Award Winning Photography E-Book!!  Photography Learning CenterPhotography Links and DirectoriesPhotography / Photographers   Award Winning Photography E-Book!!

     Home          Photo Articles        Photo Contest        Photo Gallery          Photo Tips        Photoshop Tips        Photo Quotes
 
 

Better Photo Tips | Last 10 Photoshop Tips

Better Photo Tips | Last Photoshop Tip

Photoshop Tips 
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9, 10

Better Photo Tips | Next Photoshop Tip

Better Photo Tips | Next 10 Photoshop Tips

     
  Tip #4     Photo for the Web  
By: Tedric Garrison                                                 (Photoshop 7)
 
     
 

One of the big reasons for using Photoshop is to prepare photos to be posted on
the web.  To do that you need to know just how big your images are.  When you
open an image and it fills a good portion of the screen the first thing to do is glance
at the Title Bar (Arrow "A"), if this shows as 20% or less you've got some work to do.
Go to the Menu Bar, over to Image, down to Image Size (Arrow "B"), and click once.
See image below.

Better Photo Tips | Photoshop Photo 12

The Image Size dialog box will show you several things.  Pixel Dimensions (Arrow "A")
is similar to the over all weight of an object.  In this case, 34.9 Mega Pixels is way too
big to post to the web.  The Document Size (Arrow "B") is the actual physical dimensions.  An image can still be fairly large and still not weigh very much.  The Resolution (Arrow "C") is the most misleading as far as the web is concerned.  Although a high resolution is required for printing, printing and viewing do NOT require the same standards.
See image below.

Better Photo Tips | Photoshop Photo 13

Most of the time the Constrain Proportions box (Arrow "A") is checked.  This simply
keeps the over all image in the same proportions as the original.  The first thing I would
change would be the resolution (Arrow "B") down to 72 DPI.  If you look closely you
will notice that document size is linked.  Simply put; if you change the width (Arrow "C") for example, it will automatically change the Height.  Notice that even these two small changes have a dramatic impact.  The Pixel Dimensions went from almost 35 Megabytes down to a mere 572 Kilobytes (that's less than 1 megabyte.)
See image below.

Better Photo Tips | Photoshop Photo 14

I like sticking to standard sizes, so I will crop the image to make it a standard 5x7size.  Going over to the toolbar, I choose the third tool on the left (Arrow "A") and crop my
image down to the 7 inch mark (Arrow "B") so it is more of a standard size.
See image below.
Better Photo Tips | Photoshop Photo 15

The last step in getting this image to a useable web size is available in Photoshop 5.5
and up.  Go to the Menu Bar, open File, and then go down to: "Save for Web". 
This is where Photoshop outshines every product on the planet.  When you click
on Quality (Arrow "A") a slider bar will come up that lets you adjust the compression
even more.  In the full screen image you will see both the original image and the
compressed image side by side so you can see how much difference it will make
visually.  In our example, we are only compressing it 55%.
See image below.

Better Photo Tips | Photoshop Photo 16

Notice our original (Arrow "B") went from 529K down to only 32.57K (Arrow "C").
Go ahead look at the picture as long as you want, can you tell the difference??  Keep
in mind that our original image was almost 35 Megabytes (35 million bytes) going down
to a mere 32 Kilobytes (32 thousand bytes).  That's a HUGE difference that will still
look GREAT on the Web.
 

 
     
  Photoshop Tip #4:    Tedric Garrison    tedric@betterphototips.com
 
 


Photography Tips | Photography Quotes | Photography Articles | Photoshop Tips
Photographer's Index | Monthly Photography Contest | Photographic Learning Center | Photography Gallery











 


Copyright © 2005-2025   "Better Photo Tips" | Photoshop Tip #4