Preparing pics for web display?

[steery1]

Ive come upon a bit of a problem with posting pics for viewing on the Dis or the web.

I use PIXresizer or Easy Thumbnails to resize my photos. After I resize them and view them on Windows picture and fax viewer they are sharp.

I then use Photobucket or Imageshack to host them and provide the direct link to place them in my posts. Problem is when they upload to Imageshack or Photobucket they are no longer sharp and seem very soft and blurry resulting in less than good images when posted in threads. Heres an example I have been testing using combinations of the resizers and image hosts I mentioned.

When I see some of the other members pin sharp photos I wonder if there is a better method. Maybe Im doing something wrong but as I said when I view the resized images on my PC before uploading them they're just fine

Any help from more experienced photogs would be VERY much appreciated

TIA

 

[fitzperry]

This is pretty much a stab in the dark because I'm fairly clueless about the whole web hosting business, but I'm wondering if your web hosting service is resizing them again? My dh rebuilt my computer recently, and I haven't had a chance to downloaded an exif viewer, so I can't look at your data. I have the basic Photobucket account, and I don't resize images before uploading them. For instance, here is an image I uploaded recently.

The original image size was 3008 x 2000. Photobucket automatically resized it to 640 x 426.

Good luck!

Edited because I could see your image sizes and they're the same, so I guess that blows my theory. The top one looks sharper to me, but the shadows are also darker in that one.

 

[steery1]

Thanks fitzperry, I dont have a clue. When I view the resized image on my PC its fine. Only when it goes to Photobucket or Imageshack is there any bluryness.
(Bluryness, is that a word? )

 

[deletedpenguin]

I have created a macro that resizes, degrains, sharpens, then adds a border in photoshop. I hit one button and it does all the steps. I then host them on my personal website.

I believe Photoshop Elements can create macros as well.

 

[Groucho]

I'm sure that the problem is caused by the webhost resizing your photo, and in the process, probably using more compression, causing worse quality.

You'll have to probably view full size to get the quality that you uploaded. I'm not sure if either of the places you mention give you the option to choose quality level (ie, compression) when resizing, or to make sure that they keep the original, un-resized photo.

FWIW, for resizing a bunch of photos, I find Irfanview's batch functionality to be pretty much unbeatable.