Comments on: Master Your Digital Images

By: Ripping Through the Veils of Illusion Around Online Art Marketplaces — Art Biz Blog

Tue, 14 Aug 2012 11:01:05 +0000

[…] from making and offering your best art, online selling demands adept presentation. Your digital images and words need to serve in lieu of the real objects and require excellent photography, lively and […]

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By: Patricia C Vener

Wed, 26 Oct 2011 03:26:53 +0000

In reply to Alyson Stanfield.

My graphics program is PhotoImpact 8 and I love it. It’s exceptionally easy to resize, fiddle and convert from one image format to another. One of the things I dislike about my point and shoot camera is that it doesn’t have a raw file format, so I take my pictures in the highest, most appropriate jpg resolution, transfer the files from the camera to my hard drive and then convert them to UFO (native format) for working with. I can play with them or duplicate and convert to whatever formats existed back when I got PI8 (around the time the dinosaurs walked the Earth) which pretty much covers most file types available now, I believe.
I can also make original digital art with PI 8. I also have GIMP on my machine but haven’t gotten around to installing or playing with it yet.

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By: Alyson Stanfield

Sun, 23 Oct 2011 04:29:58 +0000

In reply to Patricia C Vener.

Patricia: A photographer at my workshop last weekend suggest keeping as TIFs, but I can understand wanting to keep it in the native format.
As for sending them – it depends on their end use. So, no, it’s not more agreeable to always send as JPG.

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By: Patricia C Vener

Sat, 15 Oct 2011 20:46:19 +0000

Is it really more agreeable to send high resolution images in JPG format rather than, say, tiff or PNG format because JPG files are smaller (bytewise, that is)? I keep my master image files in the format native to my graphics program (PhotoImpact8) because they are lossless and smaller than TIFF. I probably should convert them to something more universal (such as raster, perhaps?). I feel better having master images in some kind of RAW format. Jpeg is lossy meaning that every time you save it you lose some information which results in slow but additive degradation of the image.
I use 360 ppi for high resolution and 96 ppi for display (on a monitor). My monitor happens to be set for 96 rather than 72 (that tells you how old it is!).

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By: Pamela Casey

Thu, 14 Oct 2010 18:07:57 +0000

Excellent information! I’m a photographer/artists and this is always a difficult concept to explain. Now I have a great place to refer other artists to, so they can understand the whole idea better. Thanks.

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By: Will Eskridge

Wed, 13 Oct 2010 19:06:22 +0000

You can also set “actions” in Photoshop to automatically resize and save your images to whatever specifications you want, ultimately saving time. You can then batch process a folder full of images which really saves time. I currently have 2 actions. One is labeled “Web” and it resizes images for internet use and the other is labeled “Submissions” and it keeps the resolution of 300dpi but downsizes the actual image and saves as a JPG. This one is for art festival and gallery submissions. Of course I always double check the requirements just in case. Sometimes there are a few venues that have different image requirements than what I have programmed in my action. I keep my originals as TIFs because TIFs rule!

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By: Alex Mitchell

Wed, 13 Oct 2010 08:06:19 +0000

Yes, of course. I have been adjusting the size with Preview (Mac). I’m usually making the image smaller (for my webpages, for example) and I like how it automatically shows the file size being reduced as you change the dimensions.
It was good for me to read this post. The more experience I get with working with digital images, the less confusing it gets. However, I should read more about it on a continuing basis to reinforce what I’ve learned through experience, because I also tend to forget.

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By: Alyson Stanfield

Wed, 13 Oct 2010 00:04:30 +0000

In reply to Alex Mitchell.

Alex: That’s great, but you still need to know how to alter those sizes.

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By: Alyson Stanfield

Wed, 13 Oct 2010 00:03:30 +0000

In reply to Ron Gafron.

Ron: You’re absolutely right. I wanted to throw in a few resources, but I actually rely on Photoshop Elements most of the time.
I love this: It’s important that you talk with the person using the image in order to understand what they actually need.
ALWAYS ask the end-user. The point, though, is to know how to give them what they want by when they want it.

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By: Alyson Stanfield

Wed, 13 Oct 2010 00:01:53 +0000

In reply to Rebecca Collins.

Rebecca: Keeping instructions is something I have to do with video production. But, of course, the goal is to do it more often so that I don’t need the instructions.

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