Aug 05 Discussion Thread

[Shalford]

Thanks T Paul - That's a load off my mind.

Got into a bit of a mess trying to upload it.

Of course you have to remove the discussion image first.

Hope I've done it all right.

Once again many thanks to you!!!!!!

[T Paul]

I see that there are several new members in this month's contest. Welcome to RetouchPro!!

[Lorraine]

smats --

I would love to know how you got that motion blur on the wheels.

Lorraine

[smats]

The motion blur on the wheels is easily achieved
I just selected them (ordinary lasso tool) and applied a radial blur. One wheel after the other

/Regards Mats

[Lorraine]

smats,

Thanks for responding so quickly. I'm going to practice with your instructions. The look you achieved is so realistic.

Lorraine

[Peter S]

I just realised I am out of town when voting time comes and won't be able to vote.

........ OH WELL suppose that disqualifies me.

Best of luck everyone else...........

[Lorraine]

Sorry about that, Peter.

Maybe you can find way to get online to vote while you're away.

It's awful to have so much time and good work wasted.

Lorraine

[Peter S]

Thanks Lorraine.

But it wasn't all wasted time I enjoyed doing it, and I think I learned some things as well. So maybe I win after all.

[T Paul]

There is nothing in the rules this time about being disqualified if you do not vote.

[T Paul]

Lots of strong entries and lovely poster results so far! This will be a hard one to judge!

[Gary Richardson]

Got to agree T, this is going to be really difficult.

I think a lot of this will come down to personal taste, as there are a lot of equally imaginative and well executed images.

Looking forward to seeing what else is to come.

Gary.

[Peter S]

There is nothing in the rules this time about being disqualified if you do not vote.

Just love that small print. I must read it next time thanks T Paul

[Kraellin]

welcome to RP, goose443. nice first entry

Craig

[goose443]

Thanks.

Not sure what caused those dark vertical bands on the original photo but I did my best to get rid of them. The focus is also a little soft on the original though almost all sharpening efforts are lost in the final compression. L channel sharpening seemed to do the trick on the high rez.... creates tons of noise in the drivers seat but it's not noticeable in the small version.

[Kraellin]

dawn,

if there'd been an url embedded in your entry i probably would have clicked on it. very nice

Craig

[1STLITE]

Thank Craig, I appreciate that. It sure was alot of fun to do. Stayed up wayy too late last night though!

[1STLITE]

I had a really hard time getting my image to the 100k limit. Ended up having to go from 600x800 down to 700xsomething. And still had to use a lot of compression, which of course shows up really badly especialy in the red parts and the crispness (or lack ther of) in the text. Any suggestions?

Dawn

[suchyy]

I always save in Photoshop with 100% compression and then resave it in XnView with eg. 95 or 90% compression. Size is much smaller and you can't see the difference. Try XnView, it has really good compression algoritms.

[freddieanne]

Incredible creativity by all! AND skill in execution.
Way to go


Annabel

[Panpan]

Originally Posted by 1STLITE

I had a really hard time getting my image to the 100k limit. Ended up having to go from 600x800 down to 700xsomething. And still had to use a lot of compression, which of course shows up really badly especialy in the red parts and the crispness (or lack ther of) in the text. Any suggestions?

Dawn

Hello Dawn.

• In Photoshop, select Save for Web.
• If the file is bigger than 800x600, click the Image Size tab, input the new dimensions and click Apply. This will only change the size of the jpg, not your working copy in PS.
• Select the Jpeg format, then checkmark Optimized and ICC Profile.
• Lastly, twirl open the Optimize menu; it's an unlabeled button to the right of the Preset: menu. Choose Optimize to File Size and input 100k.

This will give you the maximum quality jpg that is less than the limit you set.

Pierre

[1STLITE]

Thanks for the reply, PanPan. I went through all the steps for saving my image, but still came up with so much compression-uglies. I had originally had my image in the 600x800 size and even had to make the long side 700 just to get as little compression as there is in my entry, an to me there seems ot be alot of compression.

What determines file size, anyways? Say you have two images, same pixel dimensions - same ppi, and still it seems that there can be HUGE difference in the file size, even at the same "jpeg quality". I am curious...

Dawn

[suchyy]

Originally Posted by 1STLITE

What determines file size, anyways? Say you have two images, same pixel dimensions - same ppi, and still it seems that there can be HUGE difference in the file size, even at the same "jpeg quality". I am curious...

Dawn

Colors, if you have sharp image with many many colors one next to another it will be bigger then a picture with a blue sky that takes 50% of a picture and a green grass that takes another 50%.

Give a try to XnView it works really fine. Better than Save For Web in photoshop.

[1STLITE]

Thanks, suchyy. I will give that a try. And thank you for clearing that up for me about file size. Makes sense (I guess - lol).

Dawn

[Kraellin]

dawn,

a simple example of how compression of two different images can make two different file sizes would be, let's say you had a row all blue in one image. you could code a compression routine to say 'blue=800'. which might mean 'there are 800 blue pixels now'. and in the other image it might all be varied colors in a line. so, you have to have 'blue=1, red=2, green=1, red=1, blue=3' etc, etc. now, that's over-simplified, but maybe gives you an idea.

also, an image's color bit size makes a difference. an image in 32 bit with 64 million color possibilities is harder to compress than a grayscale of 256 colors.

Craig

[Kraellin]

here's a thought; why not have more than one voting method? hollywood does this all the time with movies. you've got oscars and emmys and people's choice and all sorts of votings going on. how bout we open this up a bit? you could have:

1. current style, where only the entrants vote

2. only the moderators vote

3. only the non-entrants vote

4. all can vote.

5. only new folks can vote (those that registered within the time frame of the contest)

and quite possibly there are others. we all know that 'art' is quite a subjective thing. i like blue, you like red, someone else likes yellow and so on. so, why have just one vote?

additionally, this might encourage some of our 'lurkers' to actually register (yes, we see you hiding there )

anyways, just a thought.

Craig

[Panpan]

Originally Posted by Bill M

One in honor of the home team!
Bill

Go, go team!

You had me doing acrobatics trying to read that text!

Pierre

[1STLITE]

OMG!! Cathy, that is HILARIOUS!! And great work too!



Too, too funny!

Dawn

[Kraellin]

hehehe, i'm with dawn on this one, cathyh

(one small point; you've got speed blurs moving outwards from the car on both ends of the car, making it seem like it's going both directions at once. of course, that's probably what's causing the crash )

Craig

[Kraellin]

oh good lord, time to vote. this is impossible. cant we just declare it a tie all the way around and let it go at that?

Craig

[Nacoya]

Hi,

I hope you don't mind but as i had a spare half hour i created a gallery for this months comp, not dis-similar to the one for last month (not as good tho').
If i've not overstepped the mark then i hope it is of some use. And i hope i've not missed anyone..

http://nacoya.co.uk/retouchpro/aug_comp


cheers,

nacoya

ps. wasn't sure whether to start a new topic or not but i thought it'd be more visible as a new one. Please feel free to move this where you see fit. (to the mods)