Sizing photos for website

[Greg Miller]

+1

(except that I use a color space in the master file with a gamut that grossly matches the gamut of the image. i.e. ProPhoto RGB for large gamut images; sRGB for low gamut images. Using ProPhoto RGB on a low gamut foggy scene is counter productive - those highly saturated colors on the outside of the color space are wasted - better to use a low gamut color space that contains all the colors of the image and also spaces each color closer to its neighbors yielding smoother better tonal gradations).

[BetterSense]

for pic in `ls *.jpg`;
do mogrify -normalize -scale 1000 pic;
done;

[Jason_1622]

Greetings...

Building a website and would like to know how to size the photos for web viewing and best way to prevent anyone from downloading/copying. I print large 30 x 40 ++prints and the files can be 500-800MB++?

I am using PS CS2. In"file" does " Save for web" automatically save for correct size and resolution?

Thanks.

I'm sure someone has answered this in the three pages of comments, but I just wanted to clarify: The big advantage of using the "save for web" feature in Photoshop, is it allows you to make a very stripped and small file size. However, you'll still want to handle actual images dimensions and PPI setting in the "image size" box before you do the save.

By the way, people go through SOOO much effort to steal pics sometimes. Heck, I've even seen morons poorly clone out someone else's watermark and try to claim an image as their own. There are plenty of dishonest people on the web, and you just have to accept that some images will be lifted without your permission. Then, occasionally use a website like TinEye.com to help you keep track of the thieves.

[slrlounge]

I would suggest making them 72ppi (making them look terrible when you print). I like to use an 850px wide format to give the image a nice presence on the screen. Also, if you're using wordpress or another popular content management system, you can definitely find pluggins that make it not 'clickable' so that they can't right click your image.

Hope this helps

You can see examples of what I'm talking about on my blog http://www.linandjirsablog.com

[JamesFromSydney]

slrlounge: If you can see the image, you can copy it. There's no way to stop that.

Tim Parkin has some discussion of this in his blog -- I think he came up with 1000px as a good size for showing the image but also preventing high quality prints from being made. At 300dpi, you get, what a ~ 3 inch print?

[Frank Petronio]

You actually want the image to reproduce halfway decent when the Art Director swipes your image for the comps they show their clients. That's how the decision is made to pay you thousands of dollars for the use of your images.

Making the images tiny is pointless. If you don't want anyone to swipe your images for occasional, casual use then the only 100% sure way is never to put them online.

[Mike Anderson]

Regarding pixel dimensions, I'd base it on the iPad Safari browser's viewport. I think it's 768×946 in portrait mode and 1024×690 in landscape mode.

...Mike

[Mike Anderson]

I would suggest making them 72ppi (making them look terrible when you print). I like to use an 850px wide format to give the image a nice presence on the screen. Also, if you're using wordpress or another popular content management system, you can definitely find pluggins that make it not 'clickable' so that they can't right click your image.

I don't think making things "not 'clickable'" is a good idea because it doesn't really stop image copying and it screws up the UI. Just my 2 cents.

...Mike

[rdenney]

I don't think making things "not 'clickable'" is a good idea because it doesn't really stop image copying and it screws up the UI. Just my 2 cents

I'll throw my pennies into this pot, too. Most of those strategies require Flash, and that means I can't see them on my iPhone, and I can't see them on my work computer (which doesn't have Flash, and which doesn't give me Admin privileges to install Flash). There have been a lot of photos linked here that I never got back to once I was sitting in front of my home computer. The iPhone and the work computer are all I have when traveling on business.

Rick "thinking the user experience starts with the user" Denney

[Frank Petronio]

The anti right click prevents computer enfeebled old men from swiping your images I suppose.... But making a screenshot allows everyone with half a brain to swipe anything. And I do. I usually send the pix to friends so we can laugh at them.