A BASIC tutorial for resizing for web...

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Betty

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Would someone mind walking me through the process of resizing and sharpening for the web please? I never do this, and as such, all my images look soft when I post them.

Ive tried sharpening in CS3, but the final image just looks bloody awful, nothing like the pin sharp images I see on here :(

Anyone want to help me? Thanks :thumbs:
 
Resize as normal in CS3 [after doing whatever processing you want to do, including sharpening], then view the image at full size and decide if it needs another sharpening - then use the 'save for web' option in the file menu - this keeps colours accurate I have found after uploading] and voila. Thats all I do and it seems to retain sharpness and colour accuracy most of the time and when it hasn't, it usually because I havent notice the loss after shrinking rather then any software issues.
 
I do all my processing, then go image size 800x533 (normally) then I just do a general sharpen by going to filters>sharpen>sharpen. I find 9.9 times out of 10 that does the job. If that either doesnt sharpen enough or over sharpens then I do an unsharp mask and play around with the sliders till I get something reasonable. Then I do a 'save as' jpeg to keep the exif with the image as 'save for web' strips it.

Sometimes I will do a sort of sharpened mask too, but duplicating the final flattened layer and sharpening to top layer for how sharp I want one part to be (say an eye or something) then erasing everthing else from that layer to show the less sharpened version below.
 
Thanks y'all, Ill be giving each one a go :thumbs:

/feels the love in the room :love:
 
I assume you know about the save for "web and devices" in CS3?
this is the fasted way to get the size ( Kb) down.
I always resize 1st 800 x (whatever) for here
USM gives you more control over you sharpening than just sharpen.
you may find that once you have done the required manipulation and save for web that a tad more sharpening will be required also
HTH :shrug:
 
I know about it now thanks Cobra :) Ill get there :D
 
Further to the above using the "Save for Web" option will also strip the exif data from the image. If that is important to you
 
Does it really? Thats a b****r :( The only thing Ill use it for is to post images here... hmmm...
 
Betty said:
I know about it now thanks Cobra :) Ill get there :D
Click to expand...
Cool :thumbs: it took me forever to get used to a fraction of CS3 but then I am old :( :D

Mark said:
Further to the above using the "Save for Web" option will also strip the exif data from the image. If that is important to you
Click to expand...

I forgot to mention that sorry :(
 
Hey me too, I am being lazy and using the healing brush to clone out huge things :lol:
 
Yes, save for web does strip the exif data, but as long as you still have the original with it intact, I prefer to post here using as much picture data as pos rather then waste it on keeping exif data. The other thing I found is that if I just shrink and use 'save as', they look the same on the computer screen, but once uploaded, the colour changed - saving for web stopped this :shrug:

I think it depends on what you are doing with them - for instance, if posting on flickr or similar you might want to maintain the exif data, but then flickr is lesslimited on file size than here, so its less of a problem.
 
I tend to all my processing in Lightroom these days haven't touched PS for months, I find the workflow so much quicker and easier.

Now all i need to do is take some decent photos :bang:
 
Thank you :) Its amazing the difference it made from the original!!!!
 
not sure if its worth adding but when I reduce mine in the image size menu theres a drop box at the bottom with the option 'bicubic sharper - best for reduction', I tend to use this and do notice quite a difference
 
bsmotorsport said:
not sure if its worth adding but when I reduce mine in the image size menu theres a drop box at the bottom with the option 'bicubic sharper - best for reduction', I tend to use this and do notice quite a difference
Click to expand...

That dawned on me the other day, I never bother choosing an option...and I am not sure what the default is. Will have to pay attention next time!
 
To avoid problems with roof tiles etc. and jagged diagonals, take down to twice the final size, soften, then take down to the final size required and apply unsharp mask.
 
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