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Author Topic: Website Image Resolution  (Read 3439 times)

Alistair

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Website Image Resolution
« on: June 14, 2015, 11:17:42 pm »

I am reactivating and redoing my website. Since I last did this the resolution of viewers screens has increased markedly. Even my phone has a 2560 pixels on the horizontal axis, MBP 13 inch have the same and the 15 inch ones have 2880 while of course 4k is around 4000 and 5k is 5120! The website hosts and the client machines handle this in different ways but mostly they do handle it so that only the hi-rez screens get sent the hi-rez images. One just has to upload the images at the highest resolution that one wants to make available. 

So what resolution are you all uploading to your websites at? Obviously it is a compromise between download times and IQ but I am interested in what others are doing. I am thinking of uploading at somewhere between 1800x1200  and 2400x1600 with a modest quality setting.
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Alistair

synn

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Re: Website Image Resolution
« Reply #1 on: June 15, 2015, 03:24:04 am »

I recommend using a modern backend for your website that is responsive and can display the right sized image based on the user's display resolution.
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Alistair

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Re: Website Image Resolution
« Reply #2 on: June 15, 2015, 03:33:50 am »

I recommend using a modern backend for your website that is responsive and can display the right sized image based on the user's display resolution.

Well of course. That is obvious and everyone does that. But it does not answer the question as to what resolution to upload to such a back end. 

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Alistair

synn

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Re: Website Image Resolution
« Reply #3 on: June 15, 2015, 03:35:41 am »

I upload full res files on to my backend (Atleast 6000px on the long edge). That helps me future proof for multiple display sizes and also offer prints straight from the website.
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Alistair

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Re: Website Image Resolution
« Reply #4 on: June 15, 2015, 03:41:47 am »

I upload full res files on to my backend (Atleast 6000px on the long edge). That helps me future proof for multiple display sizes and also offer prints straight from the website.

Thank you. Wow, that is interesting and certainly deals with the issue once and for all. Can I ask what back end you use and do you know what size copies it is creating and storing to send to browsers depending upon screen resolution detected? Thanks.
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Alistair

synn

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Re: Website Image Resolution
« Reply #5 on: June 15, 2015, 05:03:38 am »

I use a Zenfolio premium account. Other services such as Smugmug should offer similar features too.
Regarding the pixel sizes, I never measure to be honest as it always scales dynamically based on the resolution.

You can see the site from the link in my signature.
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Alistair

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Re: Website Image Resolution
« Reply #6 on: June 15, 2015, 06:12:56 am »

I use a Zenfolio premium account. Other services such as Smugmug should offer similar features too.
Regarding the pixel sizes, I never measure to be honest as it always scales dynamically based on the resolution.

You can see the site from the link in my signature.

This is actually a good illustration of the issue. I viewed your site on a number of devices but the biggest file it showed me was 1024 pixels wide. This was OK when it showed the images in the flash based slide shows which were only circa 1000px windows but these low resolutions are also being used in the full screen sliders which makes for a very soft image. I do not have a 4k or 5k screen but I would be interested to see what these as are being sent.
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Alistair

Slobodan Blagojevic

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Re: Website Image Resolution
« Reply #7 on: June 15, 2015, 06:45:23 am »

Do you really want them displayed at 5K? That would generate a downloadable file printable at 50 inches wide.

torger

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Re: Website Image Resolution
« Reply #8 on: June 15, 2015, 07:03:44 am »

I upload at full res and let the backend do the scaling. But as stated above one may have reasons to not upload high resolution at all to minimize risk of people stealing the images and making perfectly usable large prints.

I'd rather upload lower resolution images than sprinkle with ugly watermarks, but tastes are different regarding that.
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Alistair

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Re: Website Image Resolution
« Reply #9 on: June 15, 2015, 05:30:01 pm »

Do you really want them displayed at 5K? That would generate a downloadable file printable at 50 inches wide.

Possibly, some folk will want to. The thing that is important though is if you limit images to a lower resolution that your back end deals with a request from a hi-rez device in an appropriate way.
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Alistair

douglevy

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Re: Website Image Resolution
« Reply #10 on: June 15, 2015, 07:43:47 pm »

This is why I use photoshelter - it's automatic - douglaslevy.com

Alistair

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Re: Website Image Resolution
« Reply #11 on: June 15, 2015, 07:48:12 pm »

This is why I use photoshelter - it's automatic - douglaslevy.com

They mostly are, to vary degrees of success. But what is the resolution you send to Photoshelter? That decision determines how good your images look on 3,4, and 5 k screens.
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Alistair

douglevy

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Re: Website Image Resolution
« Reply #12 on: June 15, 2015, 07:52:28 pm »

Full resolution jpegs. It's also my, "oh shit my house burned down" cloud backup.

Alistair

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Re: Website Image Resolution
« Reply #13 on: June 15, 2015, 08:00:08 pm »

Full resolution jpegs. It's also my, "oh shit my house burned down" cloud backup.

Ok, thanks. That Photoshelter site looks really good BTW. I am only looking at it on a 2k screen but it seems sharper than your other one (Wordpress theme?).
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Alistair

Slobodan Blagojevic

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Re: Website Image Resolution
« Reply #14 on: June 15, 2015, 08:21:46 pm »

...I viewed your site on a number of devices but the biggest file it showed me was 1024 pixels wide...

While reading this thread on my iPad (with Retina resolution), I made a screen shot of one of synn's images (Rainbow City) from his website. It measured 1645x1234px. I can guarantee you I can print it as a 24x30 canvas beautifully, using an up-rez software, and sell it in art fairs (I won't).

For some of us selling our own prints at art fairs, a frequent question is do we have a web site. What is preventing a visitor to then go home, download one or more of my images and print it almost the same size I am offering, for a fraction of the cost?

Then again, if you have no concerns of that or similar kind, do upload the largest size you have.
« Last Edit: June 15, 2015, 09:05:31 pm by Slobodan Blagojevic »
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douglevy

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Re: Website Image Resolution
« Reply #15 on: June 15, 2015, 09:03:57 pm »

That makes sense - the wedding site has 1500px on the long edge - optimized for retail consumer and mobile, faster loading on smaller screen (and yeah, wordpress)
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