Image deterioration on website!

[MayPhoto]

Hello,

I am in the process of making a website for myself and starting a business. Mostly family portrait photography. I am using a template company called Clikpic. I am really enjoying the process but I feel my photos loose something once they are uploaded to the site. It is not Live yet so I can not share the link here but I wondered if anyone had any suggestions? In photoshop they are clear, beautiful and full of colour and SHARP! Once on the website though they are muddled and feel a little blah. Is it something in the compression? I find this happens quite a bit outside of Photoshop. When using any type of preview software it's never as good as it is in PS. The image below is compressed as used on the web, it's not as pin point as it is in PS! Any help would be appreciated.

 

[The_Traveler]

Do you change the color profile before you upload to the site?

 

[tirediron]

Are the links in your website going directly to image files, or is there some sort of gallery software being used?

 

[MayPhoto]

Do you change the color profile before you upload to the site?

No I haven't. Should I be?

 

[MayPhoto]

Are the links in your website going directly to image files, or is there some sort of gallery software being used?

They are going directly to the website, there is no gallery software being used.

 

[tirediron]

Do you change the color profile before you upload to the site?

No I haven't. Should I be?

Generally web images are in sRGB colour-space. What is the size & resolution of the image on your 'site compared to the version you are looking at in PS?

 

[The_Traveler]

If you don't convert (not assign) to the color profile for the web, sRGB, the colors will look muddy or worse.

If you don't resize your pictures to the size they will appear on the web, you are allowing the web server software to do that, possibly with crappy results.

Rather than us writing a tutorial on the issue, search for an existing one that is suitable for your equipment, software and knowledge.

how to prepare pictures for the web - Google Search

(As an aside, if you don't know this very basic issue about color and size, IMO you are not ready to take pictures and charge money.)

 

[MayPhoto]

If you don't convert (not assign) to the color profile for the web, sRGB, the colors will look muddy or worse.

This is very helpful information and the reason I have joined a forum. For people's working knowledge and what better way to learn than from people who have the experience? None of us are absolute experts and I believe asking is learning.

I don't think my photography skills are at question here. It's the technology regarding a website that I am trying to get right. I am doing my best to have an understanding of that BEFORE I begin charging people money. But thank you for your humble opinion.

 

[BruceHinton]

(As an aside, if you don't know this very basic issue about color and size, IMO you are not ready to take pictures and charge money.)

Have some nice hot chocolate, calm down.

How about; "This photographer should not be charging for website design, and needs more processing skills before selling web hosted albums of his images."

This photographer may be quite capable of shooting good work, and delivering proper prints that were produced either in house with a good printer, or sent out.

Bruce

 

[The_Traveler]

This photographer may be quite capable of shooting good work, and delivering proper prints that were produced either in house with a good printer, or sent out.

Perhaps but unknown.
Uploading to websites and managing color profiles is really basic knowledge, important for virtually every part of photography.
Clearly there are gaps in this photographer's knowledge and when they don't know their abc's, it is reasonable to assume that there are gaps somewhere else.
Would you say 'this surgeon is probably great but his ability to suture is really lacking'?

 

[vintagesnaps]

Lew's right about that, whether anyone wants to hear it or not... I've been doing submissions to juried exhibits and have been a photographer a long time and know my work is good enough to be considered. But coming from a film photography background I had to learn how to submit images digitally and write up my information as specified by a particular call to artists, etc. etc.. If I can't do that well my images wouldn't even get considered.

I have to make submissions that are of an acceptable professional quality, they don't care if I may have some talent, it has to show in what I submit and has to be to their standards. So yeah, you gotta get this figured out before it gets shown to prospective clients. (Maybe the problem is Clickpic?? I'm not familiar with that, I do my own adjusting/resizing etc.)

 

[Bubba Jones]

This is important as well, "...I feel my photos loose something...". It should read "...I feel my photos lose something...". Loose means something is not tight. Though lose sounds as it should contain double o, it contains only one letter o; think lost, lose, losing, all have one letter o. Yes, using loosing and loose for losing and lose is a quite common mistake.

Why is this important, because you want your site to come across professionally. You want to come across that you pay close attention to detail. Many prospective clients see a website with misspelled words, it then becomes a big turn off. Their thinking is "when the spelling and grammar is not correct the photographer is not detailed enough".

Cordially,
Bubba

 

[MayPhoto]

(As an aside, if you don't know this very basic issue about color and size, IMO you are not ready to take pictures and charge money.)

Have some nice hot chocolate, calm down.

How about; "This photographer should not be charging for website design, and needs more processing skills before selling web hosted albums of his images."

This photographer may be quite capable of shooting good work, and delivering proper prints that were produced either in house with a good printer, or sent out.

Bruce

Thanks for your comment Bruce. What you've said is tactfully expressed and much closer to the type of support I am used to from these communities.

 

[MayPhoto]

But coming from a film photography background I had to learn how to submit images digitally

Thank you for your comments. This is where I'm at in my process. For years I shot film in parallel with digital. Probably I should have spent more time staying current with the digital technology that accompanies such wonderful cameras. Alas, I chose to still spend time in the dark room. Now I have to play catch up!

I have every intention on learning the craft of websites, digital uploads etc.. I will be happy to take months or years if need be to be sure I get it right before I launch myself as a pro.