BYH Calendar ~ Picture Submission Thread ~ Deadline Oct. 14! [EST]

[aggieterpkatie]

Ok, I edited my post (#21) with my final 5 pics. Hopefully there won't be any more changes!

 

[Nifty]

Photoshop will increase the number of pixels, but it can't fill in the gaps. Photoshop can spit up existing pixels into more pixels, but it can't "make up" new pixels with more detail for the image. An extreme example: Say I have a 1x1 pixel image that is just black. In Photoshop I can increase the "resolution" to be 2,000,000 x 2,000,000 pixels, but the image will still be black.

That's why cameras are getting better and better with more native resolution and more pixels. My first digital camera was 480 x 360 pixels and no matter how much I increased the resolution, the image wouldn't get more "detail" or be more clear.

Check out this article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image_resolution

Taking the left image and increasing the resolutions wouldn't give you the image to the right, but if you take the image to the right and decrease the resolution you'd probably get the image to the left.

 

[Nifty]

To add: We want the largest version of the images and then we can do the rest. We just want to make sure that we get images that have not already been resized because they will look pixelated on the final output.

For those that are more technical: We need a native 300 dpi image that is 8.5 x 11 inches.

 

[redtailgal]

I would assume that most everyone on here is using digital cameras.

Quick lesson:

Pictures are made up of "squares" called pixels. These pixels are put together like a puzzle to make a picture, and each pixel holds the "data" that makes up the picture.


Each time you edit a picture, you are changing that data, and in turn losing data. Every bit of lost data costs you pictures quality.

Ways to keep good picture quality include:

Keep one working copy, usually your original picture, in this example we will name it Igloo.jpg when you make a change, dont click save......instead click "save as" and named it, in this example we will say Iglooworking.jpg.

ALWAYS always always keep the original picture unchanged, so that you can revert back to the original file with NO LOST DATA.

There is alot of data lost is resizing pics. To crop is an obvious loss of data, naturally, but to INCREASE the size of a pic ADDS data to the pic, by increasing the pixel count. Each new pixel must have its own data, and since the camera cannot retake the pic to get the proper data for those new pixels, the computer must GUESS.

So it goes like this. A nice quality pic was taken at a 2600 by 2600 pixel resolution. THe owner of said pic wanted to crop out all but the middle portion and did so. The area left after cropping was 600 by 600. THe other two thousand pixels of information are gone, never to return. BUT the owner wants a higher resolution pic, so they choose to enlarge the cropped area back up to 2600x2600. Now the computer must guess the data to fill in the new pixels. It will get you up to the proper size, but due to the analytical sequencing effect of computers, the picture has lost quite a bit of sharpness and quality.

If you must resize............enlarge the pic BEFORE you crop. Then reduce the size of your cropped image. This will give you less "guess at" space on the pics, plus the benefit of the "guessed at" pixels being smaller and not so noticable. You will end up with a much better quality pic.

The better option is to change the options in your camera. Most of you should be able to go to the menu on your camera, select picture options, or picture quality. Once there, choose all or any combination of the following: fine, best, large, high resolution etc.

The BEST option is to shoot in RAW format, if its available on your camera. I wont go into detail here but if anyone has any questions, ask me.

Remember folks, always always keep your original, and edit a working copy.

 

[Nifty]

Ya, what they said!

 

[20kidsonhill]

Thanks for the infor. See, I told you all I was no expert and I was sure there were better experts on here. I do have all my originals of any of those pictures, THat much I have always done, I always keep the originals and then create other folders for the adjusted pictures. For example, The picture is intended for e-mailing, then my folder is labeled e-mail fall 2011, ect...... But I have not been increases pixals before cropping, I will be for now one.

Thanks for the information.

 

[elevan]

We've extended the deadline for pictures to Friday, October 14!

 

[LauraM]

Here are three entries from me........I may have a couple of more by the deadline.

 

[Blue Dog Farms]

 

[Blue Dog Farms]

couple more