======================================================= -> This is The 'SPORRS' Mailing List -> Info File: http://www.anet-stl.com/acphotog/sporrs/infosporrs.htm -> Note: Remember to include your name in each list post or reply. -> Please delete all unnecessary quoted text from the original message! =======================================================
Important Web Site Image Specs, PLEASE PRINT AND KEEP: If you submit digital files to me for the SPORRS site or are going to, then please PRINT THIS OUT AND KEEP IN A SAFE PLACE, and read it in its entirety, because it is very important. Guys, problems with files being submitted for the SPORRS web site: I am getting a lot of digital files here that are way too dark to use. They were saved this way, and may look fine on your own monitors, but your monitor brightness settings may be turned up too high to adjust for the room lighting where you are working in and this may be throwing you off and making you think that you are saving your image files bright enough, when in fact they are too dark. For those of you using Adobe Photoshop to prep images, your gamma setting should be 1.8 and your white point should be 6500K, but you should not have to reset this if you never changed it before. Some Macs may be set on 2.2/9300K out of the box, but even this shouldn't make much difference. Your monitor brightness levels seem to be the cause of most of these dark files. Set them on 50% brightness where they are supposed to be, and yes, your image may look too dark to you then, SO lighten it up with Levels (slide the middle slider to the left), or Brightness, or whatever controls you have before you save your JPG file copies for the SPORRS web site, and then when they look correct, they will be. I have to ask you all at this point to do a direct comparison between your own image file brightness that you just prepped and the actual SPORRS web site on the Internet, on the same screen if possible, and some of you will see that your submitted images are much too dark. Guys, there is no fudge factor here when dealing with JPG files, they are either right, or they are not and I cannot use them. I will not change your JPG files, because they will always come out looking worse after a resave. If you want to send me the raw scans in BMP or TIF format on disks (1.44 MB floppies are way too small for even one file, I am talking about ZIP disks) so that I can prep them, then please do so, but by now, many of us should be able to produce correctly 'exposed' digital files - AND OF THE RIGHT FILE SIZE - for web use. AND A NOTE ABOUT FILE SIZE: If your finished JPG format files are bigger than about 75K, then they are too big and I will not use them. Please check this first, and make a smaller file (more compressed) JPG from your original (and hopefully prepped) TIF or BMP file, until it is the right size (small enough to use on the web). FOR YOUR IMAGES TO BE USED ON THE MAIN SPORRS PAGE, they MUST be 600 pixels horizontal x 408 pixels vertical for HORIZONTAL images, and 367 pixels across x 540 pixels tall for VERTICAL images. If they are off, and I try to use them, they will be squashed, stretched and distorted when displayed on the SPORRS site and look very bad, so I do not use images that are of the wrong proportions. If you send me the HORIZONTAL pixel sizes of 600x408 flipped on end for a VERTICAL image submission, even though 600x408 will reduce directly to 367x540, the image will be squashed, and all of the JPG compression effects that you could not see at the Actual Pixel Size will be visible when it is squashed down to try to make the file fit. Lets take a little breather on the web site image submissions guys, until we get a chance to each go over this and check our own images to see if they are indeed correct to use. None of this is difficult. If you are already going through the effort to scan and prep an image for the SPORRS site, it may as well be correctly sized and be the correct brightness. I do not 'fix' incorrect JPG files that I get. When I try this, they always look like poor quality pictures because of the additional image data that a second JPG compression throws away in the second compression process (when the JPG image is saved again). Once more: DO NOT resave a JPG file, go back to your TIF or BMP scan or prepped file from that scan, and make another JPG from it. And please read the Image Submission Specification File on the SPORRS web site for more information, and if you have something to add or a question, then let me know so I can update that file. Thanks. A word about the SPORRS image sizes as displayed on the web site. I use images no wider than 600 pixels wide so that the site images will display properly on monitors with 800x600, 1024x768 as well as the old 640x480 screen resolution sizes. Also, the current standard, which is 1024x768 requires images no taller than 540 pixels to fit into my SPORRS page designs, so the verticals are 540 pixels tall by 367 pixels wide. Sorry, they are cut off on 800x600 displays (you can scroll), and there are even more current display problems on 640x480 monitors, but I can no longer design the site for proper display on the older 640x480 screen size without really compromising the display appearance on the two most common screen resolutions used today. The current standard for image display is with 1024x768 monitor resolution. Expect to scroll more when viewing at 800x600. And why do the SPORRS images have to be the exact pixel dimensions every time? Because I am placing them into my pre-designed and easy for me to maintain page format for you, and your images must fit into these sizes in order for me to use them on the SPORRS web site main page. There are exceptions for some of the other pages on the SPORRS web site, but please check the Image Submission Spec File first before submitting. If you don't see it there, just ask me. It will save us both a lot of time and trouble from fuzzy communications on sizes and numbers, and this in turn will save us from ending up with only fuzzy images of the wrong sizes to work with. I want your shots to look as good as they can on the SPORRS web site. Dave Dave Cohen SPORRS List Owner/Webmaster ======================================================= -> SPORRS: 'Serious Photographers Of Railroad Related Subjects' -> Web Site: http://www.anet-stl.com/acphotog/sporrs/ -> Message © 1998 SPORRS® - All Rights Reserved =======================================================
