The photos on my website are soft. I have done everything I can think of to fix this, but I'm at a loss. I've measured my screen dimensions and resized accordingly, added sharpening, I just don't get it; what gallery plug-in is not going to soften my images? Every one I've tried softens. How do you fix this?
See https://philhawkinsphoto.com/main.php/ to see. I added 3 comparison images; #1 is sized to double my screen size. I read where that might help. #2 is added sharpening, #3 is the original soft image.
I don't know what software you are using, but the images are not resizing to my browser settings. They are always forcibly full screen. I cannot make them 1:1 pixels and I cannot download them just to figure out what's up. I normally use 125% and set browser to 80% for correct 1:1. But no matter what I use for the % it is always full screen. Hopefully it works out for you, but it does not look sharp as I would use with jpegs. Maybe others are not viewing the same so it does not matter, but I'm pretty sure people have a range of monitors and browser resolutions.
When I was using Wordpress, I got significantly better results when I could optimize the images from within Lightroom, meaning saving them to a very high quality but relatively small file size. Then, when uploaded to Wordpress, I did not have any other software resize them as it always softened them. Tools may be better now than when I was setting all of that up, but at the time, this was the only way that I was able to see images on my site that were not degraded.
I was using a plugin for Lightroom that did a terrific job of saving the images to a small size and with almost no loss in image quality. However, I don't think that plugin is compatible with newer versions of LR.
This info may or may not help you much. Good luck sorting it out.
Thanks so much! I think I've narrowed down the culprit; The softening effect only happens with background images on slideshow. I looked at my galleries - not made with the same tools as background slide show - and they look perfect. Would that I could configure a regular gallery to serve as a full-screen background slide show. I'm using Envira gallery and Kordex theme galleries.
phil hawkins wrote:
The photos on my website are soft. I have done everything I can think of to fix this, but I'm at a loss. I've measured my screen dimensions and resized accordingly, added sharpening, I just don't get it; what gallery plug-in is not going to soften my images? Every one I've tried softens. How do you fix this?
See https://philhawkinsphoto.com/main.php/ to see. I added 3 comparison images; #1 is sized to double my screen size. I read where that might help. #2 is added sharpening, #3 is the original soft image.
Phil, when I go to that URL, I see a web page with a single screen-filling image and nothing else.
Can you give us some specifics about what web software/platform(s) you are using?
Also, beware of platforms and tools that offer to downsize images “for web quality.” I’ve run into various issues with those. Also be cautious about how you cache image files. I’m using a wordpress site, and if I let their “JetPack” tools use their CDN, the images always end up at a small size. When I serve them directly from my site but use my providers caching system I don’t have that issue.
NOTHING else? There should be a menu header, logo and social media links at the top.
Wordpress, Hostinger host, Elementor site builder for many years, as for the background slideshow on the site, it's one of the Elementor widgets and sections. Chrome browser. I think I have the image CDN part nailed down, one of the good things about Hostinger. I'm not using any third-party "image optimization" features. It's only the background slideshow that is softening th images. I'm going to try a static image for background... Film at 11.
phil hawkins wrote:
NOTHING else? There should be a menu header, logo and social media links at the top.
Wordpress, Hostinger host, Elementor site builder for many years, as for the background slideshow on the site, it's one of the Elementor widgets and sections. Chrome browser. I think I have the image CDN part nailed down, one of the good things about Hostinger. I'm not using any third-party "image optimization" features. It's only the background slideshow that is softening th images. I'm going to try a static image for background... Film at 11.
Sorry, Phil. From your first message I thought I was going to see three images (” I added 3 comparison images; #1 is sized to double my screen size. I read where that might help. #2 is added sharpening, #3 is the original soft image.””) on that first page, but that’s not what I saw. From your reply, though, I think that I do see “ a menu header, logo and social media links at the top.” The images cycle automatically.
I’m currently viewing on my iPad pro in Safari rather than on my larger desktop monitors. On this display there is a “collision” between your menus and the social media links — the rightmost menu items overwrite the social media links. I’d post it here, but there’s no easy way for me to do that on FM since I can’t copy and paste images. If you need to see it let me know and I’ll email or find another way to share it.
By the way, I don’t notice any unusual softness in the background images that cycle on that page.
Thanks for the feedback, Dan, it helps for sure. I think I found the problem; WP, as I understand it, always resizes to 2587px on the long edge on all images, regardless of the web design/development tools you use. So, when you view in 4K - as with all Macs made since 2013 - the image is "up-rezed" to double, resulting in pixelated and damaged images. I don't know any way around this conundrum except to find a way to upload 3840px images, circumventing the WP import algorithm.
I also realize that, according to what I can find online, 4k screen resolution market share is only about 7%. 1920px resolution use is at 20%. So, why the concern? The 4k screen use is only going to expand, and I want it to look good on the best machines.
Seriously, Dan, thanks so much for the feedback; I have much work to do.
