square crop optimal web image size?

[wendellt]

o.k working on slimlining the images on my website

thought i should make them smaller at 500pix wide
also tried a square crop for most, does it work?
I am thinking of making them even smaller optimal image size is hard to work out you have to balance quality with download speed

brussels belgium 2004
http://www.zeduce.org/images/brussels/01.htm

[mudder]

Can't tell what change the square crop makes without seeing the originals, but they certainly do work well for me, great series of images, #07 made me stop in my tracks! I always have trouble with cropping, half the time I simpy forget, doh! Some very tasteful images there, done with some flair...

I think the type and subjects in your image would determine which orientation would suit most... Some of them seem to have good strong lines through the image that look as though they might force your hand when framing...

Size seems good for me using ADSL... I wouldn't go any smaller but that's just me... Unless you had a screen with several thumb nails and one larger size one that's the highlighted thumbnail (you know what I mean?)...

[gstark]

o.k working on slimlining the images on my website

thought i should make them smaller at 500pix wide
also tried a square crop for most, does it work?

Wendell,

Wouldn't it make more sense to simply crop each image as each one needs to be cropped, rather than trying a one-size-fits-all approach?

What do you hope to achieve with a square-peg-in-a-round-hole approach?

[wendellt]

thanks andrew for my architectural shots some of the leading lines work best when cropped square
in the series i have some that are normal aspect ratio becuase those ones look good like that

Gary just thought i should try to hone in the most interestign part of the image using a square crop

[PiroStitch]

Wendell,

PErsonally I'd just crop only if I wanted to rather than do a generic square crop for all the photos as the pic may lose the effect.

Try the following jpeg settings:

* 72 dpi
* 65% compression
* width: 450px?

If that creates too many artifacts esp. in the finer detail, then go up 5% increments. Usually the most I'd do is 80% and there's enough detail there to tell the story.

[wendellt]

i set jpeg to 61% unless it is a reddish image red produces a lot of jpeg artifacts
and generaly don't sharpen anymore since sharpenign makes the image size much bigger and at 61% jpeg produces even more hard edged artifacts


perhaps you missed my point regarding the square crops

I meant for some images i wanted to try square crops

but for most images i would keep the original aspect ratio

my question was geared more towards only this set of images and optimal image size as i think my previous standard of 700pix wide was just too big for the amount of images i have on my site

[gstark]

Gary just thought i should try to hone in the most interestign part of the image using a square crop

I'd be concerned about two issues here.

First of all, by cropping to a square format and focussing on the most interesting part, you're running the risk of losing the reason the most intersting parts are, in fact, interesting - leading lines, points of contrast or differential focus, etc.

Second, by cropping in this manner, you may be changing the image to something that's almost unrecognisable. I've seen this done in some online gallery displays, and in looking at the thumbnail, one sees nothing like what the actual image is, and .... everyone seems to, IMHO, lose out.


If the image works in a square crop, then great; that's how the image should be shown, but if it doesn't actually work in a square crop, then cropping it would, I thinkk, be a big mistake.

[wendellt]

points taken Gary

i can tell you the square crops in this series were necassary in my judgement
often architecture can be a dul subject to most i liek it for geometrical and repetative aesthetic, the square crops just maximize the image because in some cases the the original image just didn't cut it, it is highly unlikely i will use a square crop in most of my other images, i woudl consider this series an isolated case. thanks for the refreshing advice.