Image Optimization & Quality

Hi,

Hope someone knows the answer to this. I currently use a digital camera to take pictures of my items for my site. And when I upload them they seem to lose a bit of their quality b/c i have IH2 installed and they are compressed into different sizes.

My question is, is it better to take my pictures at the highest quality possible then upload them or lowest?

reason i ask this is cause i read this in a tutorial:

** The file size of an image is entirely dependant on the physical dimensions, the type of format it is saved in and the amount of compression applied. You may have heard things about image resolution - that has nothing to do with the file size (but a heck of a lot to do with the quality of a printout! That's another topic altogether!).**

so i'm just not clear on which is the best way to go.

thanks!

one more question, I currently resize my pics to 640x480 before uploading to my site. is this a reasonable size, i.e. not to large...i tried 480x480 but the pics are a bit more distorted.

thanks!

Image resolution = number of pixels . so there are more pixels in image the better the resolution , try to shoot at highest resolution , this will give you better result but your file size will increase.

i don't know if your camera can shoot in RAW mode. RAW mode will record all information about image , then you can optimize and compress to different file format .

don't forget , different file format , means different compression and each compression means lose of quality unless you are willing to spend lots of time with photoshop and layers to make your compressed image better quality .

in photography , light is the key , so setting up your shooting location with proper light will increase quality of your images.

one problem with Digital camera is its White balance .. proper WB is also important in overall quality of your image , if you are shooting with compact digital camera , those camera do a good job with WB , but i believe you can over ride that and change the color temp , or use Gray card that you can buy from any camera shop to set your WB according to your light condition before shooting .

i use a program called lightroom from adobe for all my photo retouching and color correction , but you can do almost all that if you have photoshop .

I am assuming you are talking about optimizing for faster page loads, correct?

Find a size you find reasonable...it looks like you have done that with the 640x480

Go to Dynamic drive and optimize your pictures. Choose a picture that has been optimized but has not lost any clarity.

Use these optimized pictures, but save the originals in case you need them somewhere else.

thank you both for the great advice!