| Author | Message | ||
     Giovanni Repetti White Crane Username: grepetti Post Number: 1831 Registered: 12-2003 |
Dears, just another thread on photography tips, for helping who has problems in resizing the pictures and who is not confident with the cameras. Here is my operating way and suggestions: - Do not think that your camera is not suitable. ANY amateur digital camera has much more capabilities than the requested ones for posting the pictures here. I started posting pictures with a 3 Megapixels compact Nikon camera, the Coolpix 3700. Three Megapixels are far beyond the necessary. I also used a Pentax compact camera and now I have Nikon Coolpix P4 but the changes were not due for improving the picture quality. The old one was perfectly suitable, a pity that it has been stolen. - Always, ALWAYS, do a manual white balance setting. Do not rely on white balance preset. Before to start to take pictures, take a medium grey surface (in my case the background cloth) or a white one if you do not have a neutral grey and follow the manual white balance setting instructions of the owner’s manual. This is extremely important. If you are taking pictures outdoor and it is a cloudy day, the white balance may be calibrated several times because of the light changing. - Any light source is suitable, but the white balance calibration must be properly made. Nevertheless, if the pictures are taken outdoor it is better to take them in shadow for reducing the contrast, which will result in over exposed and under exposed areas in the same image. If taken indoor, then again any light source is suitable, after doing the white balance calibration. I use two or more save energy type lamp bulbs, 20W each, because of the low temperature of such bulbs. This for avoiding to over heat the piece in case of close-up pictures when the lamp is placed close to it. - USE THE TRIPOD! Any type, simple or not, but use it. - Be sure of correct focusing. Follows camera’s instruction. - Take the pictures as far as possible from the piece, but in the same time try to fill the image frame as possible. In other words, zoom to Tele and then place the camera at a distance that the piece is filling all the image. Below is how I take pictures indoor. I do the white balance calibration on the background cloth, then I fix the camera on the tripod and place the lamps for a better illumination together with the possible low light reflections.  Ah, don’t forget the nut!! Format. - Do not use high resolution format. I use 1024 X 768 pixels, which produces an image of about 250 kB. This is bigger than the requested, I do so for eventually take a detail from the same picture. - I use a free program called Resizer for image sizing. You can download it here: http://www.virtualzone.de/resizer/ It is an easy to use simple program. It has a first window, (1.Files) where you can select the file or the complete folder of files to be resized. Then in the second window (2. Size) select the button “Smart JPEG resizing” and select 640 for “Make the largest side for this amount of pixels”. Ignore the rest, i.e uncheck all the other push buttons. Below is how it appears:  - In the third window (3. Output) select the folder where you want to store the resized images, then select “Generate incremental filename”. This will allow you to keep the original image and generate a new resized image, so the original is untouched. Select “Change JPEG compression factor” and set the value of “New compression factor” to about 25. This for images that originally were 1024X768. Bigger format will need bigger compression factor. Below is how it appears:  Then press “4. Resize”. That’s it, in a few seconds you will have your images ready for posting. Be aware that, if you will resize further images in the same folder, it will rewrite the previous resized images, so it is better to change the destination folder. This is all I do. I do not use image software like Photoshop, because I do not have and do not know how to use. I prefer to take the picture as best as possible and avoid to manipulate it. Kind regards, Giovanni | ||
| Roberta Enseki-Hancock Silver Pheasant Username: sotech Post Number: 290 Registered: 10-2004 |
Dear Giovanni, Thanks so much for the tips. Like others, I will keep trying, and perhaps eventually I will get the technique down. If that is only part of your collection in the background of the picture, all I can say is "Oh my!" Kind regards, Roberta | ||
| Stevenson Bajet White Crane Username: sbanpak Post Number: 2323 Registered: 01-2005 |
Dear Giovanni, I tend to use a 10.1 megapixel for full view of the image of the object and resize them through MS office picture manager without much trouble. It is very true, the white balance has to be calibrated specially when taking objects in the color white as even without using flash by taking the picture with ISO 1600 indoors using fluorescent lighting only, the white object still bounces back. For pictures of the details of the object, I use my Sony Cybershot set at one megapixel and find the results reasonably good. I was thinking of buying a macro lens for the Canon but the price is just way to expensive and will cost more than the camera itself. As I am down with flue I have been able to experiment with both cameras under different lighting conditions inside my isolation room. Warm regards, Stevenson | ||
| Tommy Eklöf Dragon (Board Moderator) Username: toekl2002 Post Number: 2401 Registered: 04-2003 |
Thank you Giovanni for a very educational post. My experience is that always take the photo with the best resolution and than compress it). You don´t need it to get great photos for the list but as you said if you want to magnify the photo you can never get it better than the resolution (but you can always compress it. Use the self-timer if the camera has one for trembler free photos. If you don´t have a tripod never use the zoom feature, take the photo and crop it in an image software. Here is some links for more tips: http://www.gotheborg.com/discus/read.php?file=/11760/81267.html http://www.gotheborg.com/discus/read.php?file=/11760/30702.html http://www.gotheborg.com/discus/read.php?file=/11760/170695.html Regards Tommy | ||
| Stevenson Bajet White Crane Username: sbanpak Post Number: 2324 Registered: 01-2005 |
Dear Tommy, I totally agree with your using the best resolution and then crop the image and so with the point of not using any zoom. Warm Regards, Stevenson | ||
| Giovanni Repetti White Crane Username: grepetti Post Number: 1835 Registered: 12-2003 |
Dear Stevenson, I think that Tommy's suggestion "If you don´t have a tripod never use the zoom feature" is meant as "do not use the tele if you don't have the tripod", this because without the tripod it is easier to have blurred images in tele than in wide angle. My suggestion to use the tele was instead meant to keep the more distant possible view in order to reduce the barrel-wise distortion typical of close views. I forgot to say that a correct white balance calibration is not preventing from color dominant caused by the mirroring of the ambient surround, like a yellow wall for example, on the reflective surface of the piece. A simple indoor set-up like the one shown above eliminates this problem, because in that way one can operate in a darker room. Kind regards, Giovanni | ||
| fran elliott Lesser Egret Username: franelliott Post Number: 27 Registered: 04-2007 |
Many, many thanks Giovanni, for this instructional post. Maybe I don't need to exchange my camera if I follow this! Best regards, Fran E. | ||
| Betsy Strader Peacock Username: artistic2usa Post Number: 394 Registered: 10-2006 |
Dear Giovanni, Where am I?  Sorry I can not help with your beautiful painting. It is lovely. Maybe Dimitri has something with saying Cyrillic. I feel badly I can not help. There is that walnut again! Thanks for the information and showing us your photo studio. Much more high-tech than mine! Still being good and ciao Gio- Betsy | ||
| Arno Jacobs Golden Pheasant Username: jcbs Post Number: 1078 Registered: 07-2004 |
Dear Giovanni, Tommy and all, Thanks for those good advises, everyone can learn from it. Now we can put all together in a "photo topic". Kind regards, Arno | ||
| Patrick Parker Lesser Egret Username: me31572 Post Number: 20 Registered: 04-2007 Posted From: 60-250-153-5.hinet-ip.hinet.net |
Does anyone have an alternate site for the resizing program? It doesn't seem to be connected to the link listed here. Regards, Patrick | ||
| Giovanni Repetti White Crane Username: grepetti Post Number: 2236 Registered: 12-2003 Posted From: host34-242-static.44-85-b.business.telecomitalia.it |
Dear Patrick, I did a quick search on the net and it seems that yes, it is no possible to find the program anywhere. There is a new more sophisticated version which is no more free. You (and who is interested to) can email me: repettig at gmail.com and I will send you a copy. Best regards Giovanni | ||
| dimitri poliakoff White Crane Username: dimitri Post Number: 2552 Registered: 12-2003 Posted From: dd5769739.access.telenet.be |
Dear Patrick, I'm using Irfan View, a free program that does about everything and it is easy to use too. Kind regards, Dimitri | ||
| Tommy Eklöf Dragon (Board Moderator) Username: toekl2002 Post Number: 2885 Registered: 04-2003 Posted From: c-d9c0e253.66-11-64736c11.cust.bredbandsbolaget.se |
Hi all Irfan view http://www.newfreedownloads.com/Multimedia-Graphics/Viewers/Irfan-View.html Regards Tommy | ||
| Walter Susor Golden Pheasant Username: wsus Post Number: 1027 Registered: 08-2003 Posted From: adsl-75-7-9-109.dsl.pltn13.sbcglobal.net |
I had been using 3200 K photoflood lamps with good results except for two annoying traits. The bulbs have a very short life and do change color, if ever so slightly, as they age. After going through about a dozen of the bulbs, I have switched to the longer life 3400 K bulbs and after resetting my camera's white balance, the colors reproduce better than ever. My old camera allows me to bracket the white balance, giving an image with the set white and one warmer and one cooler. I find that with the 3400 K bulbs the set white balance has always been the best. Setting the white balance to a neutral grey card is preferred in all cases. The problems that I had experienced before I began using the flood lamps are the result of rapid shifts in the light quality due to weather conditions here. It takes less than 10 seconds for the sun to be obscured by clouds or fog, changing the light color, and it happens continuously here. I suspect that others are experiencing similar if not as drastic effects. The advantage of using flood lamps is that they are constant over many photo sessions, day and night and give excellent results. The set up including lamps, reflectors, stands, and backdrop cost less than US$100. Here is an example of the white balance bracketing by the camera, without further manipulation other than cropping and resizing.    Regards, Walter | ||
| Giovanni Repetti White Crane Username: grepetti Post Number: 2296 Registered: 12-2003 Posted From: host182-39-dynamic.6-87-r.retail.telecomitalia.it |
Dear Walter, I fully agree with you. Artificial light has many advantages, being the most important of them the possibility of changing the light source position and the constant light quality. Since a while I am using artificial light only. Another important fact that I didn't mention in my above posts is the exposure bracketing and over and under-exposure. If the piece that we are taking picture of is mainly white, then an over-exposure of +0,7 or even +1,3 must be set (this values are good considering that the bracketing will span within +/- 0,3 around that). If the object is dark, then an under-exposure of the same values (-0,7 and even -1,3) must be set. If this correction is not made, an oxblood piece will result in a cherry red, and vice-versa a white piece will result a pale gray/creamy. After that it will just be necessary to scroll all the pictures and discard the wrong ones. The best way to choose the good ones is to look at the background, this is the reason because I use a grey background. In theory, all the selected pictures should have the same background density, but indeed, because of the reduced pose latitude of the camera sensor, the dark pieces will have a darker background and vice-versa. I never use correction software (which I don't have either). Giovanni | ||
| Walter Susor Golden Pheasant Username: wsus Post Number: 1028 Registered: 08-2003 Posted From: adsl-75-7-9-109.dsl.pltn13.sbcglobal.net |
Dear Giovanni, Thanks for pointing out the amount of under or over exposure adjustment that is often necessary. I did not mention it, but the photo set above was set at 0.7 EV over the camera' automatic exposure. To set the exposure, I check the histogram and adjust the exposure until the reflective spots from the lamps ( in this case the round highlights at 1 and 11 o'clock) are just overexposed. This usually will give the correct exposure for the rest of the object. The exposure data for the above test is: 1/340 sec, F 6.8, +0. 7 EV, 21.4mm focal length. Best, Walter An afterthought here: Different cameras and lenses will be corrected to their optimal sharpness at different F settings and this may vary with the focal length of zoom lenses. Although the rule is that using a smaller lens opening results in greater depth of focus and sharper images, this is not always true in practice due to variations in lens design. | ||
| Giovanni Repetti White Crane Username: grepetti Post Number: 3406 Registered: 12-2003 Posted From: host200-44-dynamic.19-87-r.retail.telecomitalia.it |
Dear all, thanks to Arno I can inform you that Jpeg Resizer is now again available for free: http://www.brothersoft.com/jpeg-resizer-3357.html I strongly recommend it to the new members and to whom like myself is not willing to buy complicated software. Kind regards Giovanni | ||
| Matthew Bunney Lesser Egret Username: bunney Post Number: 7 Registered: 04-2010 Posted From: 113.112.139.179 |
All, I found a piece of software very useful for Mac (windows as well if needed) Resize! X V1.4.2 it was a free download found at Macworld.com Hope this is helpful for all those mac users out there like me! Bunney | ||
| Thomas Helmer Mandarin Duck Username: gekkegerritje Post Number: 3 Registered: 06-2010 Posted From: 56.213-177-91.adsl-dyn.isp.belgacom.be |
For Mac and iPhoto users, you can select a smaller size of your picture when you use the export function within iPhoto and save it is the size you want. With a bit of experimenting you will know which setting will work best for you. |
