Hi, could some of you please take a look at my first attempt at posting a picture? (Its a mosque in Istanbul)

http://www.photo.net/photodb/photo?photo_id=472793&size=sm

Please note, the "Medium" image is very large, about the browser windows wide.. which leads me to my next question, what software can I download (for free) which allows me to resize pictures? Thanks, I just started shooting pictures (other than P&S) about 2 months ago... Phillip

-- Phillip Silitschanu (speedin_saab@hotmail.com), December 10, 2001

Answers

Few hints here:

- yout posted images are too large. I would not post anything larger then 800 x whatever at the moment.

- you use too much JPEG compression -- compression artifacts are too obvious. I normally use level 5 JPEG; occasionally more or less compression depending on circumstances.

- it looks like your blach/white poits and gamma are not set up correctly. It is especially noticeable with black point (black does not look really black). Also make sure your monitor is calibrated properly.

- as far as free software goes I can recommend GIMP (http://www.gimp.org). It operates only 8-bit images, but it is absolutely sufficient for web. I used it only on Linux, but they seem to have compiled installations for Windows.

P.S. I love Saabs :-)

-- Alexander Grekhov (grekhov@wgukraine.com), December 10, 2001.

Philip, it is certainly a worthy subject. One of the things photography does best is to show us things we would otherwise probably never see. The photo is worth seeing for the pattern of the windows, the detail within each window, and for the colors.

In the process of moving the medium-size image around on my screen, I began to see that it profits from being cropped a bit--perhaps to a square format--to eliminate the dark areas at the sides. It even remains valid when cropped in various ways, to get several different picture-within-a-picture possibilities. I liked the curved pattern of the upper windows. But cropping them out to result in a tighter shot seemed to result in an equally valid image. I like it both ways.

Regards,

-- Bob Fleischman (RFXMAIL@prodigy.net), December 10, 2001.

Thanks for the input guys, I knew the image was too large, but I had no idea where to find good software to edit it (the software that came with my scanner is not so great). I agree that I should have cropped it, and chopped off about 1/3 of the picture on the right side (I actually had it blown up, and I did just that with the physical pic). I will also work on getting my color corrected (more stuff to learn!). Thanks, Phillip -- ps - I Have a Saab 900, 1997 (non turbo), black 2 door, 5 speed

-- Phillip Silitschanu (speedin_saab@hotmail.com), December 11, 2001.

Philip, computer software still needs to be a lot more user-friendly! I have had some images scanned onto a CD, and have downloaded Graphic Converter. This is shareware, with a registration fee only. It takes a bit of figuring out but seems to do quite a lot. My only problem is I have a Mac and not evryone with a PC can view my pix. Unfortunately, your picture of the mosque looks too dark as it is, but isn't Istanbul a great place?!

-- David Killick (Dalex@inet.net.nz), December 11, 2001.