Image hosting sites

[steery1]

Anyone know what could be causing images to degrade when I upload them to some hosting sites. Heres an example. On Smugmug the image is terrible but on Flikr the image is not as bad. It is the same photo uploaded to each site. They are posted below at their respective max size. Ive had this problem before and dont khow what I could be doing wrong.
When I view them on my monitor they are fine.

Smugmug..............

Flikr..................

Smilies

 

[Zoesmama03]

Flickr uploads in the the true size and resolution. Most others change the resolution automaticly at download making quality go down.

Smugmug changes it to 800x531 I don't think you can "NOT" do it they do it automatically.


Stick with Flickr. I use Flickr and went Pro for unlimited uploads. I LOVE it and have never had a problem.

 

[MarkBarbieri]

Smugmug allows you to view the original as well as three different smaller versions (Large, Medium, and Small).

 

[Master Mason]

Smugmug allows you to view the original as well as three different smaller versions (Large, Medium, and Small).

As Mark said, you posted the large size, there is still an original size above that....

 

[Zoesmama03]

ok I don't have and have never used smugmug so if it has larger sizes I didn't know, sorry.

 

[steery1]

Smugmug allows you to view the original as well as three different smaller versions (Large, Medium, and Small).

Yes but the original image size is 3872 x 2592. Not good for viewing on a 17" monitor.
I just dont get how the same image can be uploaded to the web and viewed on the same PC monitor showing different quality images between those two sites. Id have thought thered be no difference.

Having said that the degradation in quality seems to be much less pronounced on my laptop monitor.

 

[Master Mason]

On my lap top, I don't see a difference in quality, just a difference in size on the 2 you posted.

Try making and posting a 100% crop, that will probably give you a better comparison.

 

[steery1]

On my lap top, I don't see a difference in quality, just a difference in size on the 2 you posted.

Try making and posting a 100% crop, that will probably give you a better comparison.

You know Master Mason, Im begining to wonder if the problem might lie with my PC monitor. Like I said its not so noticeable on my laptop, (which Im on now. DS has commandeered the PC )
When viewing on Smugmug and when posted to the DIS some images are awful on the PC but OK on the laptop
But the same does not seem to apply to Flikr where the images seem good on both PC and laptop

 

[Master Mason]

Only thing I can think of might be the background colors or something on your PC that are messing with your perception.... it is possible that the PC's color calibration is off but very strange that it would effect the same picture.

 

[Groucho]

A few things could cause this... they could be using different resizing algorithms, they could be using different JPG quality levels, and they are definitely resizing to a different size. Smugmug is 800x531 and 161k, while Flickr is 1024x679 and 349k.

Doing a little number crunching... Smugmug is storing 424,800 pixels while Flickr is storing 695,296 pixels... Smugmug is using 2.59 bytes per pixel while Flickr is using 1.95 bytes per pixel. So actually, Smugmug is giving you a lower JPG compression, which should translate into a better photo.

So there are a few possibilities...
The most likely is that you're not comparing apples to apples. Look at both photos resized to an 800-pixel-wide size or 1024-pixel-wide size. Chances are, they'll look about the same.

Possibly one is using a better resizing algorithm than the other, but you'd probably have to get out a magnifying glass to see the difference.

Or, you're imaging it. I'm going to guess that it's a simple case of looking at an image set for a 1024x768 desktop versus one for an 800x600 desktop.