Help with PS

[Raffay]

Hello Again,

Now I am trying to save my image from Tiff to JPEG so that I can share it with other people. But when I save it to JPEG and then open it in any other s/w or browser the image is so dull, not crisp, even I think the focus seems bad - all in all the image has deteriorated majorly. . Just to check I open the new JPEG image in PS, and it is bright. Any suggestions:

In PS:



JPEG:


Thank you for looking.


Cheers

Raffay

[bob carnie]

When you are in PS convert your image to SRGB first before saving as a jpeg. see if this helps

[Jim Andrada]

Fundamentally JPEG won't match the quality of a non-compressed or losslessly compressed format like TIFF. It gets its high compression by throwing away information that is less significant (to most, but not all) people. I seem to notice some degree of overall darkening/loss of contrast, but Bob's suggestion is a good one that I hadn't thought of myself..

[StoneNYC]

I know this sounds simple, but when you save the file as a JPEG, there are different file sizes/quality types that you can save it in, are you sure that you're saving it to the maximum JPEG size?

[Raffay]

I know this sounds simple, but when you save the file as a JPEG, there are different file sizes/quality types that you can save it in, are you sure that you're saving it to the maximum JPEG size?

Yes, 12 is the max.

[Winger]

What I've been told is that nearly every image needs some amount of sharpening. The best way (I was told, I'm no PS guru) is to resize the image, then use unsharp mask, then save as a jpeg. For web display, I usually make the image 700 or 750 pixels on the long side. When using the unsharp mask in PS, I use a radius of 0.4 and a threshold of 1 then adjust the slider for percentage so that there is not a halo around the edges of dark spots (I choose to view them at actual pixel size from the main menu). I don't know that is the best way, but it does seem to preserve some of the look of the original. When I compare a print to the scan on the screen, this gets them looking more similar than if I don't use sharpening.

[Preston]

Here's a suggested workflow that might work for you.

1. Create a duplicate of your layered file.
2. Flatten the image.
3. Resize the image as needed.
4. If the file is 16 bit, select Image>Mode>8 bit.
5. Convert to sRGB (Edit>Convert to Profile).
6. Create a copy of the background layer and set it's blending mode to 'luminosity'. (By setting the blending mode to 'Luminosity' the colors will not be affected by USM)
7. Filter>Unsharp Mask and sharpen to taste. You could also use Filter>Smart Sharpen. (Winger's values are a good starting point, but you may need to tweak them to get the best look).
8. Flatten the image. (If you have any alpha channels other that RGB, R, G, B, delete them to reduce the file size)
9. Go to File>Save for Web (Save for Web will create your jpeg) You can use the quality slider to control your file size.
10. If all is good, save the jpeg file.

Sometimes, you may find that USM causes some tonal variation that you don't like. If this is the case, create a 'Curves' layer above the USM layer and adjust as needed then proceed step 8.

I know this seems like a lot of steps, but it goes quickly.

--P

[AtlantaTerry]

What I do:
1. save the PSD
2. compress all the layers into one layer
3. apply the Unsharp Filter with defaults
4. File | Save for Web
5. set the JPG percentage slider to the maximum
6. save it

[Greg Miller]

Bob Carnie has the correct answer. Converting the image to sRGB is almost always the answer to this problem.