Question About Resizing

[TheNevadanStig]

OK, probably a stupid question but I honestly haven't done much resizing before. I have been working on a picture to enter in our monthly contest here on the forum, and per rules, the longest size can not exceed 700 pixels. I can do that just fine, but any viewing of the picture large enough after sizing it down that far looks like complete and udder garbage. I know the enlarged images after being posted here for previous months do not look so low quality, so what am I missing? Something in the resolution setting?

 

[Big Mike]

700 pixels is large enough to be viewed (at 100% zoom) on a typical monitor/screen. Sure, if you zoom in, it starts to look bad, but these obviously aren't for zooming in.

I'd guess that because this is a contest, they don't want everyone sending in huge files and clogging up their e-mail. They are likely going to judge the images, and possibly only display them, on a web site, so they don't need to be any larger than 700 pixels.

 

[Braineack]

Stig, I clicked on your flickr photostream. All your images are under 700px; they look awful.

 

[TheNevadanStig]

Anyone with an actual answer?

 

[Braineack]

does this image at 640px look like utter garbage:

does 1024px make it questionable garbage?

 

[TreeofLifeStairs]

I don't know what you could be doing wrong. Do the originals look good?

 

[KmH]

There are many things you need to consider when you want to resize a photo - like the resampling algorithm options you have available/

Adobe - Search: resizing

 

[TheNevadanStig]

does this image at 640px look like utter garbage:

does 1024px make it questionable garbage?

I never said all pictures at that size look bad. As I said in my original post, everyone else's look fine, but mine are coming out completely horrid, so I think I am doing something wrong on my end.

I don't know what you could be doing wrong. Do the originals look good?

Yes, the originals are fine.
As in example, there are letters in the picture that I would consider fairly large, yet after resizing you can not read them or hardly even recognize they may have been letters. Viewing the image at anything on screen larger than say the size of the avatar pictures on this thread causes the picture to tun to complete crap.
Maybe it is something I am doing. I am using PS CC. I go to image, resize, then set the longest end to 700 pixels. Is this not the proper way?

 

[Braineack]

use the "best for reductions" algorithm.