I know that many of us today are professional or amateur photographers. The digital age created tools for performance of high quality even for the mere enthusiast.
Yet many of us encounter problems when taking that photo, downloading or uploading images.
In drawing challenges the subject on which we focus has to be well captured by the camera, an artistic eye is always a must to get the best shot of our stil life, landscape or portrait.
I will try to share here some of my ways of doing things and I invite the more professional ones among us to join me and bring some useful tips to the users of this site and members who host challenges and don't have enough digital experience for translating those pixels into easy reading screen pictures.
First let me introduce the program that i found free in the web and i use for quick editing of my pics. It's an image editor that can be also purchased as a more complex program but for simple operations like cropping, resizing, text, enhancing is ideal in the free version.
FXfoto
And here is a screenshot of the program.
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The operation performed here is cropping a picture
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So from this photo which has a high resolution and 1600x1200 pixels I cropped exactly the area that will be my subject, the birds and automatically resized it to 840x900 pixels enough to see it properly on a computer screen.
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Another aspect is the composition of a photo taken for drawing challenges, and I refer to that art that is called still life photography.You don't have to be an artist to learn a few tricks how to arrange your apples and pears on a table for a good drawing.
Here is what not to do. Don't align them in a row and if possible use the rule of thirds.(The Rule of Thirds is based on the fact that the human eye is naturally drawn to a point about two-thirds up a page. Crop your photo so that the main subjects are located around one of the intersection points rather than in the center of the image.)
Not to align in a row.
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In the pictures above you actually have elements that distract from the subject and that space needs to be cropped.
The cropping can be used even if you have good composition.
Original photo before editing
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after editing(enhancing, cropping, resizing)
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Original good composition larger file
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edited(enhanced, cropped, resized)
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The distortion of the shape in the images below comes from the fact that the pictures are taken from above and not at the eye level of the photographer but this can be considered a good challenge point in drawing so the composition of the photo is acceptable for the artist painter.
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So these are for now a few tips that come to mind. let's hear the professionals as well.
Full Version: image editors, composition, specs
it would can be great !
Great Elena, thanks!
I'm going to tell our readers some more about image file sizes. There are actually several different things that affect the size of your image file, and it's important to understand how they interact.
One is the number of pixels, as you have already described. Pixels are little, tiny dots that make up an image, like the dots on your TV. Your computer screen can show somewhere in the neighborhood of a thousand pixels across and a thousand vertically, so a 1000x1000 image is about the largest you can see all at once on your screen (there are many different screen sizes in use; that's just kind of an average.) Each little dot takes some disk space to store; a 1000x1000 pixel image is sixteen times as large as a 250x250 pixel image, all else being equal, because there are 16 times as many pixels. Because the dots that make up your computer screen are a fixed size, a 1000x1000 image takes up a certain about of screen space, no matter what. Many screens show 90 pixels per inch of screen size. Keep that in mind.
Another factor that determines your image size is the resolution, which is the number of pixels that are supposed to be displayed per inch. If you set your scanner for 300 dpi (dots per inch) and scan a 10 inch by 10 inch drawing, the result will be 3000 by 3000 pixels -- a large image. If you show that image on your screen, it will be 3000 / 90 pixels-per-inch = 33 inches across -- i.e., it won't fit on your screen without being scaled down! Therefore scanning your drawings at anything over 90 pixels per inch is a waste if you're just going to show the scan on the web. If you use an image processing program to scale an image, it can turn your 300 dots-per-inch image into a 90-dots-per-inch image. The image file will then look the same size as the drawing on the screen, and it will use a lot less disk space.
A third factor is the image mode. Images can be grayscale or color. A grayscale image stores only one-third as much information for each pixel as does a color image. You can use your image program to convert a color photo to grayscale and immediately shrink the file size by 2/3.
A fourth factor applies to JPEG images: quality. JPEG uses "lossy compression," which means that it doesn't necessarily store the values of every single pixel. The pixel data can get smeared out a bit, and in the process, the compression can make the file a lot smaller. By reducing the "JPEG Quality" to 85% or so when you save your file, you can reduce the size of your image file by a factor of five or more without visibly affecting the quality of the image.
When I post a drawing to Drawspace, here are the steps I take:
1) Photograph or scan the image
2) Load in GIMP ( a free Photoshop-like program)
3) Crop the image to just the drawing area
4) Adjust the brightness/contrast (often using the "automatic levels" filter)
5) Convert to grayscale (for graphite, anyway)
6) Scale the image to something around 600 x 600 pixels
7) Save using 85% JPEG quality
An image will typically come out of my camera at 1 or 2 megabytes; by doing the above, I'll reduce that to 100kb for posting.
I'm going to tell our readers some more about image file sizes. There are actually several different things that affect the size of your image file, and it's important to understand how they interact.
One is the number of pixels, as you have already described. Pixels are little, tiny dots that make up an image, like the dots on your TV. Your computer screen can show somewhere in the neighborhood of a thousand pixels across and a thousand vertically, so a 1000x1000 image is about the largest you can see all at once on your screen (there are many different screen sizes in use; that's just kind of an average.) Each little dot takes some disk space to store; a 1000x1000 pixel image is sixteen times as large as a 250x250 pixel image, all else being equal, because there are 16 times as many pixels. Because the dots that make up your computer screen are a fixed size, a 1000x1000 image takes up a certain about of screen space, no matter what. Many screens show 90 pixels per inch of screen size. Keep that in mind.
Another factor that determines your image size is the resolution, which is the number of pixels that are supposed to be displayed per inch. If you set your scanner for 300 dpi (dots per inch) and scan a 10 inch by 10 inch drawing, the result will be 3000 by 3000 pixels -- a large image. If you show that image on your screen, it will be 3000 / 90 pixels-per-inch = 33 inches across -- i.e., it won't fit on your screen without being scaled down! Therefore scanning your drawings at anything over 90 pixels per inch is a waste if you're just going to show the scan on the web. If you use an image processing program to scale an image, it can turn your 300 dots-per-inch image into a 90-dots-per-inch image. The image file will then look the same size as the drawing on the screen, and it will use a lot less disk space.
A third factor is the image mode. Images can be grayscale or color. A grayscale image stores only one-third as much information for each pixel as does a color image. You can use your image program to convert a color photo to grayscale and immediately shrink the file size by 2/3.
A fourth factor applies to JPEG images: quality. JPEG uses "lossy compression," which means that it doesn't necessarily store the values of every single pixel. The pixel data can get smeared out a bit, and in the process, the compression can make the file a lot smaller. By reducing the "JPEG Quality" to 85% or so when you save your file, you can reduce the size of your image file by a factor of five or more without visibly affecting the quality of the image.
When I post a drawing to Drawspace, here are the steps I take:
1) Photograph or scan the image
2) Load in GIMP ( a free Photoshop-like program)
3) Crop the image to just the drawing area
4) Adjust the brightness/contrast (often using the "automatic levels" filter)
5) Convert to grayscale (for graphite, anyway)
6) Scale the image to something around 600 x 600 pixels
7) Save using 85% JPEG quality
An image will typically come out of my camera at 1 or 2 megabytes; by doing the above, I'll reduce that to 100kb for posting.
I am glad that you find this topic useful for the users of this site, Ernest. As a matter of fact something like this should be pinned and kept as reference in the main area of discussion as the host lists is and eventually refered to in the guidelines for challenges for the new hosts who might have problems with getting their pics through.
I know that many members are artists photographers or computer wizards but is good to keep the explanations simple and in an easy to read format like the steps you listed in your post.
High tech terminology and computer jargon can scare many readers who are just newbies in the digital world and we want them to benefit the most from this topic discussions.
I know that many members are artists photographers or computer wizards but is good to keep the explanations simple and in an easy to read format like the steps you listed in your post.
High tech terminology and computer jargon can scare many readers who are just newbies in the digital world and we want them to benefit the most from this topic discussions.
Thanks, Elena and Ernest,
By the way, here are some informations about colours in your computer.
1. Computers today can realize in each pixel of your screen millions of colours. The exact number is 16 777 216. Let me explain this number. You may know that the elementary information stored in the computer is a bit, which exists in 2 forms, say 0 and 1. Informations usually are stored by a simple word, which is a set of 8 bites, for example, (0 1 1 0 1 1 0 0) is a word.
From the beginning (0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0), then (0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1), then (0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0) up to the end (1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1), there are 2x2x2x2x2x2x2x2=256 words. They screen constructors decided to realize for each pixel as many colours as the number of sets of 3 words, that is in total 256x256x256=16 777 216 colours.
2. To simplify, let us code the colour by the triple (x, y, z), where x=1, …, 255, and y=1, …, 255, and z=1,…, 255. So (1, 99, 255) codes a colour, (176, 200, 199) codes another colour.
3. The triple (0, 0, 0) codes the black colour. The triple (255, 255, 255) codes the white colour,
The red colour is coded by (x, 0, 0) where x=1, 2, …, 255. When x increases the red becomes clearer and clearer.
The green colour is coded by (0, y, 0) where y=1, 2, …, 255. When y increases the green becomes clearer and clearer.
The blue colour is coded by (0, 0, z) where x=1, 2, …, 255. When z increases the red becomes clearer and clearer.
So, the basic colours (red, green, blue) created by the computer engineers are not our fundamental colours. We understand, ingineers are not painters !
As an example, in the picture below I draw (first line) the red colour (x, 0, 0) with (from left to right) x=255, 192, 128 and 64. As you can see, when x decreases, the red colour is becoming darker and darker.
I drew also (second and third lines) green (0, y, 0) and blue (0, 0, z) with colours darker and darker.
4. To give another example, I compose a picture in yellow. All yellow are coded by (x, x, 0). Giving to x different values from 1 to 255, I get different lightings of yellows.
By the way, here are some informations about colours in your computer.
1. Computers today can realize in each pixel of your screen millions of colours. The exact number is 16 777 216. Let me explain this number. You may know that the elementary information stored in the computer is a bit, which exists in 2 forms, say 0 and 1. Informations usually are stored by a simple word, which is a set of 8 bites, for example, (0 1 1 0 1 1 0 0) is a word.
From the beginning (0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0), then (0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1), then (0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0) up to the end (1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1), there are 2x2x2x2x2x2x2x2=256 words. They screen constructors decided to realize for each pixel as many colours as the number of sets of 3 words, that is in total 256x256x256=16 777 216 colours.
2. To simplify, let us code the colour by the triple (x, y, z), where x=1, …, 255, and y=1, …, 255, and z=1,…, 255. So (1, 99, 255) codes a colour, (176, 200, 199) codes another colour.
3. The triple (0, 0, 0) codes the black colour. The triple (255, 255, 255) codes the white colour,
The red colour is coded by (x, 0, 0) where x=1, 2, …, 255. When x increases the red becomes clearer and clearer.
The green colour is coded by (0, y, 0) where y=1, 2, …, 255. When y increases the green becomes clearer and clearer.
The blue colour is coded by (0, 0, z) where x=1, 2, …, 255. When z increases the red becomes clearer and clearer.
So, the basic colours (red, green, blue) created by the computer engineers are not our fundamental colours. We understand, ingineers are not painters !
As an example, in the picture below I draw (first line) the red colour (x, 0, 0) with (from left to right) x=255, 192, 128 and 64. As you can see, when x decreases, the red colour is becoming darker and darker.
I drew also (second and third lines) green (0, y, 0) and blue (0, 0, z) with colours darker and darker.
4. To give another example, I compose a picture in yellow. All yellow are coded by (x, x, 0). Giving to x different values from 1 to 255, I get different lightings of yellows.
This is an image editor I use mostly for grayscale, posterizing, negative.The images are saved in BMP so I have to convert them into JPG with FXfoto.
"PICTOR Image Editor is a software to create and edit images. Now in the version 0.22-beta, this product have a lot of resources but is very thin, with PICTOR you can apply many filters, transformations and work with transparencies,textures, shapes and polygons. But your major characteristic is it was developed using the available resources in the ATELIE's package.
Effects: (Solarize,Posterize,Ripple(sine and saw tooth), Whirl,Pinch,Waves,Emboss,Blur,Splitblur,Motion blur,Plasma,Lens, Fisheye,Noise (gaussian, exponential, poisson, impulse, uniform and spray),Rank (medium, minimum and maximum), Sobel, Marble, Convolutions (blurs, smoothings, mexican hat, shadows, emboss, sharpens, wood, ripples, chisel, jiggle, spackles,texture, psyche, and customs convolutions), Mirror,Equalize
Filters:(Contrast,Negative,Lightness,Grayscale,rgb, hsl, hsv and lab) "
And this is the link to the page where you can download the free program.
http://gd.tuwien.ac.at/softeng/delphi/newl...ls/f034_001.htm
Scrol down the page until you find the pictor Image editor zip link.
Here is how it looks like
"PICTOR Image Editor is a software to create and edit images. Now in the version 0.22-beta, this product have a lot of resources but is very thin, with PICTOR you can apply many filters, transformations and work with transparencies,textures, shapes and polygons. But your major characteristic is it was developed using the available resources in the ATELIE's package.
Effects: (Solarize,Posterize,Ripple(sine and saw tooth), Whirl,Pinch,Waves,Emboss,Blur,Splitblur,Motion blur,Plasma,Lens, Fisheye,Noise (gaussian, exponential, poisson, impulse, uniform and spray),Rank (medium, minimum and maximum), Sobel, Marble, Convolutions (blurs, smoothings, mexican hat, shadows, emboss, sharpens, wood, ripples, chisel, jiggle, spackles,texture, psyche, and customs convolutions), Mirror,Equalize
Filters:(Contrast,Negative,Lightness,Grayscale,rgb, hsl, hsv and lab) "
And this is the link to the page where you can download the free program.
http://gd.tuwien.ac.at/softeng/delphi/newl...ls/f034_001.htm
Scrol down the page until you find the pictor Image editor zip link.
Here is how it looks like
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