Pixilated pics

AC
Posted By
Alan_C_James
Nov 6, 2003
Views
160
Replies
6
Status
Closed
Recently, when using Elements to resize, autoenhance pictures, they end up very pixilated. When sent as email attachments, they are very pixilated and not clear at all. I wonder if I’ve mistakenly set something in Elements or is the camera just going bad? Seem to be able to view the pictures in the camera and full size in Elements. It’s just when I size them to 4×6 that it happens. Any suggestions?
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Beth_Haney
Nov 6, 2003
How are you resizing the images from your camera? Many download at only 72ppi, which is a very poor resolution, especially for printing. Also, most are downloaded as JPEGs, which is known as a "lossy" format. If you’re working with 72ppi images and editing and saving the changes, you’ll be losing image quality.

Briefly, the best workflow is to immediately do a Save As and convert to a non-lossy format, such as PSD or TIFF, and then to do resizing in the Image>Resize>Image Size dialog box. Experiment with increasing the resolution until you get a size close to the 4 X 6 you’re after, and always work with the Resample Box unchecked. Many cameras, mine included, shoot images at an aspect ratio that will not equal a perfect 4 X 6 without some minor cropping.

If you’ll post some additional information about the size, format, and resolution of the images as they come from your camera, someone will be able to give you some pointers on how to go about resizing without a loss of quality, e.g., getting pixeled pictures.
AC
Alan_C_James
Nov 6, 2003
When I take a digital picture with my Nikon, the following properties are exhibited: usually 685 KB. They are in JPEG format. When viewed in Elements the show up very big- Pixil demensions: 2048 x 1536, and 28 in x 21 in.
I usually just autoenhance and resize the inches to 6×4 and save them as JPEGs somewhere around 20 to 25k size.
I notice the resolution is always listed at 72.

When sent via email, the size is right however the quality is very poor.

Does that help? (I’m a novice). 🙂
PF
Peter_Frailey
Nov 6, 2003
Alan… I think you might do better to take your images at a higher quality. With my Nikon I take shots at 4 megapixels (2200 x 1700) and the file space is about 1300kb. This is in "fine" quality which I believe is 300 dpi. Here’s a photo that was reduced to 400×600 for my Web site at a medium quality jpeg.

<http://www.fishingwithflies.com/updates.html>
CS
Chuck_Snyder
Nov 6, 2003
Alan, very simple fix for your problem: when resizing, make sure the box labeled "Resample" is UNchecked. When you downsize from 28×21 to 6×4, you’re throwing away 80% of your image’s pixels when resampling is turned on. If you do it with resample unchecked, you’ll see that the resolution jumps from 72 to about 330, which is very good for printing.

Chuck
AC
Alan_C_James
Nov 6, 2003
thanks Chuck. I tried leaving the resampling box UNchecked and even in Elements the display of the picture is larger and improved at 4×6. The emailed picture then is about 130k rather than 25k as I have been sending them. I guess that doesn’t really matter so much.
I will keep playing with it, but unchecking the resample was a great tip. Peter, thanks for your tip about image quality. Enjoyed the fishing pics.

Alan
J
jhjl1
Nov 6, 2003
I like your website Peter. I live a few miles from the Gunnison Gorge in Western Colorado. The fine (quality) setting versus other settings is strictly talking about the amount of in-camera compression applied to the image. The size setting is only referring to pixel dimensions. You are right about using higher quality settings, with storage media being as cheap as it is there is really no reason not to use the largest, least
compressed quality setting on any camera.

—
Have A Nice Day,
jwh 🙂
My Pictures
http://www.pbase.com/myeyesview
wrote in message
Alan… I think you might do better to take your images at a
higher quality. With my Nikon I take shots at 4 megapixels (2200 x 1700) and the file space is about 1300kb. This is in "fine" quality which I believe is 300 dpi. Here’s a photo that was reduced to 400×600 for my Web site at a medium quality jpeg.
<http://www.fishingwithflies.com/updates.html>

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