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Learning how to get the most out of your high quality images is essential to make the most of your media productions, and gain the impact that you require from your viewing audience.
Photo Tips from PhotoGhetto.com provides practical tips and tricks from image professionals to help you transform, manipulate, and unleash more creative power from your photo images and graphics.
Sorted into easy to browse categories below, please select the category from the list which is most applicable to your imaging needs.
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What are the most important aspects of a photo, illustration, or photographic image?
The most important aspects of a photo, illustration, or photographic image are:
- Image resolution
- Image size
- Colour Bit Depth
These three key aspects of any image determine its size, colour values, and clarity.
What about brightness and contrast?
Brightness, contrast, chrominance, and luminance are key aspects to the tonal qualities of every photo, illustration, or photographic image, and tricks to improve these values can be seen below in the General Image Tricks category.
What is colour mode?
Colour mode is the format of which the image was created and saved in, and can be either:
- RGB, for screen, television, broadcasting, home inkjet printers, and digital printing.
- Or CMYK, for offset and 4 colour printing typically done at a professional printing house.
What does image resolution mean?
Image resolution is the amount of pixel data stored within an image across a given area, and is measured in pixels per inch or pixels per centimetre.
The greater the intensity of image data (pixels per inch or centimetre), the greater the information stored, and the larger the image file size.
How can I see the resolution of my photo, illustration, or photographic image?
To tell the resolution of your photo, illustration, or photographic image, simply
- Right mouse-click upon the image and select Properties from the bottom of the file dialog box. The File Properties dialog box opens.
- Select the Summary tab at the top of the File Properties dialog box.
- Select the Advanced button.
- The Image Properties are displayed.
Is there a difference between my photo, illustration, or photographic image on screen and in print?
Yes. You have probably experienced at some time or other, printing an image from your browser, email, Office document, or other application only to find that the image appears "fuzzy" or blurred around the edges and poorly defined. This is due most often that not to the optimization of an image for the browser and screen in general.
In such cases not only is the image density (dpi) of the image lowered, but in addition the colour resolution or Colour Bit Depth as well.
What is the ideal resolution for my photos, illustrations, or photographic images?
The intended use of your photos, illustrations, or photographic images should ultimately define the optimal settings for your images.
Images to be used on screen, on the web, in PowerPoint presentations, in Macromedia Flash, DVD, animations, and other electronic media productions, should ideally be optimized to 72dpi. The reason for this is due to the screens inability to display images at greater resolutions.
In addition to the screens inability to display images of higher quality than 72dpi, images are optimized for screen due to file size and loading. Images that are larger and not optimized for 72dpi provide no viewing benefit, slow the machine down, and take much longer to load and display.
For example, during a test, an image of a horse is used in a PowerPoint presentation as a slide background. At 72dpi, the slides load instantly. The same image is used once again as a slide background, only this time not 72dpi, but is instead 300dpi. The PPT file now takes 2 minutes and 17 seconds to open. And when reaching the slide of the horse, the slide image takes almost 40 seconds to load.
In addition, the size of the PowerPoint file has altered drastically. In the 72dpi version, the PPT file is 300Kb (kilobytes). In the 300dpi version, the PPT file is 17Mb (megabytes), over 55 times larger in file and memory size.
Despite the large file size, and despite the slow loading time, the image of the horse looked precisely the same on screen and showed the exact same clarity as the 72dpi version of the file. This is because the screen is unable to display any image greater than, or provide any viewing benefit above the maximum screen resolution of 72dpi.
One can easily imagine, in the case of an animation, screen presentation, or film, where 30 images per second should be shown, how quickly the file size would grow and how quickly be unable to load and play, if images were not optimized.
Likewise one can think a web page if images had not been optimized to 72dpi, how slowly the page might take to load, and in the case of a page with many graphical elements, how the page may itself may time out or take many hours to load completely.
What is Image size?
Image size is the actual dimensions of the image.
The size of an image (width x height), should not be confused with its depth (dpi). For example, if you right click on your desktop and choose Properties from the menu. The Desktop dialog box opens. selecting the Settings tab, you can see the Screen resolution settings which measures the size of the screen. Not its Bit depth, only its size and the number of pixels to display from the top left corner to the bottom right corner.
Typically settings for a monitor or screen are:
- 800 pixels wide x 600 high
- 1024 x 768
- 1152 x 864
- 1280 x 1024
And just as your monitor has a screen dimension, or your printed images can be measured in millimetres and centimetres, so too are your screen images.
What is Colour Bit Depth?
Colour Bit Depth is the number of bits used to represent each pixel in an image. Where the higher the bit depth, the more colours appear in the image. For example
- 1-bit colour: black & white image with no greys or colours
- 8-bit colour: 256 colours or greys
- 24-bit colour: 16.7 million colours ('photorealistic' colour)
How should I optimize my photos, illustrations, and photographic images for screen use?
Optimizing your photos, illustrations, and photographic images for screen use requires you to consider all three aspects of:
- Image resolution
- Image size
- Colour Bit Depth
As defined above.
In optimizing your images for screen one must firstly consider Image resolution and reducing the image resolution from 200dpi, 300dpi, 500dpi or more, down to just 72dpi.
When reducing the resolution of an image the editing application typically adjusts the Image size in parallel if settings such as Constrain Proportions are enabled. Therefore, it is important to firstly note the Image size in pixels before reducing the Image resolution.
For example an image of 500 pixels width and 500 pixels height has a resolution of 300dpi and is opened in Adobe Photoshop. After selecting Image Size from the main menu, 72dpi is entered into the resolution field to reduce the image resolution to 72dpi and optimize the image for screen use.
After entering 72dpi into the resolution field, the image size (Pixel Dimension fields) automatically alter and are now show just 120 pixels width and 120 pixels height.
If we select OK, the image will not only be 72dpi but will be less a quarter of the original Image Size on screen.
To ensure that your image stays the same size after the optimization as it was before it, enter the Image size dimensions that you noted before reducing the resolution back into the Pixel dimension fields. (In this example, 500, and 500). Then click OK.
We now see that the image is the same size as it was before the optimization, only now the image is optimized for screen and is 72dpi rather than 300dpi.
With your image at the correct screen resolution and size, it is now time to consider Colour Bit Depth.
As with Image resolution, the greater the number of Colour Bit Depth, the larger the photo image size. Whilst many proclaim that guides are available for finding the correct Colour Bit Depth, the most secure and still preferred method is the human eye.
Opening your image in Adobe ImageReady for example, choose Optimize Image, and experiment with the JPG image slider and GIF image settings to reduce your image's quality to a level where you feel it is still of acceptable quality, without producing sufficient image loss and save.
By firstly reducing Image resolution, scaling or preserving the Image Size, and then optimizing the Colour Bit Depth of your photos, illustrations, and photographic images for screen use, you can be certain that your images will load, display, and run in the fastest possible time, and reduce any possible bottlenecks, pauses, or delays for your viewing audiences.
I want to use my photos, illustrations, or photographic images in print not on screen?
Whilst 72dpi images are perfect for screen use, they typically do not print acceptable results. Images for print should ideally be of 300dpi or greater to achieve crisp sharp printed images and details.
However, whereas taking a 300dpi image and reducing its resolution to 72dpi is the preferred way to optimize an image for screen use, the opposite cannot be said. And taking a 72dpi image and simply increasing its resolution to 300dpi, will not produce a clearer and improved image than the 72dpi image.
The reasons for this is due to the amount of image data saved per pixel. One could imagine, putting 300 needles on a piece of A4 paper, and beside this placing 72 needles on another piece of A4 paper. Obviously it is easier to cover the paper containing 300 needles and to do so without distorting the size or shape of the needles.
However, on the paper with only 72 needles, it is impossible for us to cover this area without "resizing" or rescaling the needles to make them bigger to cover the area. Whilst in our hypothetical example, this would work, imagine the 72 needles on the paper. They will now be bigger, and stretched than the original scaled needles on the paper containing 300.
In our print this A4 paper containing 300 needles represents the number of printed dots per inch (dpi). So one can easily imagine that in an image for exmaple as large as an A4 side, where many inches or ink are printed, the number of dots needed to be scaled from 72 to 300 is many thousands, and it is this scaling and distortion, that increases the blurring and "fuzziness" of edges and details in a low resolution printed image. Because a 72dpi image is still a 72dpi image even if it is scaled to 300dpi, because the amount of data saved in the original source file was 72 and not 300 dots per inch.
Take into consideration that in addition a 72dpi image has also most likely been colour optimized with Colour Bit Depth, from 24 bit colour (Photographic quality), to something closer to 10 or 8 bit colour, and again one can see that only 300 or greater dpi images should be considered for quality hard copy purposes.
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The colours in my photo, illustration, or photographic image are dull and appear very flat. What could be wrong?
There are many reasons why the colours of an image can appear very flat. It may be because the image has been saved in the wrong Colour Mode, or that the image was saved using a Custom Colour Palette that has been discarded or ignored by the viewing application.
Whilst these reasons can on rare occasions explain why an image does not appear as it should on screen or in print, most typically the problems lie in the image contrast settings, and may corrected in 4 easy steps through adjusting.
- Image contrast
- Image tone
- Image colour
- Image sharpening
How can I adjust image contrast?
Image contrast is often misunderstood but can be seen by viewing an image and letting your eye absorb the difference in colour from the lightest to the darkest colour.
A typical sign of Image contrast problems is when white does not appear as true white, but often as a "dirty white" or light shade of grey, and black does not appear as black, but instead as a dark grey or darkly tinted blue or purple tone.
When you increase contrast, dark colours become darker, and light colours become lighter. Because our eye finds detail by differences in colour, increasing contrast has the effect of bringing out the detail in almost every image.
When adjusting image contrast, one must also adjust image brightness as a balance at the same time as adjusting contrast. When using an image editing application, such as Adobe Photoshop, it is a good idea to move in small increments, checking the original image often, not just the preview.
In addition to increasing the contrast and improving image detail definition, colour will usually improve with a contrast adjustment as well.
Adjusting Contrast/ Brightness controls in Adobe Photoshop
Adobe Photoshop offers contrast and brightness control in one function. To adjust one or both values:
- Select Image from the main menu.
- Select Adjust from the Image sub menu.
- Select Brightness and Contrast from the Adjust sub menu.
Use the sliders for each value to adjust, moving to the left to decrease brightness or contrast, and to the right to increase either value. With the preview option checked, you can follow the results of the changed value in the document.
If you are uncertain of how your adjustments have affected your image, simply uncheck the Preview option, and you will be able to see the original appearance again. Toggle back and forth, adjusting the values until you are satisfied that you have improved the look before finally clicking the OK button to accept the settings.
Adjusting Contrast/ Brightness controls in Fireworks
Like Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Fireworks offers contrast and brightness in one function, however to adjust contrast and brightness settings, you must be working in Edit Bitmap Mode.
To enter Edit Bitmap Mode:
- Select Modify from the main menu.
- Select Edit Bitmap from the Modify sub menu.
To adjust one or both values:
- Select Xtras from the main menu.
- Select Adjust Color from the Xtras sub menu.
- Select Brightness/Contrast from the Adjust sub menu.
Use the sliders for each value to adjust, moving to the left to decrease brightness or contrast, and to the right to increase either value. With the preview option checked, you can follow the results of the changed value in the document.
If you are uncertain of how your adjustments have affected your image, simply uncheck the Preview option, and you will be able to see the original appearance again. Toggle back and forth, adjusting the values until you are satisfied that you have improved the look before finally clicking the OK button to accept the settings.
Adjusting Contrast/ Brightness controls in Paint Shop Pro
Like Adobe Photoshop and Adobe Fireworks, Paint Shop Pro offers contrast and brightness in one function. To adjust one or both values:
- Select Colors from the main menu.
- Select Adjust from the Colors sub menu.
- Select Brightness/Contrast from the Adjust sub menu.
Enter the values you desire, click on the increase or decrease value arrows, or click on the slider under the value to change the settings.
To preview and check the results of your adjustments on the image, click on the Preview button (the eye).
If you are uncertain of how your adjustments have affected your image, simply click the Preview button, and you will be able to see the original appearance again. Toggle back and forth, adjusting the values until you are satisfied that you have improved the look before finally clicking the OK button to accept the settings.
To reset both values and start over, click on the Reset button at the bottom right of the screen.
I have several photographic images from my camera where the colours appear duller and flatter than I would like. What should I do?
If you are enhancing a series of images that came from the same scanner or digital camera, with similar photos taken in similar lighting, you will find that the contrast and brightness settings are often similar from one image to the next.
Adjust the contrast and brightness settings of your image using your preferred image editing software, as outlined above, and make note of the numbers for the first few photos, and start with those values for subsequent images. If the numbers you are using turn out to be exactly the same every time, you may wish to create an action (if you are using Adobe Photoshop) to enhance your images with one click.
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How can I insert a photo, illustration, or photographic image into a PowerPoint presentation?
To insert a photo, illustration, or photographic image into a PowerPoint presentation
- Choose Picture from the Insert menu.
- Move the mouse right to the option From File and select.
- Find the folder that contains the photo or photographic image that you want, double-click the file name, and then click OK.
- Using the corners of the Photo, drag to scale and size appropriately, or right mouseclick the Photo and choose Format Picture. Select the Size Tab and size as required.
How to insert a photo, illustration, or photographic image into PowerPoint to use as a slide background?
To insert a photo, illustration, or photographic image into PowerPoint to use as a slide background
- Choose Background from the Format menu.
- Under Background fill, click the down arrow, click Fill Effects, and then click the Picture tab.
- Click Select Picture, find the folder that contains the background you want, double-click the file name, and then click OK.
- To apply the change to the current slide, click Apply. To apply the change to all slides, click Apply to All.
How to resize a photo, illustration, or photographic image without loosing its aspect ration and position?
To resize a photo, illustration, or photographic image without loosing its aspect ration and position, simply hold the Shift key while resizing your image or graphic.
How to resize all photos, illustrations, photographic images, and pictures in proportion?
When resizing any photo, illustration, photographic image, or element in PowerPoint you may want to resize all the images and graphical elements in your PowerPoint presentation at the same time to ensure that they remain the same size in relationship with each other.
You can achieve this by making sure that when you resize any element, that you also resize everything else at once.
For example, if you have 3 images, and 2 graphic elements that you have to resize, but must stay the same size in relation to each other:
- Select the first image that you wish to resize.
- Hold down the Shift key.
- Click on the other 2 images.
- Still holding the Shift key, also click on the 2 graphical elements.
- Drag your mouse in the direction you wish to increase or decrease the size of the image, and the other selected items will also scale accordingly.
How to optimize a scanned photo for PowerPoint?
When using scanned photos in Microsoft PowerPoint, it is important to remember that the greater the image size, the longer PowerPoint will need to load and display the image.
A great tip for all presenters is to make sure that images and content graphics are saved at 72dpi. This will make presentations load faster and run smoother, making accurate timings and pacing of the presentation possible.
To optimize any scanned photo in PowerPoint:
- Open the photo or graphic within an image editor such as Adobe Photoshop, or Paint Shop Pro.
- Select Image Size from the main menu option Image.
- Note the Width and Height of your photo under Pixel Dimensions.
- In the Resolution field write 72, and select pixels/ inch from the pull down menu to its right.
Notice the Width and Height numbers have changed. To maintain the photo's size write in the Width and Height details which you noted earlier.
- Click Ok.
- Choose Save As from the File main menu option, and save your image. The image is now at the same aspect ration and size as it was earlier, only optimized for PowerPoint and screen use.
- Import the photo into PowerPoint.
Though this may seem additional work, the results are very impressive, reducing the size of your photo images without decreasing their onscreen quality, and increasing the speed and reducing the loading time of your presentation.
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How can I import a photo, illustration, or photographic image into Adobe Flash?
Adobe Flash allows importing of most photo, illustration, and photographic image formats including:
- PNG (*.png)
- Bitmap (*.bmp, *.dib)
- GIF image (*.gif)
- JPEG image (*.jpg)
- Macintosh PICT image (*.pct)
- MacPaint image (*.pntg)
- Photoshop image (*.psd)
- TGA image (*.tga)
- TIFF image (*.tif)
To import an image into Macromedia Flash, you must first decide if you wish to import the image into the Library of the open Flash file, or upon the Stage of the open Flash file.
To import your image to the Library:
- Select Import from the main menu.
- Select Import to Library from the Import sub menu.
To import your image directly to the Stage:
- Select Import from the main menu.
- Select Import to Stage from the Import sub menu.
What is the preferred bitmap type to import into Macromedia Flash?
Whilst Macromedia flash does indeed support most every type of bitmap format, the recommended bitmap format for importing is PNG.
PNG is a lossless format, which means when the image is saved it is not compressed, and no image data is lost. When importing an image into Flash it is important to bear in mind that Flash will compress all bitmap images when the final flash file (SWF) is exported, and importing an already compressed image into Flash such as JPG format, means that Flash will compress this image once again.
The results of recompressing an already compressed image generates poor results and image "artifacts", pixelated areas where compression has distorted the image. In addition, recompressing an already compressed image increase actual image file size, so lossy file formats such as JPG and BMP are not recommended for use within Macromedia Flash.
A further strength of the PNG format is its transparency channel. Importing of PNG bitmap images enables you to control the Alpha transparency channel of the bitmap in Flash, to place iamges seamlessly onto backgrounds, elements, and enable images to fade in and out.
Is it possible to add effects to bitmap images in Macromedia Flash?
Whilst Macromedia Flash is primarily a vector based imaging tool, one of the advantages of Flash is also its ability to vector effects to bitmap images.
Applicable effects include:
- Tint
- Brightness
- Alpha
- Colour Channel
- Image Tweening
How can I access effects in Adobe Flash?
Effects are accessed through the Effects Panel in Flash.
To access the Effects Panel:
- Select Window from the main menu.
- Select Panels from the Window menu.
- Select Effects from the Panels menu.
How can I add or adjust the tint of a bitmap image in Flash?
To add or adjust the tint of a bitmap image in Flash, select Tint from the Effect pop-up menu in the Effect panel.
A coloured brick defines the selected Hue to added to the image as a tint. You can select a different coloured hue in one of three ways. Firstly, by simply clicking the coloured brick and selecting a colour from the predefined swatches. Or through adjusting the Red, Blue, and Green, sliders to adjust the red, green, and blue values of the colour. Or through using the colour picker and display palette.
How can I adjust the brightness of a bitmap image in Flash?
To add or adjust the brightness of a bitmap image in Flash, select Brightness from the Effect pop-up menu in the Effect panel.
Using the slider, you can adjust the brightness of the image from black (-100) to white (+100).
How can I adjust the transparency of a bitmap image in Flash?
To add or adjust the brightness of a bitmap image in Flash, select Alpha from the Effect pop-up menu in the Effect panel.
Using the slider, you can adjust the transparency of the image from transparent (0) to opaque (100).
How can I adjust the colour channels of a bitmap image in Flash?
To finely tune and adjust colour channels of a bitmap image in Flash, select Advanced from the Effect pop-up menu in the Effect panel.
In the Advanced panel there are two sets of RGB sliders.
To firstly understand the sliders, one firstly needs to understand the "building" of colours. For example, magenta, is created through the combination of red and blue. Cyan, through the combination of blue and green. Yellow through the combination of red and green. White through the combination of red, blue, and green. And black through removing all colour from the image.
By moving the red, blue, or green percentage sliders on the left to a number less than 100%, you reduce the percentage of red, blue, or green accordingly in the bitmap. The more red, blue, or green that you remove from the image, the greater the effect of alteration.
For example, the more you remove red from your image, the more you are left with blue and green. Blue and green mix to form cyan and the more red you remove from your image the more "cyan-ish" it becomes.
The slider controls on the right of the panel also let you reduce the amount of red, green, and blue, and specify alpha transparency by entering a negative value in the field. In addition to decreasing the amount of a colour, you can use, these controls to add more of a colour to the entire bitmap instance by entering a positive value.
How can I animate a bitmap image in Flash?
To animate, or "tween" a bitmap image in Flash, you must apply an effect over a series of frames.
In order to create a motion or shape tween, you must first convert your bitmap to a symbol for use on the Stage.
To convert a bitmap to a symbol on the Stage:
- Drag the bitmap from the Library onto the Stage on the correct frame in your movie Timeline.
- Click on the bitmap to select it.
- Select Modify from the main menu.
- Select Convert to Symbol... from the Modify sub menu.
- Select Graphic in the Symbol Behaviours dialog box, and give your symbol a unique name.
- Press OK.
When you change an instance's colour, hue, or transparency in a specific frame, the change displays as soon as the frame plays. In order to create an animation or tween sequence, the change of colour, hue, or transparency must take place gradually.
The speed of this transformation creates a faster or slower transitional effect. You can enter different settings in the Effect panel for starting and ending keyframes of an instance and then specify tweening animation for the keyframes and frames in between.
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How can I import a photo, illustration, or photographic image into Adobe Premiere?
Adobe Premiere allows importing of several photo, illustration, and photographic image formats, including:
- Bitmap (*.bmp, *.dib)
- GIF image (*.gif)
- JPEG image (*.jpg)
- Macintosh PICT image (*.pct)
- Photoshop image (*.psd)
- TGA image (*.tga)
- TIFF image (*.tif)
To import an image into Adobe Premiere:
- Select Import from the File menu.
- Select File from the Import sub menu.
- Browse to the location of your image, select and press OK.
How can I export a still photographic image from my movie in Adobe Premiere?
Adobe Premiere allows you to export any still photographic image (frame) from your movie to any of the following formats:
- Bitmap (*.bmp, *.dib)
- GIF image (*.gif)
- TGA image (*.tga)
- TIFF image (*.tif)
To export any frame of your movie:
- Select Export Clip from the File menu.
- Select Frame from the Export Clip sub menu.
- Select the Settings button.
- Select the File type from the drop down menu options on the General Still Frame Settings dialog box.
- Press the Next button
- Enter the image size output settings.
- Select the Ok button to export the frame as an image, or continue using the Prev and Next buttons to scroll through the export frame options
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