Did I do the wrong thing?

[Dagwood56]

Wondering if I did the wrong thing with the way I went with finding and removing the dust spots in my photos. Basically I chose what seemed like the easiest way, but now that I've struggled to do 145 photos to get my website, flickr and facebook page back and running, I'm not sure.

When I edit photos the original file is saved to USB stick and deleted from my computer. The photos I plan to use for online are sized 1000 or 800 on the long side, and obviously kept on the computer. Usually I size 1000 for flickr and my website and 800 for facebook. Since so many images were the same on each place, to save stress on my eyes by editing the same image twice or sorting through the originals to find those I needed, and resizing each again,, I chose to use the 800 size for everyplace and I only edited the small resized images, not the original file. I just could not face all the extra work of resizing stuff again; it's been hard enough on my eyes just doing the spots and my husband still has to double check them for me. I found tutorials on how to use a levels adjustment layer to locate the spots [amazed at how many there were that I could not see] Anyway before I post anything anywhere I need husbands eyes to double check them all.

Should I have done the spot removal on the original and done all the resizing again or should the editing on the small size be sufficient?

For those of you have not seen my other posts, I am almost legally blind. the glare from the computer screen is murder on my eyes, especially the white internet backgrounds. In future I will obviously take care of the spots on the original files, however, I will not be shooting anymore till I get my camera cleaned which will hopefully be soon. We finally found a place that is within reasonable driving distance of where we live and isn't too expensive.

This has been such a maddening process and so depressing as much of my best work needs to be cleaned or I can't use it. The only images I did do at original size and high res were those that were up for sale at online galleries - there were only about a dozen images, though duplicate to FB, flickr and my site, but I had no choice with those, they had to be original size.

 

[smoke665]

Not specifically on your question, but possibly related to, I don't recall what PC you're using. If you have Windows, in version 8 and later they have a "Magnify" feature that you can toggle on and off and view enlarged sections of your screen. https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/11542/windows-use-magnifier it also has a color inversion feature that will let you turn the screen to yellow on black for higher visibility. I've used it a few times, but haven't tried it on PS or LR.

 

[tirediron]

I'm very happy to hear you've found a place to get your camera cleaned!!!! As far as the images you've done, at worst, you may have given yourself a little extra work insomuch as, if you ever wanted to print or produce a high-resolution image, it would need to be done again, BUT... as you've not touched the original files, you've done nothing permanent.

 

[Dagwood56]

Not specifically on your question, but possibly related to, I don't recall what PC you're using. If you have Windows, in version 8 and later they have a "Magnify" feature that you can toggle on and off and view enlarged sections of your screen. https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/11542/windows-use-magnifier it also has a color inversion feature that will let you turn the screen to yellow on black for higher visibility. I've used it a few times, but haven't tried it on PS or LR.

I have windows 7 and there is a magnify feature but it doesn't seem to work with everything. I have a Samsung monitor that has "eye saver mode", one of the reasons I bought it, but from what I'm finding you need to reset all your contrast etc settings each time you exit eye saver mode, too much of a pain considering how small the menu is to do it and the single multi use button is on the back of the monitor.. Plus eye saver turns the screen into an annoyingly hard to use reddish tint. I have just gotten a large font back-lit keyboard which is making some things easier at least.

 

[Dagwood56]

I'm very happy to hear you've found a place to get your camera cleaned!!!! As far as the images you've done, at worst, you may have given yourself a little extra work insomuch as, if you ever wanted to print or produce a high-resolution image, it would need to be done again, BUT... as you've not touched the original files, you've done nothing permanent.

Thanks John that makes me feel a lot better. I did respond to your PM, but I'm not sure if it sent...I may hae hit the wrong button.

 

[tirediron]

It sent.

 

[limr]

Not specifically on your question, but possibly related to, I don't recall what PC you're using. If you have Windows, in version 8 and later they have a "Magnify" feature that you can toggle on and off and view enlarged sections of your screen. https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/11542/windows-use-magnifier it also has a color inversion feature that will let you turn the screen to yellow on black for higher visibility. I've used it a few times, but haven't tried it on PS or LR.

I have windows 7 and there is a magnify feature but it doesn't seem to work with everything. I have a Samsung monitor that has "eye saver mode", one of the reasons I bought it, but from what I'm finding you need to reset all your contrast etc settings each time you exit eye saver mode, too much of a pain considering how small the menu is to do it and the single multi use button is on the back of the monitor.. Plus eye saver turns the screen into an annoyingly hard to use reddish tint. I have just gotten a large font back-lit keyboard which is making some things easier at least.

Have you ever tried computer glasses with magnification? They have a coating that will help cut the blue light and there are some that come with up to +3.00 magnification. They can come with lighter or darker coating (the darker ones often seem to be listed as 'gaming' computer glasses). They will make things amber-colored but it's easier to just take them off than it is to change all the settings on your computer.

Or even if they are not strong enough by themselves, they can perhaps work together with the computer tools to help make things easier.

Here's an example:
https://www.amazon.com/Computer-Reading-Glasses-Protect-Reflective/dp/B01FL8TOD4/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=Computer+Reading+Glasses+0.00+Black+2+Pack+Protect+Your+Eyes+Against+Eye&qid=1555261745&s=gateway&sr=8-1&th=1



EDIT: I just found these that are up to +4.00 magnification
https://www.amazon.com/Computer-Reading-Glasses-Protect-Reflective/dp/B01MR0JECP/ref=sr_1_66?keywords=computer%2Bglasses%2B%2B3.00&qid=1555262042&s=gateway&sr=8-66&th=1

 

[smoke665]

I have just gotten a large font back-lit keyboard which is making some things easier at least.

That was another thing I was going to suggest. You mentioned glare as a problem earlier, you may have already thought of this, but we used to buy anti-glare films to put over monitors used in brightly lit locations. Most of the big box office supply store have them. The good ones by 3M run around $80 but they really cut back on glare and reflections.

 

[Dagwood56]

Not specifically on your question, but possibly related to, I don't recall what PC you're using. If you have Windows, in version 8 and later they have a "Magnify" feature that you can toggle on and off and view enlarged sections of your screen. https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/11542/windows-use-magnifier it also has a color inversion feature that will let you turn the screen to yellow on black for higher visibility. I've used it a few times, but haven't tried it on PS or LR.

I have windows 7 and there is a magnify feature but it doesn't seem to work with everything. I have a Samsung monitor that has "eye saver mode", one of the reasons I bought it, but from what I'm finding you need to reset all your contrast etc settings each time you exit eye saver mode, too much of a pain considering how small the menu is to do it and the single multi use button is on the back of the monitor.. Plus eye saver turns the screen into an annoyingly hard to use reddish tint. I have just gotten a large font back-lit keyboard which is making some things easier at least.

Have you ever tried computer glasses with magnification? They have a coating that will help cut the blue light and there are some that come with up to +3.00 magnification. They can come with lighter or darker coating (the darker ones often seem to be listed as 'gaming' computer glasses). They will make things amber-colored but it's easier to just take them off than it is to change all the settings on your computer.

Or even if they are not strong enough by themselves, they can perhaps work together with the computer tools to help make things easier.

Here's an example:
https://www.amazon.com/Computer-Reading-Glasses-Protect-Reflective/dp/B01FL8TOD4/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=Computer+Reading+Glasses+0.00+Black+2+Pack+Protect+Your+Eyes+Against+Eye&qid=1555261745&s=gateway&sr=8-1&th=1



EDIT: I just found these that are up to +4.00 magnification
https://www.amazon.com/Computer-Reading-Glasses-Protect-Reflective/dp/B01MR0JECP/ref=sr_1_66?keywords=computer%2Bglasses%2B%2B3.00&qid=1555262042&s=gateway&sr=8-66&th=1

Thanks for the suggestion, but I don't think they would work because of my glasses. There used to be a type of screen that you could get to place over a monitor, but I haven;t seen one in awhile. That would be best as I could take it on and off as needed similar to the glasses you're talking about. I did try my sunglasses at one point, but it didn't help much. They made things too dark for me to see text which often seems quite faded to me to begin with, like very pale gray on white.

 

[Dagwood56]

I have just gotten a large font back-lit keyboard which is making some things easier at least.

That was another thing I was going to suggest. You mentioned glare as a problem earlier, you may have already thought of this, but we used to buy anti-glare films to put over monitors used in brightly lit locations. Most of the big box office supply store have them. The good ones by 3M run around $80 but they really cut back on glare and reflections.

Thank you!! I haven't been able to find them, but will look around again.

 

[vintagesnaps]

Maybe try resetting the brightness again; I have a different computer but I set mine slightly lower in brightness and must have saved the setting because I haven't had to reset it.

You know, it might somewhat be water under the bridge. Sometimes I've found I just had to realize something isn't working, it's not worth spending any more time on (for the time being), and chalk it up to a learning experience. I've come back later and then a lightbulb came on and I figured out what would work. You might need to pick out which ones you want to edit the most and concentrate on those. Save the others and maybe get back to them later on.

I'd try cropping and eliminating a lot of those white backgrounds and minimize the amount of editing. To me that's where I could see light gray spots (which I didn't see at first, had to take off my glasses to see up close). Some compositions might work just as well if the photo is a little tighter.

Once your camera's ready to go, getting out taking photos might be the break you need. I'd think about what other ways you could do the type photos you like; think about the 'negative' space in photos and how you're framing and using space in your compositions.

 

[Derrel]

• I think there's no clear right or wrong way to approach this, except to look at the issue of how you will approach the sensor spot issue moving forward.

 

[Dagwood56]

Maybe try resetting the brightness again; I have a different computer but I set mine slightly lower in brightness and must have saved the setting because I haven't had to reset it.

You know, it might somewhat be water under the bridge. Sometimes I've found I just had to realize something isn't working, it's not worth spending any more time on (for the time being), and chalk it up to a learning experience. I've come back later and then a lightbulb came on and I figured out what would work. You might need to pick out which ones you want to edit the most and concentrate on those. Save the others and maybe get back to them later on.

I'd try cropping and eliminating a lot of those white backgrounds and minimize the amount of editing. To me that's where I could see light gray spots (which I didn't see at first, had to take off my glasses to see up close). Some compositions might work just as well if the photo is a little tighter.

Once your camera's ready to go, getting out taking photos might be the break you need. I'd think about what other ways you could do the type photos you like; think about the 'negative' space in photos and how you're framing and using space in your compositions.

I'm not really all that concerned about the glare to be honest, I just get up and walk away from the computer for awhile and it helps. I found the anti glare screens, pricey little things, but my husband might agree to one eventually.

I have edited all the images I need to get things back online, once husband double checks them. I was just concerned that editing the smaller resized files might not be as accurate as doing the full size file.

I get what you're saying about the white backgrounds, and I do have many images that are fill the frame, but my recent work is done for a more artistic look; something you might find on a greeting card, a vintage seed packet, or the look of a painting. All I shoot are flowers, and I can work inside. I rarely do landscapes, Landscapes aren't really my thing that's one of the reasons I grew tired of the facebook groups. Most all were horizontal ICM's of sunsets. They just don't do anything for me, they're nothing but bands of color. I want something that speaks to me in some way when I'm done with it. It's important to me that there is a definite subject in my images. I'm your typical high strung,temperamental artist.

 

[Dagwood56]

• I think there's no clear right or wrong way to approach this, except to look at the issue of how you will approach the sensor spot issue moving forward.

I'll probably continue to use the levels layer to adjust things so I can see any spots. Hoping there won't be a ton of them once camera is cleaned. Problem is, with ICM, just 2 dust spots can easily turn into 20 when the camera moves.