tricks for getting under 150kb entries?

Nikon AF-S VR Zoom-Nikkor 200-400mm f/4.0G IF-ED

04/17/2005 05:06:13 PM · #1

I just submitted my entry for the free study. I had to bump down the quality to 50% (!!!) to get it under the limit. I've never had to go down nearly that low before! I'm really worried my image has a noticable decrease in quality when I do this.

Are there any other tricks I can do to decrease the file size? I love this photo, and don't want it to suffer needlessly if there's something else I can do to fix it.

Thanks!

spydr

Nikon D850

04/17/2005 05:12:59 PM · #2

What editing software are you using?

Artan

Canon Digital IXUS v3

Canon EF 24-105mm f/4.0L IS

04/17/2005 05:13:31 PM · #3

Originally posted by turquoise919:

Unfortunatly the DPC size has been set at 150..

Photoshop provides the opportunikty to selectively adjust different areas of an image so you can keep more deatail in specific areas,,,

I have found that using neat image tends to improve the general presentation of the original and also reduce the size of the file. This will help as the DPC reductions will then be less severs..

Canon EOS-20D

Tamron SP AF 28-75mm f/2.8 XR Di for Canon

04/17/2005 05:17:02 PM · #4

If you're using Photoshop, there's a tutorial on how to prepare images for a challenge that might be helpful.

Nikon AF-S DX NIKKOR 18-200mm f/3.5-5.6G ED VR II

04/17/2005 05:20:08 PM · #5

Originally posted by spydr:

What editing software are you using?

It's Photoshop 7.0.

marbo

Nikon D5000

04/17/2005 05:23:37 PM · #6

I use save for web and set the file size to 150kb.
Seems to work fine except it desaturates the image a little.

Sony 24-70mm F4 Vario-Tessar T* FE OSS

04/17/2005 05:24:22 PM · #7

Originally posted by mk:

If you're using Photoshop, there's a tutorial on how to prepare images for a challenge that might be helpful.

Thanks, that is helpful. If not for this problem, it seems to have a lot of other good tips I didn't know. :)

Bear_Music

Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra

04/17/2005 06:24:01 PM · #8

Turquoise,

The way jpg compression works, if an image is very sharp and detailed throughout it's MUCH larger than an image with some areas of little detail and smooth tonal gradations. If you are trying to compress a very complex, detailed image I'm not surprised you're having problems; I've run up against this too.

If you're working on a member challenge, where selections are allowed, try selecting out the area that is most important to you and then reversing the selection and applying some neat image or possibly some gaussian blur to the less-important areas. This will smooth the tonalities and allow a lower degree of compression overall, preserving critical detail & acuity where you need it most.

But the bottom line is, really detailed images don't do well at 72 dpi regardless of how compressed or uncompressed they may be.

Robt.

Message edited by author 2005-04-17 18:25:33.

andri

Canon EOS-10D

Canon EF 24-70mm f/2.8L USM

04/17/2005 06:26:39 PM · #9

Originally posted by marbo:

I use save for web and set the file size to 150kb.
Seems to work fine except it desaturates the image a little.

If this is the case you need to go to Image -> Mode -> Convert to profile and select sRGB before saving. Doing this will preserve the color when saving for the web.

Canon 12x IS USM (S3 IS built-in Lens) -- 36-432mm (35mm EQ)

04/17/2005 07:12:03 PM · #10

Originally posted by bear_music:

But the bottom line is, really detailed images don't do well at 72 dpi regardless of how compressed or uncompressed they may be.

Robt.

Yes, I think you're right. I dropped the size of the photo down from 640 and that helped a little bit but I might have to use a different photo with less small detail for this contest I think. :(

Thanks for your comment.

kyebosh

Canon EOS-20D

Canon EF 80-200mm f/2.8L

04/17/2005 07:31:30 PM · #11

A little compression showing probably won't hurt you too much. Just resize down a little more, probably not smaller than 500 on the long edge. I've never had trouble getting to 150kb though. Resizing itself causes artifacts that can't be gone around (see my pet portrait whiskers for example), you can't expect the small version to be as good as the full rez. If it's your best photo, submit that one! Don't pull it because you feel the image is not low compression.

Message edited by author 2005-04-17 19:34:12.

GeneralE

Canon PowerShot S3 IS

04/17/2005 07:38:51 PM · #12

Trimming it to a slightly smaller size and increasing the compression are pretty much the choices. If it's only a couple of kb too large, I'll sometimes apply a 2-3 pixel black stroke to cover some detail.

In an Advanced Editing challenge, if the photo is detailed and there's one or two details you can clone out, you can sometimes save quite a bit.

One of my current entries was at 152k, and there was one little specular reflection in it. I used the burn (or clone) tool to take out the brightest spot and make it match the surrounding area, and the file size dropped to 136k.