sharp, crisp images

[MWILLJ16]

In looking at the following websites, could someone tell me what possible
programs are designers using to create sharp, crisp images? Here's following
websites [url]www.seehowtheylive.com[/url] and [url]http://osu.okstate.edu[/url] .
Could they possibly be using image size greater than 28 - 35k ? Thanks in
advance for your reply.

[MWILLJ16]

Yes, I'm talking about the photos. The photos looks very sharp, rich, crisp.

[LazyMoon]

Most graphic professionals use Photoshop, although Fireworks is quite adequate
as well. Most well taken photographs are crisp from the start, although these
most likely have been been sharpened and altered before being incorporated into
the design.

[MWILLJ16]

Thanks LazyMoon. I appreciate the information you shared with me.

[Ken McMahon]

It's not so much the application, as the degree of compression that is the main
determinant of photo quality. It's a trade-off between file size and quality.
you need to apply enough jpeg compression to reduce the photo file size to an
acceptable level, but not too much, or the quality will begin to suffer. If you
plan to prepare a lot of photos for the web and quality is important to you you
should get a good book on the subject.

Ken

[Michael Hager]

Good advice Ken,

Also, I think that a lot of what you are seeing on the OSU site is also a
function of the original photographer. The header photo in particular appears
very sharp and crisp because of the composition, the depth of field used and
the bright colors of the clothing in the picture.

The image was shot with a telephoto lens at a wide aperture that focused hard
on the people in the foreground but soft focused the background. The strong
colors go with the colors of the web site (school colors) and the combination
creates a very sharp looking image. Only as good as the original photography
and this one is quite good!

The second image of the two seated gentlemen is really not that sharp and
clear if you look closely, but it is given the appearance of sharpness by
adding the thin black border and drop shadow which makes it pop off the page
and stand out.

Good stuff? any good image processing program will give you superior results.
I?ve used Photoshop, Fireworks, Corel Photo Paint and even Windows Paint.

Just remember to always use images sized to fit your intended size, never
re-size them with code. That?s a sure way to distort them. And when you can,
start out with great pictures!

[Unregistered]

Check out these brief tutorials:

[url]http://www.webreference.com/graphics/column49/[/url]