What size shots do you post on your site?

MDalby

I have been posting 5X7 shots on my site. I was just curious what you post and why?

Thanks,

MD

jonh68

I used to post 4x6 as that was the most common size bought, but now I just crop for composition and then crop when an order is placed.

Sledhed

I upload the full res files and then limit the view to large.

KMCC

Sledhed wrote:

I upload the full res files and then limit the view to large.

David Evertsen

KMCC wrote:

I second the motion..


David
www.phabulousphotos.com

MDalby

Guys, sorry, I may not have stated my question well. Are you saying you do not do any cropping at all before you post to your site? I know you do the PP such as USM, noise reduction, adding pop etc but you don't make the shot more appealing by cropping and getting the shot centered etc before you post?

This seems kind of odd to me.

KMCC

MDalby wrote:

Guys, sorry, I may not have stated my question well. Are you saying you do not do any cropping at all before you post to your site? I know you do the PP such as USM, noise reduction, adding pop etc but you don't make the shot more appealing by cropping and getting the shot centered etc before you post?

This seems kind of odd to me.

In my case, I complete all post-processing before I upload images to my site. This is a personal preference kind of thing, but I want to be finished with the image once it's on my site. Some people prefer to post images with minimal processing and then complete post-processing if a print is ordered.

Depending on what I captured in the original image, post-processing typically includes noise reduction (if the images were taken at ISO 800 or higher), Cropping (and leveling the image if necessary), using Levels (and sometimes Curves) to adjust contrast, and USM for sharpening the image.

There are times when some of those steps are not required, but that's the order in which I do them.

When I crop an image, I try to crop as little as possible. To be successful at this, you have to learn to shoot very tight on the subject in the first place. The old adage in sports photography is to "Shoot tight, crop tighter."

When I crop, I use a custom aspect ratio set at the ratio of the original image. This means that any cropped images are resampled so that they remain at the original, pre-cropped aspect ratio. I also set the resolution to 300 dpi.

Warning: you can't crop out large areas of an image using this technique without quickly degrading the image quality.

MDalby

Thanks Kent,

I haven't done anything with regard to setting the resolution. I will have to play with that.

MD

Sledhed

MDalby wrote:

Guys, sorry, I may not have stated my question well. Are you saying you do not do any cropping at all before you post to your site? I know you do the PP such as USM, noise reduction, adding pop etc but you don't make the shot more appealing by cropping and getting the shot centered etc before you post?

This seems kind of odd to me.

MD - For games that I sell (which is youth sports) I just cull and upload. There's no cropping, color correction or sharpening done. As Kent said "shoot tight and crop tighter", I mainly shoot with a 400/2.8 and I shoot tight to begin with. If I sat and worked every image I post it would take me forever to get galleries up and I would be wasting my time on images that don't sell. Everybody feels different about this but it works very well for me.

As for pro sports, it depends on the client and how they want the images. If they want uncropped, unprocessed files that's what they get. If they want them captioned, tagged and processed then that's what they get.

DonRicklin

KMCC wrote:

In my case, I complete all post-processing before I upload images to my site. This is a personal preference kind of thing, but I want to be finished with the image once it's on my site. Some people prefer to post images with minimal processing and then complete post-processing if a print is ordered.

Depending on what I captured in the original image, post-processing typically includes noise reduction (if the images were taken at ISO 800 or higher), Cropping (and leveling the image if necessary), using Levels (and sometimes Curves) to adjust contrast, and USM for sharpening the image.

There are times when some of those steps are not required, but that's the order in which I do them.

When I crop an image, I try to crop as little as possible. To be successful at this, you have to learn to shoot very tight on the subject in the first place. The old adage in sports photography is to "Shoot tight, crop tighter."

When I crop, I use a custom aspect ratio set at the ratio of the original image. This means that any cropped images are resampled so that they remain at the original, pre-cropped aspect ratio. I also set the resolution to 300 dpi.

Warning: you can't crop out large areas of an image using this technique without quickly degrading the image quality.

CRop and size are two different things. The question here seems to be what Aspect ratio does one post? If you are on SmugMug, I'd post full or your vision, since the buyer can ( in most cases) crop for print ( AFAIK) excpet for those of us who Smiuggers (not me) who opt for PP before the buyer gets their print.

Don

clcoronios

Mike, I post proofs, so I basically cull - and sometimes crop slightly. I also often put up a "samples" gallery on my proof site. In this, I'll put the out-of-camera image and (sometimes) a couple crop variations and (other times) an example of what the finished product will look like.

For instance, we did a sponsor shoot for a figure skating exhibition team a couple weeks ago. The arena doesn't turn on all the lights and the result, even with flash, can be fairly muddy. (now, we're accustomed to shooting in indoor arenas, so 'muddy' with all that ice was a real shock to me!)
Figure skating is a new venture for us, so I didn't want folks to think that their photos would look the way the proofs do - so I 'worked' a few to show them. And the "header" on that site indicates such.

As far as sizing goes, I size to 600p on the long side at 72 dpi. This allows quick loading - a major factor in viewer-satisfaction. I do NOT 'save for web' as this strips metadata.

Hope that helps some..

Carol