Tuesday, 16 April 2019

Sharpening up my act

Birch Catkin Bug


I picked up a useful tip recently I'd like to pass on. One of my bugbears is over sharpened images. Mostly these result from people editing on mobile screens and not being able to see what they're doing. However, the modern style of photography (and lenses) is all about sharp images. When it comes to sharing images on social media people often post the largest image they've got. Top of the range "prosumer" cameras are pushing towards 100 Mb images now, but posting these is a social media disaster. Most social networks have an optimum size for images - larger images get compressed, often with poor results. If you're not sure what size image to post, 2048 pixels largest dimension is a good compromise. All modern cameras, including phones, produce larger images than this. So here's the tip. Edit your image and sharpen it, but not too much. Then resize to 2048 pixels. Then resharpen. As you can see, it works. But only if you start with a sharp image in the first place - if you start with fuzz, well...

Birch Catkin Bug, Kleidocerys resedae.