say 3000 x 3000 to gain more screen size after resizing to 768 x 768.

I will try the save for web method and see how it goes.

One day the rules may change to say HD size that will help when / if we get a HD projector.

[BrianHarvey2]

Hi Matt, can you post the url for the online comp so I could have a look at your images.

[GeoffWessex]

I think you must mean me, Brian...... there are slideshows of each month's work here, but these are not the full size images - they're reduced by the slideshow software (Jalbum).

I was thinking I could let you see them in full size but...... for the judging process, I upload them to Flickr, in my photostream but in a 'Private' set - I don't want people looking at my photostream seeing pictures that are not mine or club members making their own comments so I make them "Private' straight away, viewable only by nominated judges.

EDIT....
Just had another idea.... I've uploaded three of my own images (from our January round) which follow the same dimension rules - 1008 pixels on longer sides, at 72ppi (making them around 14" on long sides). They're on my Flickr stream and they're called Chilly Water, Collins Creek and High Ice..... click through and see them at large sizes - I don't think you'll find that they are low quality but their filesizes are 246kb, 321kb and 239kb respectively.

[Cathus]

Brian,

you don;t have to crop the image using the crop tool, just input your settings - 1024 by 768 72ppi & then draw the crop tool over the whole image & press enter. It will then resize the whole image to your requirements.

I presume your club is affiliated to one of the larger regional photographic society bodies. have you checked with your region as I believe most are going over to 1440 pixels as being the required (or should I say largest) size for digital projection. Also that is the longest side immaterial of portrait or landscape format so portrait formats are not disadvantaged.

We changed last year, is your club a little behind perhaps, is it worth looking at how other clubs in your region do it?

[GeoffWessex]

Wandering a little off-topic, but that's an interesting point about picture height, Cathus..... we're limited to heights of 768pixels, because trying to project more than that puts the image outside the boundaries of the monitor and screen. Likewise, we're limited to a max of 1024px width.

[BrianHarvey2]

Just tried the crop method and worked well as a process. I will try and compare this with my usual method and also the save for web method.
I am on holiday and its raining cats and dogs!! So have a spare time to test things out.

[BrianHarvey2]

Just loaded two samples of crop vers save methods for discussion in my album - test files