ST Images and pictures

[Gerard Jebaily]

Ive noticed the new rules for images on ST chase reports threads are a max of 5 images and 600 pixels wide. What program/ steps can one use to make their image as high res as possible while creating it at exactly 600 pixels wide? Im wanting to be able to do this easily and quickly. I dont have time to spend more than 10-20 mins on storm track (including my posts and image conversions/uploads).

 

[Justin Turcotte]

I use PaintshopPro. All I need to do is drop the image into the application and hit the resize then enter 600 pixel width and hit save. It take about 5 seconds. Make sure you make a copy of the original before downsizing. You will probably want to full image to play with down the road.

 

[Mike Peregrine]

Photos posted on the internet should typically also be resized to no more than 72 pixels per inch. If you post with any more resolution than that, you are just wasting pixels/file size. You can do this by re-sizing in Photoshop or even with Microsoft Photo Editor that is likely already on your computer.

To me, I may post a 'teaser' thumbnail in the reports thread, but I want my images to stay as large as possible for best viewing. So in the reports thread, I'm more likely to post links to the large images elsewhere, rather than the images themselves.

 

[rdale]

IRFanViewer - free and small...

http://www.irfanview.com/

 

[GPhillips]

RDale beat me to it.

 

[Gerard Jebaily]

Thanks for all the help. In addition to this, is there a program that also does a good job with watermarks?

 

[fplowman]

Thanks for all the help. In addition to this, is there a program that also does a good job with watermarks?

I think Photoshop has a plugin that will give you an electronic watermark It costs extra cash though. Otherwise you can just place your logo or name over the photo and adjust the opacity to your liking.

 

[Edward Ballou]

I'm working on major improvements to a program that I wrote a while ago...

I have decided to go ahead with marketing it. It should be finished in a month or two. It does most of the stuff it seems you want. Check here for details. If you have any questions, let me know.

 

[Jean-Marc Rioux]

Thanks for all the help. In addition to this, is there a program that also does a good job with watermarks?

I use FastStone Image Viewer.. its a really nice FREEWARE and have some really nice batch convert\rename\watermark options..

http://www.faststone.org/FSViewerDetail.htm

 

[Chad Cowan]

I'm working on major improvements to a program that I wrote a while ago...

I have decided to go ahead with marketing it. It should be finished in a month or two. It does most of the stuff it seems you want. Check here for details. If you have any questions, let me know.

I use Photo Ops to watermark all my pictures. Great program.

 

[Mike Hollingshead]

I think Photoshop has a plugin that will give you an electronic watermark It costs extra cash though. Otherwise you can just place your logo or name over the photo and adjust the opacity to your liking.

I use photoshop too, but I make sure to make an action to do it for me. Making an action is the simplest thing in the world in photoshop. Click on new action, name it whatever and hit record. Then just do whatever you want and it memorizes your steps(actions). Once done just hit stop. Then you can play that on any image you want. You can even batch a folder full of images with that action if you want. I have several actions just to save me mouse moves, like resizing to the size I use for web. One for USM on a new layer....etc. Just several that make life so much easier. My hands(I use both on the mouse now just as well) would be less screwed had I learned this simple thing long ago.

To have it automate you'll have to type the copyright on a new layer. So name an action and press record(probably after you really have figured out what font you want and size, etc...then start over with that). Press record, then do Layer/duplicate layer...then type it out on that layer as you want...then click select and all.....then click layer/align to selection/bottom.....then repeat that align thing again and do right side(or wherever you want it). Then adjust the opacity how you want...then flatten. Then press stop in the actions thing. Now you hit play on that on another image and it will do all those steps in one move.

Why exactly are we stuck with 600 pixels width now may I ask? The smallest monitor resolution is what, 800 pixels wide? Why not at least limit it to something closer to that? Not that anyone uses that size(or do they?). Having it that much smaller than minimum monitor resolution is just going to force more people to size even smaller to fit on st. I'm not thinking I will bother if 720 will be considered too wide now.

 

[Nick Dawson]

Resizing is really easy in any photoshop application. It's even easy with Photoshop Elements. crl, alt, I and there you go. You can just resize it or re-sample the picture instead.

 

[Jon Person]

and don't forget to save your original!

 

[Bob Schafer]

http://www.picasa2.com/

Free from Google.

I've been using Picasa2 for several years, and I'm quite happy with it, though it won't get you anything approaching professional images. I'm no pro, so I don't care about that. My biggest beef about it is that adjusting hues is a bit difficult. For that I'll use different software, but cropping and resizing (done when you "export") is real easy.

 

[Anthony Petito]

I didn't see it mentioned, but a program that shares common simularities between Photoshop is Paint.Net @ http://www.getpaint.net/. It can do layering, special effects and does have an action manager similar to what Mike mentioned.

It doesn't beat Photoshop by any means, but it can do a lot of the powerful stuff Photoshop can, for the very sweet price of free.

Check it out.