How to Post Great Photos in Threads

[St0ney]

Originally Posted by milagro

I just picked up the Fireworks St0ney was touting, and it is one massive program. It is waaaaaay beyond what one would need to only produce photos.... but man does it do it well! Thanks St0ney!

Did I say that I was a web designer? I exclusively use macromedia products because they are professional products. The guide I gave was a VERY basic guide, Fireworks can do MUCH more. What Fireworks is made for is to produce images FOR THE WEB. So it’s not that far beyond what you would need if your truly looking for professional results, but so is Paint Shop Pro and Photoshop, both of which I have. The reason I choose Fireworks it is specifically for making web images, which is what I do, and you all need to do here.
And I know not many people have experience with fireworks. So, if anyone has any questions about it I’ll try to help where I can.

But, I too would love to see some PSP and PS guides, because I don’t have much experience with them either.


Bright Blessings

[thaistick]

These pictures with just a CF, zoom and autofocus. No editing at all.

https://www.gardenscure.com/420/atta...chmentid=91398
https://www.gardenscure.com/420/atta...chmentid=91399
https://www.gardenscure.com/420/atta...chmentid=90462

Anyways,

St0ney , are you a mechanic? Nice tool box. I am a wanna-be mechanic. No, just my job during college as I love cars. I do simple stuff tho. Nice grow setup as well, and of course, nice buds

Have a good one.
TS

[milagro]

Originally Posted by St0ney

Did I say that I was a web designer?

You did indeed St0ney!

What I meant to say was.... I am flabbergasted!

Extremely impressed with the scope of what this program provides!

It is so much more than a photoshop!

Your tutorial was superb and I intend to show some results with Fireworks real soon! (as soon as I get myself a tripod! )

Originally Posted by thaistick

St0ney , are you a mechanic? Nice tool box. I am a wanna-be mechanic. No, just my job during college as I love cars.

thaistick,



Those photos are awesome!

You can't just blow into this thread with quality like that and not brag a bit about how you did it?!

We're your friends (or at least your audience) and we beg you to tell.

As for that toolbox....

I too notice fine things like that.... I voted for a toolbox this week in the POTW as a mater of fact.

That might be a cool thread as well. Member's toolboxes.

I'd subscribe!




milagro

[St0ney]

I always knew we grew the best bud in the world around here but now we'll also have the best phots to show proof.

Originally Posted by thaistick

St0ney , are you a mechanic? Nice tool box. I am a wanna-be mechanic. No, just my job during college as I love cars. I do simple stuff tho. Nice grow setup as well, and of course, nice buds

No not a mechanic, a wanna be engineer maybe. although, i do know my way around an engine ok.

What is a man with out his Tool? or Tools?

[thaistick]

milagro

Well thank you. First I started with some northern lights #1 seeds from sensi seeds. Then I got some organic soil medium (ocean forest) from fox farms, along with their organic nutes, big bloom and grow big. And then I went to work.

but..... most of all....

With the help of everyone here! Couldnt have done it without you guys.

Have a good one.

St0ney Awsome box tho. I love it. I hope my garage looks just like that someday .

PS: All of thoes photos are from my last grow journal if your interested.

[St0ney]

And bought 2 heavt duty 10" spot lights with 2 200w Cool white bulbs... What do ya all think, enough light now?


Seems like plenty now. The newest pics came out much better i think.

Grow On!

[Jeanius]

I see you've got your photo studio all set up! I'd imagine an enthused photographer giving your plant direction: "Look stinky! Give me stinky! Thats it! Now you're a bad girl.. a very bad girl!"

[Pepperpot]

The new pics are looking great also!

If anyone missed it, here are current pics from Stoney.....Wanna Take a Peek?

[Pepperpot]

Most photo editors have many of the same functions and buttons so this will be general editing info. There are many editors out there and will all work for basic resizing and cropping. Lets drop a picture into your editor and get started. Most of the info in this section pertains to Photoshop and the next section will be on PhotoImpact, my favorite at the moment. I’m going to try the free download from Fireworks, I bet it’s good!

Cropping, changing mode, resizing, file formats

The first thing you need to know is that you can't add resolution to an image, but you can always make a picture smaller, or decrease resolution. So, to be on the safe side, start with more than you need, then reduce the finished image to 72 dpi (dots, or pixels, per inch) at 100 percent.

Cropping

The next thing you'll want to do is crop the image. Click on the marquee tool - it's on the top left of the tool palette and should look like a square with a dotted line (though there are four other possibilities - click and hold to see the options hidden below, or double-click for a palette with a whole bunch of other settings). Take your marquee tool and select the part of the image you want to keep by clicking and dragging. That big white border around your picture is a good place to start trimming the fat. The selected area will now be surrounded with a blinking dotted line (which industry folk call "marching ants"). Take a look at your selection. Anything inside the marching ants stays, and whatever's outside goes. Happy with your proposed crop? If so, go to Crop under the Image pulldown menu and let 'er rip

Changing Mode and Resizing

You're now ready to resize your image. But first make sure it's in the right format: RGB, the most flexible of modes. If you try to resize a file that's in the Index Color mode (like a GIF), you'll get really chunky results (JPEGs, however, are already in RGB). Also, some functionality will be grayed out unless you're in RGB (or CMYK, but that's for print and print is yucky and thus not discussed here). To change your image over to RGB mode, select Mode from the Image pulldown menu and choose RGB Color.

To resize, go back to the Image pulldown and select Image Size. Enter in the size you want (either the pixel dimension or in inches - make sure the resolution box reads "72") and click OK.

Formatting That Photo

You cropped it, you resized it, and now you need to return it to the Web. As far as images for the Web go, you've got two options: GIF or JPEG. We're working with a photo, so you probably want to save it as a JPEG. Go to the File pulldown menu to Save As and select JPEG as the file format, making sure that the file name ends in ".jpg." You'll now be asked to select a level of compression. The more you compress it, the smaller the file, so compress it as much as you can bear. But be careful! Compress it too much, and you'll lose all the subtleties of your great plant pic.

If you want to make part of the file transparent, or if it contains mostly solid areas of color (like type), save that image as a GIF. First go to Mode under the Image pulldown menu and select Index Color. You'll get a dialog box asking a couple of questions. If your image has more than one layer, it will ask: Do you want to flatten the document? Your answer: Yes. Next, it will ask: How many colors? Well, the fewer the colors, the smaller the size of the file - 4 bit or 5 bit is usually fine, unless it's a really important picture (of, say, your plants), in which case you should splurge and go for the 256-color glory that 8 bit provides.

You'll also be asked if you want dithering, but that's one of those settings that you really should just play with and then choose whatever looks better. Click OK and go to .gif-89 export. Go to File, pull down to Export and select .gif-89 export. You'll get a dialog box that lets you select one color (or more if you want) as transparent - you'll mostly use this for type or for making buttons, or if you want your image to have an edge that's not rectangular. Click OK, and you'll get a Save As box. So save it and you're done.

There are many other tools for editing and this is the basis for publishing to the web.

[Pepperpot]

Time to play with some more buttons

This time we will be using PhotoImpact to make a photo look more like what you would see in person. We are going to start with an ok budshot photo, but not that killer shot everyone wants, and see if we can’t make it more life like.

Bud shot, backlit with hps, camera on auto with flash. The colors are a bit washed out, yellow background, pale green leaves, good depth of field which makes the background blurred.

So lets get started!! But…before we start, you must realize that any alterations: contrast, color, brightness, sharpen will increase the file size of the photo and will have to be dealt with later.

I usually start with a few clicks of +contrast. This will brighten the overall photo with more contrast, light/dark and give it that crisp look with more depth. As a side note, if you print a photo with too much contrast, it will not look good in print but looks great on your monitor.

+3 clicks of positive contrast (+3 contrast).

The background has too much red and distracts from the overall quality so….-3 clicks red. This softens the background color and increases the green appearance of the leaves.

Starting to come alive now!

With PhotoImpact the sharpen effect is not as sensitive as St0neys, so lets try 3 clicks of sharpen. Effect, pull down menu, select sharpen.

Time to crop. Here we go with the marching ants again.

Contrast increased, color corrected, sharpened up and cropped, so now it’s time to get the right size. The size showing, in pixels, is 949x888 so lets size it down under the 800x600 limit. Format pull down, dimensions and change to 641x600.

Lets save it! File pulldown, save as, optimize. At a setting of 75 optimization, file size is 88kb, good enough! SAVE!!

Contrast increased, color corrected, sharpened up, cropped, optimized and saved!

Here ya go!!

The best bet is to get a good shot in the viewfinder and it will require very little alterations. Here’s a couple, cropped & resized and nothing else day 27 of flower. Artistic shots.