My website is for custom handmade products and pictures of these products is very important. I am using pictures of 400 pixel high which are no problem. I am also using much smaller pics (which are ok also) but I am linking them to larger pics with descriptions of that particular item. The files I am linking the thumbnail pics to are .jpg with a larger pic and a description. These are what look like crap. I am using Adobe Photoshop Elements for all pics. Here is the address: .www.ranchhorseoutfitters.com Here is a direct link to one of the pages with the thumbnails: www.ranchhorseoutfitters.com/RanchVersatility.html I really want these files to look great online and they don't. Obviously, this is very important to me and my potential customers to see the quality of our work. Any suggestions?? I had thought about linking them to a page, but when I open a new page, it is an exact copy of the home page, not a blank page.www.ranchhorseoutfitters.com Any suggestions to help me out will certainly be greatly appreciated!

You probably have set your home page as a Master Page. Go to Page Editor > Page Select tab and uncheck 'Master Page' option.

quote:

Originally posted by ranchcutter:
The files I am linking the thumbnail pics to are .jpg with a larger pic and a description. These are what look like crap.

I looked at a few of your larger pictures, and they didn't look too bad to me -- but then again, I'm not known for my good taste!

However a couple of other suggestions:

JPG format as you are using is good for photos, but is not so good for text -- for that reason, the text accompanying the saddles is fuzzy. You could increase the JPG format image quality, but I prefer the idea of putting each image on its own page with text in normal .html format. I suggest you use popup windows as described here. You can create just the large image externally (no text), then use SiteSpinner to scale that down for the thumbnail.

I don't care for the white background on the saddles as that seems to introduce "jaggies" around the edges. Maybe Photoshop has a way of improving that? If not, I would prefer to see actual un-retouched photos preferably with each saddle on an actual horse, or at least something hairy! Just my opinion of course.

Thank you so much for link to your info on the pop up window for a page. That is exactly what I was trying to do but didn't know how. It looks great! Take a look and see www.ranchhorseoutfitters.com/RangeBossII.html. Click on the small pic. Now, so I don't have to keep publishing the whole site, can I just publish the new pop up page and the page containing the link? or what is the simplest way to publish? I tried just publishing the page containing the link and it didn't work on site. I just published the whole site again to make sure I had all the files necessary.

Looks good to me. That is correct, you don't have to publish the whole site only the page containing the link and the new 'pop up' pages. Make sure that the links on the page containing them are pointing to the correct locations.

I am still pondering on what Bruce meant by “something hairy”.

LMAO. Thanks so much for making me laugh this morning!! I needed that!!

Lovely products.

With regard to the saddle images, if you haven't already, I would cut the saddle out of its background from the original raw image at [huge]px x [huge]px. Then as the last thing you do, reduce the size to the finished article.

This way if you slip a bit with the rubber tool and shave a couple of px off the edge of a saddle, then when its reduced in size, the amount of that error is reduced by the same factor as you reduce the image size.

One technique I use in PShop is when cutting out of a background, zoom in to the image so that its say 600% original size and then hold the shift key down as I'm using the rubber round the edges, this way it will rub out a straight line between clicks which can be as close as you like, that straight line will tend to disappear.

In your tool options for the rubber, you may have the option to select Airbrush rather than paintbrush or block. The airbrush has a softer edge which is kinder and slightly more forgiving. Experiment with the settings.

Another technique for getting rid of jaggies and lumpy bits of editing is to either add an outer glow, or to add a drop shadow, this will mask any rough bits.

From a marketing point of view, I would also add some big size detail closeup photos. The leather tooling looks lovely, be nice to see it in more detail and I'll bet the stitching is second to none. The example of this would be the Top Hand saddle built for Phillip McDougal, a thing of beauty. (The saddle not Mr McDougal - sorry Mr M)

Actually, I don't used Photoshop Elements to cut our the background. I could never master the background eraser. I use the "create a cutout" in Microsoft Picture It. I sure would like to be able to master another way of cutting out the background because the way I'm doing it takes some time.

Ah ok. I don't know Microsoft Picture.

With PShop it also takes time and of course time put in = quality out (mostly).

Theres little to learn, the eraser tool just rubs away the foreground pixels leaving the background colour, which you can set to white or whatever colour you like.

The quality you've achieved I think is perfectly ok, I'd still have the closeups to show the quality of the products.

Good luck

G