PHOTOSHOP TUTORIAL-Saving Images for Forum Galleries IMAGE INTENSIVE!!!

[IF-Designs]

Ok I know alot of you folks are having trouble saving your images in a larger size but within the size confines of the forum uploader :) Here is a lil tutorial for you Photoshop users out there! :) This should work for any newer photshop that has imageready bundled with it :)

[IF-Designs]

Open your image to edit in photoshop. If it is coming straight from your camera cards its going to be large. Go up to your menu, Click on Image and then Image Size.
http://if-designs.net/TUTORIALS/phototut1.jpg

[IF-Designs]

This is where you initially adjust your size! Dont make it too small just yet ;) I usually make my images about 10 inches at this stage :) When you are typing in your size have all the lil check boxes below checked :) this makes sure it resizes your images appropriately and scales them evenly.
http://if-designs.net/TUTORIALS/phototut2.jpg

[IF-Designs]

Ok now alot of times once I make it smaller it usually needs to be sharpened a bit to bring back the cripsness of the beads in person. So take your cursor up to the top to filters and go down to SHARPEN you have many options there play around with them but I find that the top sharpen usually works the best for me. I usually run the filter 1-3 times.
http://if-designs.net/TUTORIALS/phototut3.jpg

[IF-Designs]

Ok now we have it sharpened back up! Now its time to crop! Go to your marque tool and click on it and select the rectangle :)
http://if-designs.net/TUTORIALS/phototut4.jpg

[IF-Designs]

Now that thats selecter take your cursor and draw your area to crop around your image. Once you do that go up to your menu and choose Image and then crop!
http://if-designs.net/TUTORIALS/phototut5.jpg

[IF-Designs]

Now that its cropped you can go back in to Image Image size and make it the final size you want keep it large so you can see your beads but probally not over8 - 8.5 inches. Then your ready to save for the web!
Go back up to your menu and choose file then save for web!
http://if-designs.net/TUTORIALS/phototut5.jpg

[Cosmo]

Just a little note...

Unsharp Mask works much better than the Sharpen command...


*EDIT - Sorry... didn't realize you weren't finished posting. If a mod wants to delete this so it flows better, feel free!

[IF-Designs]

Your imageready screen will launch!
But dont save just yet! Go over to the right hand side of the screen
to the menu area and see where it says optimized? Make sure thats checked and check out the lil number area underneath. This is a slider and determines the size of your image! When you type in the percentage to save it to it stays at the inch size you set but takes the quality down a bit to make it a managable file size!
You can see the current file size by looking in the lower left hand corner of the imageready screen!
http://if-designs.net/TUTORIALS/phototut7.jpg

[IF-Designs]

Lookie there! I changed the percentage of quality down to 45 and look how much smaller it got! Its now down to 39KB instead of 70! and it doesnt look that much different!
http://if-designs.net/TUTORIALS/phototut8.jpg

[IF-Designs]

Now its time to save! Click on the blue save button and input your file name and your pretty much done! Now you have a larger image that will show up on the forums just peachy!
http://if-designs.net/TUTORIALS/PhotoTut9.jpg

[IF-Designs]

Here is the final image!

If you are very photoshop savvy Cosmo is right you will get much better results with the unsharp mask filter for most people though the sharpen will work well enough until they get a lil more well versed in the photshop category!

[Cosmo]

Good tutorial. I think this is something a lot of people are curious about. Thanks for taking the time to explain it!

[IF-Designs]

I just hope people understand and can learn from it! Its not a big mysterious thing :) hehe it really allows you to do larger images with smaller file size so they load better ! especially for people on dialup!

[PaulaD]

Thanks for much for this. I was pulling myh air out last night with photoshop elements trying to do something similar.
Can you tell us about what size we should save at for LE and for places like Ebay?
Thanks. Paula

[IF-Designs]

most forums want the pictures at 70 kb or less :) Ebay doesnt care really :) if you use their uploader they resize them bnut their uploader blurs the picture :( So its best to host them somewhere else and llink to them in yor format

[Holly]

Thanks Karin!
:love:
Hols

[dogmaw]

Definitely a 5 star tutorial. Thanks!!!

[laurellanestudios]

Thanks, Karin. Great information. I looked at your web site and your photos are fantastic. My hat's off to you.

I hope I'm not complicating things but have a question. (Warning: I am easily confused by anything involving technology!)

My photos look great when I view them in the digital camera. Once I upload them and begin to edit them (Photoshop Element 4.0) they seem to lose clarity.

I never resize them first. Instead I begin to play around with lighting, contrast, etc. When I'm satisfied with the picture, I save it. Then, I save it again as a jpeg for web in whatever pixel size I need.

Could this be why they aren't as clear as I'd like? Before doing any editing, should the photo be resized (made smaller)?

Thanks again for sharing your expertise.

Kathy

[IF-Designs]

the smaller the image is compressed the better it will look once its seen full size on the screen you will see any imperfections that you may not see in the camera :)

You can do some sharpening and color correction when its full size but dont over sharpen it. once youget the preliminarys done save it down to the size you want and adjust it a final time... :) This should help :)

[SuzFromOz]

just to add to that last question...evry single change you amke to your image will reduce image quality. There are some ways around it, but they are for fairly high end users of photoshop, so I wont go into any detail here. So basically, keep your changes to an absolute minimum number of steps, dont keep changing in increments, or change your mind and go back and forth.

[beading57]

Hi Karin,

I just came across this tutorial. Absolutely fantastic! Thank you so much for taking the time to put this up....the pictures are SOOOO helpful. I learn much better with pictures!:biggrin: I rated this thread EXCELLENTE!!!=D>

[HardwoodTrailGlass]

I am a little late in reading this.......but I want to say 'Thank you' Karin for sharing this info!

[cherie]

I just followed this step by step and worked great!

giving it a little bump*

[Lea Zinke]

...this is great information! I may yet figure out how to photograph a bead & actually post it! Stay tuned...

Thanks,
Lea

[IF-Designs]

Im just so glad people are still finding my tutorial so useful!