Re-Sizing an image, making it smaller & still being sharp... IS IT POSSIBLE?

[WSInternational]

Hi,

I'm very new here. I will appreciate if anyone can help answer one or two questions for me.

I have just purchased a new Canon T2i camera and will be re-doing the photos for my websites. I have a problem that I have been trying to figure out an answer for and seems as if I can not figure it out.

When I take photos of my products, the images are 5185X3456 pixels. When I edit the photo and take out all of the background, etc..., and I insert it in Microsoft Expression Web, I obviously have to make the picture much smaller like 450X299 pixels in order to make it fit the page. When I do that, then resample the photo, you can not read the small texts on the product and the text becomes blurry. Here is a couple of samples:

>Sample 1: wsidigital.com/3X4%20copy_sm.gif​

You can see on this image that none of the specs are readible or clear at all.​

>Sample 2: wsidigital.com/ESX-LINEAR-LNB-LNBF/Ku-Band-LNBF/ESX521 copy.png
Even this photo that is larger, you can barely read the model number on the bottom of the box.​

>Sample 3: wsidigital.com/DBS7000 copy.png
You can see on the top right, you can not really read the words "Digital Satellite Receiver"​

When I originally take the large photos, you can read it perfectly fine, I guess because the photo is bigger. But when I make it smaller and resample the photo either in Photoshop or Expression Web, the text becomes blurry. I also make sure that the camera is fully in focus etc....

Is there a trick to this or is there a way that professionals do it and I'm just missing it? Any answers will be highly appreciated.

Thank you everyone for taking the time to read this.

 

[agentmoeller]

Are you reducing the file size in addition to reducing the image size? It is my understanding that if you reduce image size, but leave it hi-res, you get some distortion. ?

 

[Smokey2011]

Hi,

I'm very new here. I will appreciate if anyone can help answer one or two questions for me.

I have just purchased a new Canon T2i camera and will be re-doing the photos for my websites. I have a problem that I have been trying to figure out an answer for and seems as if I can not figure it out.

When I take photos of my products, the images are 5185X3456 pixels. When I edit the photo and take out all of the background, etc..., and I insert it in Microsoft Expression Web, I obviously have to make the picture much smaller like 450X299 pixels in order to make it fit the page. When I do that, then resample the photo, you can not read the small texts on the product and the text becomes blurry. Here is a couple of samples:

>Sample 1: wsidigital.com/3X4 copy_sm.gif​

You can see on this image that none of the specs are readible or clear at all.​

>Sample 2: wsidigital.com/ESX-LINEAR-LNB-LNBF/Ku-Band-LNBF/ESX521 copy.png
Even this photo that is larger, you can barely read the model number on the bottom of the box.​

>Sample 3: wsidigital.com/DBS7000 copy.png
You can see on the top right, you can not really read the words "Digital Satellite Receiver"​

When I originally take the large photos, you can read it perfectly fine, I guess because the photo is bigger. But when I make it smaller and resample the photo either in Photoshop or Expression Web, the text becomes blurry. I also make sure that the camera is fully in focus etc....

Is there a trick to this or is there a way that professionals do it and I'm just missing it? Any answers will be highly appreciated.

Thank you everyone for taking the time to read this.

see the bolded part above:

you shouldn't be re-sampling the photo - this is what's causing your distortion. I assume when you say re-sample you mean that you are reducing the resolution? For example, if your camera is taking photographs at a resolution of 300dpi, then you should be keeping it at 300dpi, not reducing it. That causes blurring.

What you should be doing is reducing the physical sizes of the photograph instead. For example, if the photo is 24" x 16", then you need to shrink that down to whatever size fits - like 12" x 8" for example. This will reduce the file size and physical dimensions, but not cause distortion (or if it does, it's minimal and un-detectable at best). But do not touch the resolution.

So yes, 'resampling" means that you are changing the resolution, which is your problem.

Also note - when you are saving your new-sized photograph to a .jpeg, you are also going to have some distortion - unfortunately this is unavoidable. You should select the highest quality compression available (number 12, I believe) when photoshop asks you to select the quality of the .jpeg it is about to save. This will also keep distortion to a minimum.