Wallpapers?

shorty6049 · Mar 28, 2007

Hey everyone, how's it going? I have a question reguarding turning a photo into a wallpaper. so i have a full size image, and i want to turn it into a 1280X800 res. wallpaper. How would i do this in photoshop? the only way i've done it so far is by just cropping the image in those proportions, but does this somehow reduce the clarity of the image? i always feel like whenever i try to make an image into a wallpaper, it comes out less crisp than i would hope and i just dont really like it as much. what's everyone elses technique? (I'm usually using full resolution 10mp jpegs or occationally RAW files with low iso settings) thanks!:hug::

gmarquez · Mar 28, 2007

I usually just crop to the final size...make sure that you have your desktop set to your monitor's native resolution, otherwise the images (and your other work) will get re-sampled by the video card software/hardware and look a bit off.

If anything, it should look MORE crisp on your monitor at a 1 to 1 pixel ratio, to the point of artificially enhancing any flaws or compression artifacts that may exist in your photos.

Garbz · Mar 28, 2007

resizing an image is a lossy process. The final pixels become a function of the pixels surrounding them, however I have never noticed and real loss of crispness when resizing and cropping. (Cropping is not lossy to the image it just eliminates unwanted pixels)

Try using different interpolation methods. Billinear is not always the ideal method.

Digital Matt · Mar 28, 2007

You have to sharpen any photo that you resize. Use the unsharp mask, and try settings around 100-150%, 0.3, 0. Photoshop CS2 has different interpolation methods. Bicubic Sharper is recommend for resizing down to a smaller resolution. It will leave you with a sharper file, but I would still use the unsharp mask.

MACollum · Mar 30, 2007

Digital Matt said:
You have to sharpen any photo that you resize.

What about when you convert from RAW? I do sharpening on the photos I convert to JPG from RAW but they don't look as good. I know that's to be expected as JPG has been compressed but it's a bigger difference than I would've expected. What I do is basic edits, sharpening, then convert, having the software resize the image. Should it then be sharpened a bit more?

Digital Matt · Mar 30, 2007

It doesn't matter if it was sharpened as a raw file. It doesn't matter if it was sharpened as a full size jpg. When you resize an image, some pixels are discarded. The image gets soft. You need to sharpen web sized images.

shorty6049 · Mar 30, 2007

hey matt, awesome avatar by the way, lol, so how would you get good images online if you resized with an image hosting website via their auto-resizing? or would you just resize in PS, and then sharpen, and upload like that so the online resource wouldnt do any resizing itself?

Digital Matt · Mar 30, 2007

Resize it yourself and control the final output, including the compression. The images on my website are resized to 600 pixels wide, or 400 high, then sharpened, usually anywhere from 70-120%, 0.3, 0 via the unsharp mask, and then saved using "save for web", and usually a quality of 60.