Image EditingBy Howard Hayakawa
Images fixes:
Before I begin, I caution that this topic is a serious study in itself. A complete profession exists just to manipulate digital images. This note is to help you with quick fixes beginning with size and format. Another disclaimer is that some of the comments are in the context of our tool and designs.
Size issues: by Howard Hayakawa - howard@imakesense.com
- As you begin to work with images from a digital camera, you'll quickly discover that most cameras provide much more resolution than is necessary. The bad part is that if you just upload the 4 megapixel image from your camera, you'll have a picture SO huge that you can't see it on the screen. Plus it takes forever to download.
- Tool Options
- Option 1: Adobe Photoshop: this is an image editor used by most digital image professionals. It does way more than you need and costs much more than most people want to pay.
- Option 2: Adobe Photoshop Elements: this is a subset of big brother and more than enough for almost all you''re web work. It is available at most office supply stores for under $100. It is also provided with some digital cameras.
- Option 3: GIMP: this is an opensource (free) image editor that is claimed to do most of what PhotoShop does. I don''t know about that but it does resize images fairly easily and is free. Go to http://gimp-win.sourceforge.net/stable.html to get your copy. You may need to get the help of a technical friend to understand exactly what to download. Download "GTK+ 2 for Windows" first and then download "The Gimp for Windows".
- Option 4: Pixresizer is a special tool only for resizing. Because it's focussed, it's easier to use. It also allows resizing a bunch of pictures at once. Oh, and it's FREE. http://bluefive.pair.com/ is where you find it. See pixresizer for basic instructions.
- How big/small to make the picture?
- as a reference, the page is about 770 pixels wide.
- estimate how big you want your picture (1/2, 1/4, etc of page and that gives you a first approximation of the size you want.
- After that you tweak until you like it but be careful that you don't get compulsive. Each browser type treats web pages differently in small ways so your careful polishing might not make a difference on another browser.
- If you really get into the size thing, there is a picture measuring tool. I use http://www.iconico.com/caliper/index.aspx but there are many available. Search for screen calipers. This lets you measure a space on the screen you want to fill with picture. It measures in pixels.
- Picture has junk or is the wrong size
- Trimming the shape of a picture or cutting stuff off is called cropping.
- Photoshop, photoshop elements and GIMP all let you crop.
- Cheating way to size pictures
- If you''re in a major hurry, the image editor will let you decide the size displayed. The browser magically takes the huge picture and makes it look small.
- Unfortunately it doesn''t make the actual file smaller so the entire huge picture is downloaded from your website to the browser. If a person is using a dial-up service, they will hate you because of the long time for the picture to display. So, if you''re forced to do it, be sure to go back and do it correctly ASAP.
Color and Light issues:
- Each editing tool has it's own name for commands and the commands act differently so you''re somewhat on your own here. If you're using photoshop elements, the book Photoshop Elements for Dummies is very good to get you started and doing some interesting things.
- The thing to remember is that some fairly awful digital pictures can be rescued or at least made presentable. You can fix under-exposure to an amazing extent. Color shift is also possible. The pictures that look yellow can be corrected. Be persistent. Of course it may be easier to take the picture again.
- The sequence you apply changes to an image makes a huge difference in the outcome. Unless your changes are minor, it's fastest to read a book.
To add these images to a webpage, see " add image to a page" help.
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