Question for those processing D800 files for web

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Garrick L
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p.1 #1 · Question for those processing D800 files for web

Hi Folks,

For those of you that are processing images from your D800 or other high res gear, what is your steps once you have processed your image in saving it for web upload. IE; To upload here it is recommended that the longest side be no larger than 850px. I process my Raw and save a .tiff master and when I size an image even to say 1024 on the longest side the images look terrible. I'm processing in PS CS6 and have tried Bicubic Sharper which it suggests for downsizing, but they don't look anywhere near the quality of the processed Raw or Tiff.

Would some of you kindly share how you deal with this please?

Greatly appreciated....

Thanks,

-Garry

Aug 02, 2012 at 08:13 PM

Garrick L
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p.1 #2 · Question for those processing D800 files for web

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Edited on Aug 03, 2012 at 06:00 PM · View previous versions

Aug 03, 2012 at 03:06 AM

snapsy
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p.1 #3 · Question for those processing D800 files for web

Silly question - are you maintaining the original aspect ratio when you downsize? If not then the image will look wonky.

Also, can you show an example of what you mean?

Aug 03, 2012 at 03:18 AM

newhaven
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p.1 #4 · Question for those processing D800 files for web

Bicubic sharper is not the best option as it will frequently over sharpen. You will have more control using bicubic to downsize with a final sharpening step using unsharp mask or smart sharpen. A multi step downsize using bicubic can improve some images.

Aug 03, 2012 at 03:47 AM

James R
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p.1 #5 · Question for those processing D800 files for web

I think you might be over sharpening your image. I no longer use PS for this type of stuff because LR4 is best. There are free programs on the internet that will take your PS processed image and upres or downres, plus many other functions.

Aug 03, 2012 at 04:20 AM

flyingpoint
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p.1 #6 · Question for those processing D800 files for web

Pretty much everything on my site --- flyingpointroad.com ---- including recent D800 stuff is straight out of Lightroom. I just set the long side, convert to sRGB, reduce the quality to "80ish," click the "sharpen for screen" and push "go."

Aug 03, 2012 at 11:03 AM

Garrick L
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p.1 #7 · Question for those processing D800 files for web

Thanks all who replied, I appreciate it.

Snapsy, yes I am maintaining the original aspect ratio.

newhaven, I have tried all of the Bicubic settings and none of them render a decent looking down sized image. The original size processed image looks very good and when I size for the web all lines/features look stair stepped.

James R, It does the same thing if I add any sharpening or not and I'm doing very little sharpening at all. I downloaded LR4 as a trial to see if it would render better quality and I don't see an option to size an image in LR

?

flyingpoint, Are you sizing in PS CS6? I loaded a trial of LR4 but I can't see any options for sizing, setting the quality or sharpening as you state?

This is really frustrating being able to process such lovely images out of the D800 for print but not being able to display the same or close quality looking images on the web.

I appreciate any other thoughts and help to figure this out.

Thanks,

-Garry

Aug 03, 2012 at 03:33 PM

wellsjt
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p.1 #8 · Question for those processing D800 files for web

Garry, the resizing options in LR are in the export function. If you're playing with LR, I would recommend doing some research on LR in general. It is not your normal "editing" software. It works on the idea of your editing actions being in a database with the original file (raw, jpg, etc.) being untouched, and then you export a JPG to a folder when you want to share it (on the web, email, to a print lab, etc.).

Not to ask a dumb question, but when you resize the file you aren't expecting detail to be there that you just got rid of, are you? For example, you mention lines/features becoming stair stepped. Say you make an image 1024 pixels wide and view it on your monitor. Assuming your monitor has a normal resolution, you can view this full size on the screen (called "viewing at 100%"), but if you zoom in at all from here then of course it will be stair stepped and look poor because there is no further detail to zoom in on.

What I'm asking is whether you are trying to zoom in more than 100%? It's starting to sound like you may be.

Aug 03, 2012 at 04:11 PM

Garrick L
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p.1 #9 · Question for those processing D800 files for web

Wellsjt, thanks for the reply. No, I'm not zooming in at 100% and expecting the quality to be the same. The sized images when looking at them side by side on the monitor with the processed .tiff just don't look anywhere as good.

The best I have achieved in sizing an image but I'm still not totally pleased with it doing it this way;

- Change DPI to 72 and uncheck "Resample Image"
- Change the longest length on the image to 1024 or 970 etc. and Re-check "Resample Image" & Bicubic
- File - Save for Web.

Using these steps are giving me the best result so far but I'm still experimenting.

Cheers,

-Garry

Aug 03, 2012 at 04:46 PM

snapsy
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p.1 #10 · Question for those processing D800 files for web

I saw your gallery. The images in front splash page (flash) don't look sharp. Are those the images you're talking about? Those appear to be resized by the flash player, which would explain the unsharp appearance.

If not, can you link to a specific image? Best would be if you could provide both the original image and the resized image.

Aug 03, 2012 at 05:11 PM

rd4tile
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p.1 #11 · Question for those processing D800 files for web

I'm finding a lot of the folks that are posting good looking 800 images here are using a lot of clarity/vibrance in LR4 and going a little easier on the sharpening. As a former 800 and now 800E owner I'm still looking for the "Holy Grail" settings myself that make a 1024 image look like what I'm seeing on screen at larger resolutions from these files. With the 800E the sharpening sliders do very little and then "crispy" out the images when too much edge detail is applied so I'm finding little use for the sharpen for the web setting in LR4.

Aug 03, 2012 at 05:41 PM

form
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p.1 #12 · Question for those processing D800 files for web

Basic bicubic in PS2, then USM 0.2 at 300-400%

Aug 03, 2012 at 05:46 PM

derry1
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p.1 #13 · Question for those processing D800 files for web

I have LR4 set so the output in jpg is under 3K size,,

upload to Photobucket and then use the PB link to post to FM,, works great and do not see any resolution breakdown or color adjustments to the photo,,

Derry

Aug 03, 2012 at 09:01 PM

theSuede
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p.1 #14 · Question for those processing D800 files for web

There is a very simple explanation as to why BiCubic doesn't work very well when you scale an image down by a factor of more than say 3x.

BiCubic (in general, and Photoshop specifically) has an input window of four samples, i.e - when a "new" pixel is calculated, the algorithm looks at the closest 4x4 pixel values in the original image. You can imagine what happens when you take a D800 image (7360 pixels wide) and scale it to 800 pixels wide - a factor of about 1:8.
About 75% of the original image area is then totally ignored, it has no impact on the scaled result. The samples are taken at about once every eight pixels, but it only "looks at" four of them.

This is called "sparse sampling" in general signal theory, and it isn't a very nice way to do things... Especially in imaging. It's like calculating the male/female ratio in a school by checking every second pupil on the rooster what gender they are (ask one, skip the next, ask one, skip the next - and so on). Half the population is then ignored, and the statistical accuracy can get very bad indeed.

If you're really unlucky (and Murphy's Law is right more often that we would like...) then in an extreme case you could get a result that says that "this school is boys-only", even though exactly 50% of the pupils are girls.... -But they were unfortunate enough to be the "skipped ones" in the list.

This is what happens when you get aliasing and stairstepping with PS BiCubic. Never use it to downsample by more than 1:3!

Aug 04, 2012 at 12:16 AM

Garrick L
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p.1 #15 · Question for those processing D800 files for web

theSuede, great analogy......Do you have any suggestions on how to size a 7360 pixel wide image for web upload, or is the photoshop suite worthless for high res work?

Aug 04, 2012 at 01:25 AM

Guari
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p.1 #16 · Question for those processing D800 files for web

Not to sound persistent, but lightroom is beyond perfect

Aug 04, 2012 at 08:12 AM

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