Soft Images

[JulietParticipant]

Forgive me if this is a really novice question, but I have minimal knowledge on how websites work.

Why are my images on Symbiostock so soft? When I view the exact same JPEG on my website and then on my hard drive, there is a really big difference in quality. Did I mess up settings or something on my uploader? I’m not really sure where to start on finding a solution. These same JPEGs look fine on agency sites when I upload them.

Here is one I uploaded today, and I was so saddened by the low-quality display of the image. What am I doing wrong? How do I get my images to upload with the sharpness they have when viewed from my hard drive?
http://parkerstockphotos.com/image/sitting-brown-and-black-cat/

[ChristineParticipant]

When you go into Stock Images – Process Uploads look near the top of the page, does it say something like Image Magick (preferred) or GD ?

If GD you will do better with Image Magick, this can often be done by add this line

extension=imagick.so

to your php.ini

which can be found in

public.html

http://kerioakimaging.com - trying to reopen
http://nail-art-at.kerioak.com - Art and Nail Art

[JoAnnSnoverParticipant]

I can’t see your website for comparison, but as I’m assuming you downsize from the original to output to JPEG for your website, perhaps you’re applying sharpening to that web-sized image?

I’m not sure, but I don’t think the processor that makes the thumbnails and previews for Symbiostock, applies any sharpening.

Truthfully that image doesn’t look low quality or soft. But at that size you can’t really tell image sharpness anyway. Can you provide a link to a similar sized preview of that same cat image?

Does this image look soft to you?

http://parkerstockphotos.com/image/brown-tabby-cat-on-polka-dot-background/

As it’s a closeup, I’d expect to see sharper details, and I think this looks OK – in other words I wouldn’t have any question about the sharpness of the image based on this preview.

(Although this does highlight again why a zoom feature would be such a big asset for buyers…)

[JulietParticipant]

@christine wrote:

When you go into Stock Images – Process Uploads look near the top of the page, does it say something like Image Magick (preferred) or GD ?

If GD you will do better with Image Magick, this can often be done by add this line

extension=imagick.so

to your php.ini

which can be found in

public.html

It says GD Library.

I’m really clueless on this….I’m not sure where to find the place to enter that line? You’re really going to have to dumb this down lol.

[JulietParticipant]

@jsnover wrote:

I can’t see your website for comparison, but as I’m assuming you downsize from the original to output to JPEG for your website, perhaps you’re applying sharpening to that web-sized image?

I’m not sure, but I don’t think the processor that makes the thumbnails and previews for Symbiostock, applies any sharpening.

Truthfully that image doesn’t look low quality or soft. But at that size you can’t really tell image sharpness anyway. Can you provide a link to a similar sized preview of that same cat image?

Does this image look soft to you?

http://parkerstockphotos.com/image/brown-tabby-cat-on-polka-dot-background/

As it’s a closeup, I’d expect to see sharper details, and I think this looks OK – in other words I wouldn’t have any question about the sharpness of the image based on this preview.

(Although this does highlight again why a zoom feature would be such a big asset for buyers…)

I normally don’t apply sharpening when I export from LR (CR2 to JPEG).

The only other place this image has been uploaded is the animal shelter’s website, but they downsize to ~10kb, and that really diminishes quality, so that’s not going to help for comparison. I did email the photo to a friend to take a look. She could see a difference too. The fur loses detail when viewed on the website.

The brown tabby photo looks like it lost detail in the fur to me as well.

I promise these are in focus when viewed 1:1 🙂

[JoAnnSnoverParticipant]

php.ini is a file that lives in the root directory of your web site (i.e. on the server)

Not sure who your host is, but for Bluehost, you can go to the cPanel and make this change there. Here’s their help page:

https://my.bluehost.com/cgi/help/imagemagick

And if you select PhP Config from the Software/Services panel, you can check a box for Image Magick that will make the necessary edits for you

https://box785.bluehost.com:2083/frontend/bluehost/cptt/phpconfig.html

[JulietParticipant]

@jsnover wrote:

php.ini is a file that lives in the root directory of your web site (i.e. on the server)

Not sure who your host is, but for Bluehost, you can go to the cPanel and make this change there. Here’s their help page:

https://my.bluehost.com/cgi/help/imagemagick

And if you select PhP Config from the Software/Services panel, you can check a box for Image Magick that will make the necessary edits for you

https://box785.bluehost.com:2083/frontend/bluehost/cptt/phpconfig.html

Thank you for trying to help me through this. I finally just submitted a ticket to BlueHost. Maybe they can just go in and fix it for me. I did check the help guides you linked to and the BlueHost forums, but they are all “speaking Greek” to me. I’m not sure when I went from competent on the computer to totally clueless, but it happened haha. Thanks again for trying to help the clueless.

[dhodacParticipant]

Hello,

For BlueHost. Making sure when you use the tool PhP config (under Software/Services), you select PhP 5.4 (Single PhP.ini) otherwise it will not work as in a single click.

Daniel

[Author]

Posts