Well, I have 30 digital pictures that I want to get developed, and noticed that some of them would benefit from a few colour/brightness tweaks. I passed them through Picasa, making small changes to the brightness and colour, and I think they look great… Problem is, the filesizes on the photos have gone down considerably. For example, one picture went from 1.9MB to just 655KB.
I zoomed in on a couple high-detail photos I had to compare the originals to the optimized. I do see signs of compression but I really have to look close. Frankly, I don’t see a loss of quality when I compare the photos full screen (i.e., to fit my monitor, not at the huge actual size).
I don’t know how either would look if I got them developed. Really, the colours on the optimized versions look great; I’m just worried they’ll look more JPEG-y printed out.
How big are you printing 'em? If it’s only 4x6 or 5x7, I’m sure you’ll be fine with the color optimized versions.
Did you export them using original size and keeping JPEG at 100%? If not, re-export them with these variables. Otherwise, just print them. I think you will be okay.
Just how do you “develop” a digital image? What chemicals are you using?
Meanwhile…
When you resave the processed image, make sure the settings are at the highest quality (lowest compression). Otherwise, every time you process the image, the JPG artifacts will increase each time. If the file is getting smaller, it’s likely that the compression is set too low.
Check your export preferences. Make sure that the images you saved have not been heavily compressed, or that the images have been resized beyond what you want for the prints.
The best option would be to go back to the originals, make the changes again and save to a lossless format (png, RAW, PSD, what have you), then save a copy in high quality JPG and send those to the printing place.
I would also advise you to make the copies to be printed fit the correct aspect ratio.
I usually open up a new file (in photoshop) with the correct attributes (4x6 at 200-300 dpi for example) and paste the image over. This way I’m certain they will print what I want them to print, and won’t be leaving anything for them to decide.
In Picasa, if you go to the Crop menu, you have a selection of aspect ratios you can choose (4x6, 5x7, 8x10, Manual). I don’t believe there’s any way to save it as a TIF or any other format other than JPEG through Picasa, unless you File >Open File(s) in an Editor and save it as such from the editor.
You really shouldn’t JPEG your JPEGs continually, but JPEGging a JPEG once to its maximal quality will not noticeably affect your printed image. I print up to 13x19 from 2 MB jpegs, and they look great. So, if you’re not printing terribly begin (up to 5x7, possibly even 8x10), I suspect that a 650KB file should look fine. However, just check your parameters first to make sure that you did indeed save it at a JPEG quality of 100%. If the file size is getting THAT much smaller, I’m certain you don’t have the JPEG quality set to max.
I had no idea I could set my compression settings… I had been looking in the Options and it wasn’t there, so I assumed the settings couldn’t be changed.
As for cropping, Future Shop lets me set it in the program they provide to upload photos. Some of the default crops looked terrible, so I’m glad I had the opportunity to change those.
My pictures look great thanks to you guys! Thank you, everyone!
