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avatar's killin' me...

blindman24

blindman24

Really Experienced
Joined
Dec 9, 2005
Posts
286
ok here's my dillemma...

I just got to 100 posts, so i thought I'd put my avatar up. the only problem is, I can't get it small enough...

before you tell me how to shrink it in photoshop, I'm a graphic designer so I know photoshop inside and out. That's not the problem. but for some reason, I just can't shrink my image enough (without turning it into an unrecognizable blob) to make it fit for Lit's requirements.

is there a trick, or a website or something that I don't know about? because those of you that have av's, they seem to look relatively clear, and I don't get wy mine's not working.

so any advice would rock, and be very appreciated! thanks!
 
Sometimes you need to lower the image quality to make it work. And yes it will make it look like a blob. Some images are so huge, that if you take anything away from them, you will lack quality. So if you can't shrink it enough in photoshop, try another program and see what happens.


Ravin
 
There's thread somewhere on LIT, maybe in the General Forums, where you can post your pic and other folk will reduce it for you.

I can modify pics with my printer software. Microsoft Picture It! does the trick also.

I don't know if it works with animated GIFs, though.
 
You might want to crop out the section that really captures the essence of the image, then compress that section on its own.

What size is the whole image before compression?
 
blindman24 said:
That's not the problem. but for some reason, I just can't shrink my image enough (without turning it into an unrecognizable blob) to make it fit for Lit's requirements.
Click to expand...

A couple of things I've discovered about reizing for avatars:

1: Resize to the maximum pixel dimension permitted -- here that's 150x150. Every pixel you give up on the dimension reduces the amount of detail the image can show by the sum of the dimensions -- a 149x149 pixel image has 150+150= 300 fewer "picture elements" (pixels) and "picture elements" are what show detail. (atually 299 fewer because one is counted twice.)

2: If you're starting from a very large image, resize in stages -- reduce 50% at a time; for espcially difficult pictures reduce 25% at a time. When you get down to a largest dimension just over 150 pixels, switch from percentage change to your 150 pixel target size.

3: Crop images so that they're roughly square and don't include anything except the subject -- Want to use a picture of your dog or cat? Crop away the couch and and food dishes and everything except the dog or cat and whatever else make the picture worthy of an avatar.

4: For animated avatars, reduce the number of frames to the minimum required to show the action. Lit's filesize restriction puts a practical limit of about three frames on a fullsized avatar and maybe six frames if you're willing to accept a smaller avatar.

5: Avoid pictures with a lot of detail. 150 x150 pixels only give you 22,500 points of information to show detail. If you start with a picture that is 1500x1500 pixels, every the 100 pixels in the original have to be averaged down into one pixel in an avatar -- any small details in a given 10x10 section of the original will be lost.

6: choose a bright image with high contrasts -- or increase brightness and contrast as much as possible. Dark images tend to lose contrast when reduced in size and become just a dark square instead of an avatar.
 
Weird Harold said:
A couple of things I've discovered about reizing for avatars:

1: Resize to the maximum pixel dimension permitted -- here that's 150x150. Every pixel you give up on the dimension reduces the amount of detail the image can show by the sum of the dimensions -- a 149x149 pixel image has 150+150= 300 fewer "picture elements" (pixels) and "picture elements" are what show detail. (atually 299 fewer because one is counted twice.)

2: If you're starting from a very large image, resize in stages -- reduce 50% at a time; for espcially difficult pictures reduce 25% at a time. When you get down to a largest dimension just over 150 pixels, switch from percentage change to your 150 pixel target size.

3: Crop images so that they're roughly square and don't include anything except the subject -- Want to use a picture of your dog or cat? Crop away the couch and and food dishes and everything except the dog or cat and whatever else make the picture worthy of an avatar.

4: For animated avatars, reduce the number of frames to the minimum required to show the action. Lit's filesize restriction puts a practical limit of about three frames on a fullsized avatar and maybe six frames if you're willing to accept a smaller avatar.

5: Avoid pictures with a lot of detail. 150 x150 pixels only give you 22,500 points of information to show detail. If you start with a picture that is 1500x1500 pixels, every the 100 pixels in the original have to be averaged down into one pixel in an avatar -- any small details in a given 10x10 section of the original will be lost.

6: choose a bright image with high contrasts -- or increase brightness and contrast as much as possible. Dark images tend to lose contrast when reduced in size and become just a dark square instead of an avatar.
Click to expand...


Ooooo, I love geek talk!!! ;)

I used Snag it to crop and redo my pics. Its a nice program and relatively cheap.
 
INeedLove said:
I used Snag it to crop and redo my pics. Its a nice program and relatively cheap.
Click to expand...

You might want to check out Irfanview -- it's very good at cropping and resizing images and it's cheaper than Snag -- i.e. it is completely free. :p

The "Geek Talk" basically boils down to some images make better avatars than others and no amount of skill or neat tricks can make them good avatars.
 
I know you are a graphic designer, so don't get miffed if I'm stating the obvious here. I'm a web guy primarily, but many times our graphcs people will try to send me stuff for the web sites that are in CMYK format. This will make you image much larger and is not usable on the web. It should be RGB or Index color. Also, if you are reducing an image, make sure you convert it to RGB before reducing. If it is in indexed color mode, it will distort. Change it to RGB, resize, then convert to INDEX if neccessary.

Hope this helps.
 
Weird Harold said:
A couple of things I've discovered about reizing for avatars:

1: Resize to the maximum pixel dimension permitted -- here that's 150x150. Every pixel you give up on the dimension reduces the amount of detail the image can show by the sum of the dimensions -- a 149x149 pixel image has 150+150= 300 fewer "picture elements" (pixels) and "picture elements" are what show detail. (atually 299 fewer because one is counted twice.)

2: If you're starting from a very large image, resize in stages -- reduce 50% at a time; for espcially difficult pictures reduce 25% at a time. When you get down to a largest dimension just over 150 pixels, switch from percentage change to your 150 pixel target size.

3: Crop images so that they're roughly square and don't include anything except the subject -- Want to use a picture of your dog or cat? Crop away the couch and and food dishes and everything except the dog or cat and whatever else make the picture worthy of an avatar.

4: For animated avatars, reduce the number of frames to the minimum required to show the action. Lit's filesize restriction puts a practical limit of about three frames on a fullsized avatar and maybe six frames if you're willing to accept a smaller avatar.

5: Avoid pictures with a lot of detail. 150 x150 pixels only give you 22,500 points of information to show detail. If you start with a picture that is 1500x1500 pixels, every the 100 pixels in the original have to be averaged down into one pixel in an avatar -- any small details in a given 10x10 section of the original will be lost.

6: choose a bright image with high contrasts -- or increase brightness and contrast as much as possible. Dark images tend to lose contrast when reduced in size and become just a dark square instead of an avatar.
Click to expand...

Also, remove any non-picture data. Some of the graphics files allow for stuff called "EXIF data", "IPTC data", "Comments", etc, all of which can be very useful at times, but aren't needed in a tiny Avatar image. The "IrfanView" program (mentioned above) has check-boxes in the "Save-As" for JPG files to remove these.
 
Last edited:
bhg08054 said:
Also, remove any non-picture data. Some of the graphics files allow for stuff called "EXIF data", "IPTC data", "Comments", etc, all of which can be very useful at times, but aren't needed in a tiny Avatar image. The "IrfanView" program (mentioned above) has check-boxes in the "Save-As" for JPG files to remove these.
Click to expand...

Good point. I didn't think about that because I have the graphics programs I use most set to strip all of that stuff out without asking.
 
Lots of times when I want to use a particular image for a sig or an avatar, and it doesn't shrink the way I want it, I just have to find something new. :(

It kind of sucks, and thankfully my Lit av is just fine as-is (even if I am missing half the image, because then it definitely wouldn't have fit) but I've fought with a ton of 'em, and probably most of 'em could have been salvaged but I'm just not that bright when it comes to photoshop-type programs.

Silly nearly-computer-illiterate-girl. That's me. :p
 
I'm not sure if this will add anything useful to the pot, but...
- The original, named '19', of my current AV was 2608 x 1952 and 1.6MB

- I edited '19', resized to 800 x 499, and saved it as '19resized' in Photoshop, discarding the changes to the original since I wanted both versions.

- I opened '19resized', and used the "Save for Web" option, with maybe 70 for the quality setting, and saved this as '19websize'.

- Opened '19websize', cropped everything but what you see, resized with 150 for the greatest dimension, and used the Save for Web option again, lowering the quality until it met the Lit filesize requirement; I'm guessing I dropped it into the 60s, which put the final product you see at 7.98KB. I've found I can lower the quality setting quite a bit without much discernible difference in the final AV, though YMMV.

I've used the same process for all of my recent AVs (and all started at similar sizes), and each has worked on the first try. Some of these steps may be unnecessary, but each size/saved copy has a specific purpose for me, and the AVs have been working, so I haven't tried anything else. :)
 
SweetErika said:
I'm not sure if this will add anything useful to the pot, but...
- The original, named '19', of my current AV was 2608 x 1952 and 1.6MB
Click to expand...

I think the process that resulted in your current very crisp and clear -- and beautiful and erotic! -- avatar is very useful. I seriously doubt the kind of quality you achieved could have been done in a single step.
 
My favourite program for doing avatars is PhotoImpact8 and they were giving away a free complete version of it on this months PCUser magazine too...or was it last months issue?
 
Weird Harold said:
I think the process that resulted in your current very crisp and clear -- and beautiful and erotic! -- avatar is very useful. I seriously doubt the kind of quality you achieved could have been done in a single step.
Click to expand...
Well, the good camera doesn't hurt either. ;) But thank you, Harold; your thoughts carry a lot of weight with me. :kiss: :rose:
 
jadefirefly said:
Lots of times when I want to use a particular image for a sig or an avatar, and it doesn't shrink the way I want it, I just have to find something new. :(

It kind of sucks, and thankfully my Lit av is just fine as-is (even if I am missing half the image, because then it definitely wouldn't have fit) but I've fought with a ton of 'em, and probably most of 'em could have been salvaged but I'm just not that bright when it comes to photoshop-type programs.

Silly nearly-computer-illiterate-girl. That's me. :p
Click to expand...

If you find an image in the future that you want re-sized, just give me a shout, I would be happy to do it for you ;)
 
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