Large photo image website

[chessie]

I have a question: do you think there is any interest in a website containing large image size photos? I have a site on Trainweb and they want images to be in the 50-70k range. However, some of my newer digital pictures are easily 10x that and more. I know personally that there are times when I would prefer a significantly larger picture, especially when modeling details, scenery, etc.

I know that one of the biggest drawbacks would be a viewer's Internet connection. I admit, having cable has spoiled me (right now I am clocking 1766.2 Kbps ). But I know a lot of other folks have high speed access too: T-1, ASDL, ISDN, etc. I know I would not knowingly want to go to a website with 500k images if I was on a 33.6 dial up modem :eek:

My thought are possibly mirroring my existing website on a free server (they are offering up to 100 mb free now) and use the larger images that I have on that site. Do you think anyone would appreciate it? Comments anyone? :confused:

Harold

[fitz]

Harold, IMHO, (atually beaten into me by others due to earlier dumb moves with picture file sizes), there is only one advantage to the large files. They print much better, as in photo quality. If you are going to view them on a monitor, the monitor actually limits the clarity at which they are displayed. Therefore, keep em down to 40K or so, in jpeg format. Viewers with 33K modems will love you. The big 300K files take forever to download and don't display on a monitor any clearer than than one 0f 30K size. I think the term that the first person who received one of my 330K files used was "ugly".
:mad: :eek:

[espee2]

you might want to look into "thumbnails" or better yet, two links to your images... lets say the thumbnail image when clicked goes to a 100k image,(or) right below the thumbnail, a seperate link could go to your larger images. After given a brief notice to your viewers as to which link to choose, if they want the large one then they can go for it, and not be forced to wait forever for an image to load, or else they will leave and not come back.

[Gats]

Harold, I would welcome larger file sizes. The G1 is a great camera and to reduce the image size excessively is a waste of it's abilities. I like to close in on details and that simply is not possible with a reduced image size with heavy compression.
Espee hit the nail - using thumbnails (of small file size) with a description and choice of file sizes will allow us to pick and choose any images we wish to download without having to suffer long downloads unnecessarily.
I currently have a 56K modem on a line of varying quality so file size and choice is a consideration for me, too.

Gary.

[chessie]

Thanks for the great feedback. Yes, I too am guilty of posting too large photos (originally in the CSX forum :eek: ) and received some feedback too :mad:

I like the suggestion for thumbnails and/or links to different size images, with an appropriate label (warning?). I have never worked with thumbnails, so has anyone got any suggestions? Its probably already an option on one of my software packages, but I have never tried it. As far as website building, the NCRailfan site linked below is my first effort, so I have a long way to go.

Harold

[Scott]

1. file size (kb) is not a good indicator of either display (view/print) size or quality (pixels and colors).

A monitor is only capable of reproducing a fraction of the detail (quality) that today's cameras and scanners can produce. But they are capable of displaying large (dimensions) pictures.

2. It's a good idea to provide thumbnails with a "warning" that the linked image is significant in size.

How about providing a couple of links to progressively larger (dimensions) images? Something like - thumbnail image - - link to 50k file - - link to 100k - etc.

Thumbnails are notorious for not showing much. A person with a slow connection may want to see a slighly larger image to see if it's worth the wait to download the fullsize version. I know I've been disappointed many times after waiting for a thumbnail link to display, "Why did I bother!". And that's with DSL!

[ 30 March 2001: Message edited by: sajay ]

[espee2]

Thumbnails are a great way to show off your site. I have small "enticing" thumbs on my page links at their appropriate index pages, and some of my pages have thumbnails to click on a larger image.

I decided on a thumbnail large enough to see detail and let a visitor either click it on or just scroll down my page.

I am guilty of surfing and like it when I am at a site that lets me see fast loading images without having to click on every one unless it catches my fancy, hence I do just that for my visitors. ..."Make the customer happy and in controll"...

make a seperate smaller compressed image for the thumb. Don't use the same image file as both thumb (large image with smaller dimentions) and large image, It will load too slow, and when people click their "back" button after viewing a thumb/large image,the page will have to reload instead of being loaded (cache) and waiting for another thumb clicking.

A thumbnail:

http://tunnel13.com/nbimages/port/cabeese_thum.jpg (http://tunnel13.com/nbimages/port/cabeese.jpg)
Larger more detailed image (http://)


the code:

&lta href="http://tunnel13.com/nbimages/port/cabeese.jpg"&gt&ltimg src="http://tunnel13.com/nbimages/port/cabeese_thum.jpg"&gt&lt/a&gt&ltbr&gt&lta href="http://"&gtLarger more detailed image&lt/a&gt

[espee2]

WOW! I stumbled on this tonight over at that other train posting place...LOL it's a perfect example of what I was talking about.
http://www.drgw.net/trip-reporter/photo-trips/joint-line.html

check it out... (large images and smaller images available)

[chessie]

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by espee2:
WOW! I stumbled on this tonight over at that other train posting place...LOL it's a perfect example of what I was talking about.
http://www.drgw.net/trip-reporter/photo-trips/joint-line.html

check it out... (large images and smaller images available)<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

That's it!! :D That seems like a great way to do what I think I am trying to accomplish.

Harold

[Alan]

Those large photos are amazing! Oh, for a 25 inch monitor :D

[chessie]

I was trying out some of the lesser known "free" websites as a place to play with and post some of my "larger" photos.... As soon as I come up with a good one, I'll let you know!

Try this one: http://downloads.members.tripod.com/hhodnett/104.jpg

It is ~ 850k 2048x1536 pixels

Harold

[ 03 April 2001: Message edited by: chessie ]

[fitz]

Harold, that's a great picture. Like Alan says, I wish I had a 25 inch monitor. I'm not criticizing, but would prefer to see the entire image on my monitor without scrolling. I have some like that on my site as well. Also put thumbnails on ALL of my photos, though violated a rule someone posted--I used the same file for the thumbnail and the large photo. Check it out on the link above my signature. :cool:

[chessie]

Fitz,
Yep, I understand about the 25" monitor.... I have a 19" monitor and still have to scroll way over. I think the thumbnails are definately the way to go. (I will probably get around to them eventually :rolleyes: ). I installed (finally) Adobe Photodeluxe 6.0 that came with my new camera and it seems to be pretty slick, especailly when resizing images.

Thanks for everyone's input!

Harold

[chessie]

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by chessie:
Fitz,
Yep, I understand about the 25" monitor.... I have a 19" monitor and still have to scroll way over. I think the thumbnails are definately the way to go. (I will probably get around to them eventually :rolleyes: ). I installed (finally) Adobe Photodeluxe 5.0 that came with my new camera and it seems to be pretty slick, especailly when resizing images.

Thanks for everyone's input!

Harold<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

[chessie]

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by chessie:
Originally posted by chessie:
Fitz,
Yep, I understand about the 25" monitor.... I have a 19" monitor and still have to scroll way over. I think the thumbnails are definately the way to go. (I will probably get around to them eventually :rolleyes: ). I installed (finally) Adobe Photodeluxe 5.0 that came with my new camera and it seems to be pretty slick, especailly when resizing images.

Thanks for everyone's input!

Harold<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

I quoted instead of edited... lash me with old negatives tongue.gif My camera actually has Adobe Photoshop 5.0 not 6.0. I see from their website that there is a 6.0, as well as a 6.01 upgrade.

Harold