Re: [CH] Open Fields pictures
Russ Spanard (RSpanard@home.com)
Mon, 15 Oct 2001 18:25:58 -0400
Alex Silbajoris wrote:
> Pods,
>
> I finally got the CD I had made with the shots I took in the frost in the
> fields. I'm puzzled about one thing, though - the shots are huge! They are
> all
> between 1.0 - 1.5 Mb. Further, if I view them in actual size, I have to
> scroll the screen on both axes - it is as if they are 3X or 4X the size they
> need to be. I remember this effect when I would scan images, too; I would
> routinely reduce them to 30% or 20% of the original size. What is going on?
>
Ut's not necessarily a bad thing... it the image resolution. It's quite high.
Remember that a monitor had a fixed amount of dots (or pixels) to display an
image. If your system is set for 1024 x 760 (1024 pixels from left to right and
760 from top to bottom) and your beautiful, incredibly clear 1.7 gazillion pixel
camera ( or the high resolution CD generated by your film developers) has
generated an image that's 2500 dots across... something has to give! You'll
either have to scroll to see the image or "resize".
You can resize it by cropping it (cutting it down to just the part you want to
see in the frame) or having the computer reduce the dimensions of the picture by
compressing it (e.g., "fit to screen"). Reducing an image this way always
involves a loss of pixels (scaling it in half involves having the computer
essentially throw out every other pixel). Likewise, trying to blow an image up
beyond it's actual resolution involved creating, or making up data. That's why
when you keep zooming in on an image on your computer, it eventually looks so
blocky (or pixelated) that you feel like you're taking an color blindness test.
Anyway, it's ususally better to start with an original photo at a higher
resolution, since you can always reduce it without having to "make up" any data,
but once you start expanding above the original image dimensions, you'll begin
creating (and seeing) image degradation.
NOTE: I consider this as being "On Topic" because I want to see lots more
beautiful Capsicum Candids made available on this List!
Russ