Groundspeak Portal

Lately, I'm having a hell of a time uploading a quality image for the Waymarking site.

My "normal" image settings exporting from Lightroom is

Max dimensions 640x640, 72dpi, JPEG, Sharpen for Screen. This produces a very acceptable image that I then upload to my waymark. Upon arriving at waymarking.com the image sometimes develops horrible JPEG artifacts - to the point I've had waymarks declined due to poor image quality. Click on the same image for the "full screen view" and it's tack sharp.

Today, I've been trying to get a Municipal Flag photo with a white flag and a blue sky behind it and I'm at my wit's end.

What I've tried so far:

Full Resolution: 3872x2592x72dpi: Simply won't upload. Returns to a blank upload form.

So, I resize it for the website:



Here's what I see before I upload the "Normal image":



Here's what I see on Waymarking.com:

"Normal" Export (max 640x640x72dpi):



Resize to max 400x400 pixels max size:

Resize to max 200x200 pixels max size:

Export to Photoshop, then save as a PNG:

When I posted this, the last paragraph got chopped off:

What I would like to know is, if there is an "optimal" size / dpi setting that I can upload to the site using, which will prevent the auto resizing algoritms from kicking in and really making my photos look horrible!

I thought they had done away with the auto resizing algorithms. 

I reduce the digital photos to 640 x 480 pixels. jpg which works great for me.  However if I scan print photos or articles I do not reduce the size.

It's true that we now save your original image, but still it is necessary for us to compress the image so that we can save bandwidth. So to set the record straight, all images are resized and compressed when displayed on the website in the various places. But if you click through any image, you can ultimately see the original if you so desire.

i had a 5mp camera. i got tired of uploading pics--it would take forever, often trying many times for one pic. someone else had a thread about it. i believe that bruce suggested a bill gates product. i installed it (easilt found on a search, no restart, and VERY EASY to use; right click on file say resize.) i had no probs uploading a raw file to gc.com, ever.

i got a 8mp camera and neither site would take those raw files.

on the rezsizer (select all files to resize), right click-resize pics, i choose MED at first, but see no real difference with SMALL. i delete the resize after upload and this keeps 'trash' and 'que folder' size to a minimum. note: i dump 'done' pics to an external drive, i have several gigs of waymark pics.

one thing i notices the other day was that the resized pic has 'shrunk' somewhat--a landscape frame in a few pixels shorter and the portrait is noticably smaller (when viewing in the bill gates photo viewer)

I usually have to crop the photo or I will have to load it in at 800 x 600 pixels.

I try to crop what don't need to be in the picture.

mr.volkswagen

bootron:

It's true that we now save your original image, but still it is necessary for us to compress the image so that we can save bandwidth. So to set the record straight, all images are resized and compressed when displayed on the website in the various places. But if you click through any image, you can ultimately see the original if you so desire.

This more or less answers my question. I got a lot of responses in the thread about how to resize images (which I've already been doing, thanks). My current idea of what's happening is the JPEG quality slider is being moved from 100% to something more like 50% thus bringing out the horrible JPEG artifacts.

My next tactic will be to try something like dropping the JPEG quality to 50% and trying to make the image look good there before uploading it.

northernpenguin:

bootron:

It's true that we now save your original image, but stillit is necessary for us to compress the image so that we can save bandwidth. So to set the record straight, all images are resized and compressed when displayed on the website in the various places. But if you click through anyimage, you can ultimately see the original if you so desire.

This more or less answers my question. I got a lot of responses in the thread about how to resize images (which I've already been doing, thanks). My current idea of what's happening is the JPEG quality slider is being moved from 100% to something more like 50% thus bringing out the horrible JPEG artifacts.

My next tactic will be to try something like dropping the JPEG quality to 50% and trying to make the image look good there before uploading it.

Irfanview freeware.
Batch process and rename.
select severals files.
save processed pix to same folder every time.
tick RIOT plugin size to 200kb or less.
DPI to 96 (72 lowest)
file type JPEG or PNG
quality no lower than 80%
use 100%
HTH