I am a novice Dreamweaver user, and I have taken on the task of upkeep for a website for Music Educators. I need to edit, brighten, clarify, crop, and otherwise adjust photos of kids that are in marching bands - I paint out some things, (including other students that have not provided a release, etc.), and then I want to paste the photos onto other images and use them on the website. I have tried several different software options, and I have had great luck with Paint.net with a couple of exceptions. It is about right for my skill level. BUT when I adjust the size of a photo - even reducing it in size - the clarity really suffers (and I usually need to reduce - not enlarge). I always thought reducing would improve the clarity. Plus smoothing out blemishes can be problematic, and brightening some areas of the photo can result in some very artificial-looking results from my unsteady hand with a mouse. But the biggest problem is just the loss of clarity. I understand that pixel density can be a problem with detailed photos that are reduced too much, but I do not think that is what I am dealing with, as even the slightest modification in size seems to cause a significant loss of clarity. I am willing to spend a reasonable amount on some software, but I have already had some false starts and wasted my limited funds. Can anyone tell me if there is some good software that will enable me to do this? I have heard Adobe is good, but my funds, as I said, are limnited, and I do not want to buy it if it is no better than what I already have. I have read reviews, but frankly many of the review sites are phony and/or so contaminated that I do not know what or who to believe. This site appears to be legit - I already gained some knowledge from an old post about a problem I was having - so I am asking for help here. I appreciate sincere advice from others who know more about this than I do (which is probably most of you). Thanks.
Infranview will resize in an heartbeat and is simple. http://www.irfanview.com/ http://download.cnet.com/IrfanView/3000-2192_4-10021962.html
Thanks for the recommendations. I will download irfan and experiment with it, and if it does not do the trick, I will go ahead and purchase the Adobe software. Your suggestions and advice are appreciated.
OK - thanks again. I will experiment with this software over the next week or two and then post as to the results. Appreciate the suggestions.
Photoshop is extremely good for when resizing images and, as long as you hold shift to keep the sizes in the correct proportion, nothing becomes pixellated [unless you resize it a substantial amount] when making it larger and its pretty much 100% successful when making pictures smaller. Photoshop is also good for getting rid of blemishes, it has a specific tool for that which I find works pretty well. However, it is quite pricy, and I'm not familiar with cheaper alternatives. But; you can download a 30 day trial from the website and see what its like for yourself.
@rjqman. Definitely give PhotoShop a try. You will however need the tutorials to gain the most benefit. This Adobe program has become seriously bloated in recent editions. I find CS2 or 3 to be adequate enough. As shu4skuu states, it is rather pricey, but worth shelling out the cash for. The best tutorial for PhotoShop would have to be "Total training" for ps cs2 hosted by Deke McClelland. There's three dvd's in the series and some 21 hours of insightful information. If you can get past Deke's attempts at humour (which make this 21 hrs bearable tbh) and refrain from chewing your keyboard, you'll be all the more better off. This tut will also see you through CS3, even though there are some tool name changes along the way, but they are easily dealt with. Can't comment on CS4 just yet, but I suspect the principles are the same regardless of "name" changes. There are as mentioned, free alternatives, but (and watch me get shot down in flames for this comment) none come close to the technical aspects like PS. There are other tutorials by the same company and others (Lynda.com being the worst imho), but I found those somewhat mono-syllabic, and void of any "human charm". There's one in particular that I won't mention, that you really do need to have a paramedic on standby with the electro paddle shockers! Cheers all.
I really appreciate all of these responses very much. I have not had a chance to try these yet - I have been really busy on some other projects, but I will do so as soon as I get a chance. Your help is very much appreciated. But I am afraid that 21 hours of tutorials is daunting! I think I must be ADD - I tend to rush thru tutorials and only go back when I get in real trouble! And yes, I don't often ask for directions when I am lost either. I am a cartoon caricature of the American male. But seriously, I really appreciate the thorough responses and the help. Very much.
@rjqman......... if you don't want tutorials how about videos..... you can pick and choose what you want to learn about Photoshop! I use CS4 because my camera is the 5D Mark II and I shoot in RAW. So the only Camera RAW for my camera is either the latest update for Lightroom or use CS4. Here are free videos that will help you do almost anything..... and it's not 21 hours! I have the TOTAL TRAINING DVDs and they are great, but if I want a hands on tutorial in video I go to PHOTOSHOP FOR DIGITAL PHOTOGRAPHER for their free videos on HOW TOs: http://www.thedigitalphotographyconnection.com/PFDP.php and there is another good free video tutorials found here, PHOTOSHOP KILLER TIPS: http://www.photoshopkillertips.com/archives/date/2008/01 With these videos you can learn how to do anything and everything that Photoshop has to offer, easily! I learned everything here and also from my friend, Jerry, who teaches Photoshop in college! We belong to the same photo meetup groups in Florida. He's my mentor, and here are some of my shots: http://www.flickr.com/photos/27531361@N08/ good luck..... happy learning!
Thanks for the tip on the tutorials. I have been overwhelmed with some other stuff and have not gotten back to this yet, but I will soon. These tips are great from all of you, and I do appreciate the help.
For resizing photos, or in this case making a smaller photo look good, try the Photoshop plug in called "Genuine Fractals" http://www.ononesoftware.com/detail.php?prodLine_id=2 It can work wonders if you are trying to enlarge a small picture from an older print. It also does a good job in shrinking photos like you want to. A suggestion, if you find Photoshop too pricey, look on www.froogle.com, and browse for one of the older versions out there, I currently use CS3 and it does quite well, (I have an older cvomputer, not sure if I will upgrade to CS4 yet) I hope that this helps. @IHOE, should have direct linked to your gator photo.
photoshop photoshop photoshop.. bloody expensive bloatware.. and hard as hell to use.. freeware FTW .. gimp http://www.gimp.org/
rjqman, I know it's been a while since anybody posted here, for all I know you might have straightened out all your problems by now, either way do I know how you feel. Lately I have been trying to mess with these photo softwares, don't forget I'm not PC savy so it's hard for me to understand so many of these things, I have used the freewares in the past like your paint.net etc. and have also obtained photoshop7, it is hard for me, I have tried tutorials on youtube and others still it's hard. I know everybody rates photoshop as the best and most likely is, but it's also more complicated, I have around 3000 old photo's I would love to fix plus I just love photo's, I have also purchased PaintShoProx2, it's also a top notch piece of software, plus it's a little easier to use in my opinion, it's just harder to get help on how to use it cause everybody uses photoshop, but I think PSPro has an easier and better interface plus I love the One Step Photo Fix it has, it's not a miracle worker but for a novice like me it does help. I am not and never was good at reading or watching tutorials for knowledge that much, I'm a show me guy, sit next to me, show me, I might have some questions and than I'm off to the races, I even bought PSPro books, thick as bibles, than again you need to understand what the hell thier talking about, when you have a question you can't ask a book. I know Ihoe has mentioned a friend of his teaching Photoshop in college, I have never thought of that, I am gonna check out my local community college if they have something like that, that would be great, and if I can this time it will be different, as a kid I was always afraid to ask questions fearing others would think I was stupid, not anymore, now that I'm an old fart and wiser I would be the biggest pain in the ass in the class, my hand will be raised forever till I got it and would not care who liked it or not lol. I have saved the links Ihoe has given about the photoshop add ons, I to have trouble resizing among others many things, and did cheak out blevits link, till I got shocked at the price, I don't think thats an upgrade for Photoshop7 though, it looks like you need to buy the full version of whatever it is, hell I can't even figure out how to whiten teeth yet properly in both PSPro and Photoshop, even with the quick fixes, I click on the teeth like it says than the whole darn face turns white, jeez. No matter, I recognize most people on this thread and all know thier stuff, I have a long way to go but won't give up, to many photo's to fix and play with, someday I would love to own one of those SLR's, after checking out Ihoe's site and all his pic's wow they are gorgeous, and not just the kind of pic's, the quality, if I can get a fraction of his knowledge I would be satisfied. I don't know if this is the right thread to start a discussion on how to use these photo editing softwares, maybe I should start a thread on how to: PiantShopPro and Photoshop, what say you guy's.
@FredBun....... you're asking for a lot. I don't teach classes and I don't have the time to.... I wish I did...... but thanks for all those compliments. I started out just like you.... remember ..... all I did was watch videos on how-to-do's and I conquered the problems I ran into. Persistence and determination will take you a long way! those links in my above reply - that's exactly how I learned! I'm trying out your program.... I used to have old Corel software and maybe it's time to try them out again. will see how they do compared to Adobe! Good luck.
lol, no ihoe, I'm not asking for anything, just making comments, It would take forever to teach me anything on a thread, like I said I'm a show me guy, actually later today I'm gonna visit my local community college on the web and see what they offer. Threw the years messing with PC's I fall into certain projects, hell I even built a PC because of the PC Building Thread, now I'm into this photo thing, and I'll tell ya, this is far harder than building a PC. I've always loved photo's, even as a kid with my little Instamatic I took bu-ku photo's, my buddies would always criticize me, oh Fred will you stop taking all them photo's, now when we visit they praise me for doing so, and in the military I took a bunch also, have many of my parents from the old country, so need to do a lot of fixing, and besides I'm still snapping with my little Canon.
yes, i think photoshop is good one. but it is a little expensive. maybe you can try iMageFit, it also can resize photos.
Although geared more towards creating DVD cases, there is some basic Photoshop info on these two pages: - http://www.digitalfaq.com/guides/video/dvd-storage-photoshop.htm - http://www.digitalfaq.com/guides/video/dvd-storage-photoshop-lowres.htm As mentioned above, OnOne's Genuine Fractals -- used as a Photoshop plug-in -- is one of the best upsize methods I've seen to date. The fractal method is often superior to the more basic methods used in editors (including Photoshop!) Alien Skin has some filters too, but OnOne seems to work better.
