Hi Mark…
I take all my images in RAW format so they are converted in PShop to JPEGS which gives an image size of 6144x4096px @402pixels per inch apprx 6-7mb
Stop there, your first sentence has a problem
{I’m a using Nikon D70 and a cheap 70-300mm lens.
I’m shooting NEF RAW and usually have few problems at a.net touch wood}
My version, quickly:
Take the RAW (NEF) image, tweak white balance/colour/exposure (if required) and then convert it to a TIF.
My 3000×2000 RAW NEF is about 5,000Kb… the TIF file will become 17,000KB
retaining all the detail.
Take the 17,000Kb file and maniplulate that file with extra saturation, curves
or nothing at all, but do whatever you need to do to it now.
Sometime I will may even add some unsharp mask before resizing to 1024px x 700px or 1200px x 800px
depending on your preference.
Other will say that is very wrong, and I accept that, but applying a little
unsharp mask filter on a 3000px image before resizing to a 1024px image
does work for me.
On the 1024px image:
The finishing unsharp mask sharpening (lasso selected) and a soft sharpening ‘brush’
with a light amount applied over the subject and a small ‘blur’ or ‘smoothing’ brush
over any jaggies that are left in the image viewing it at 400% on the monitor is sufficient for me.
Once you are finally finished with your (approx) 1024×700 pixel TIF image, make
a high quality/low compression JPEG copy from that TIF file.
Mines are around the 400Kb region. Hardly ever above 550KB unless there
is a lot of grass and trees (it contains more detail)
My shots of aircraft flying in blue sky are about 350Kb low compression.
Absolutely no need to go for maximum 1Mb uploads to a.net/jp.net/pp.net
Even in these hard times at a.net, it will usually get uploaded without many quality problems… 🙂
By the way, I’m using the freeware ‘GIMP’, no $$$$ Photoshop!
I’m over +1800 images on a.net, so I must be doing something right.
I never bother with ppi. Work everything in pixels.
It’s pixels that matter most.
Good luck.
Gerry Hill
http://www.edinburgh-images.co.uk
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