MushroomVillage.com - Taking Smurf Pics

		Enter keywords to search the shop: ALL Keywords ANY Keywords (For research, please use our ID Guide)

Taking Smurf Pics Creating digital pictures to post on the Internet is one of the best ways to show your Smurfs around. There are three good ways to do this:

USE A DIGITAL CAMERA TO PHOTOGRAPH YOUR SMURFS
This has become very popular, especially as the price of digital cameras came down, and is probably the best and easiest method. Digital cameras will generate instant and ready to use digital images without having to develop film. Some models will store photos on a card or "memory stick" that must then be transferred to your computer. Others will put the pictures right onto a floppy disk that you eject from the camera and pop into your computer.

USE A FLAT-BED SCANNER TO SCAN YOUR SMURFS

This works surprisingly well for Smurfs and just about any other small item. Just place the item on the scanner with the side you want to show facing down on the glass.

USE A TRADITIONAL CAMERA TO PHOTOGRAPH YOUR SMURFS, THEN SCAN THE PRINTS

If you have a flat-bed scanner, consider scanning them directly, it really will give surprisingly good results. If your scanner needs to be feed a document to scan, you can scan regular photographs. A traditional camera will require that you wait for developing, and you may get fuzzy shots and/or too small an image of the Smurfs unless you use a macro (close-up) lens.

When you are using a scanner, a higher DPI setting will result in a larger final image on screen. Bigger is better. You can always reduce the size later, but you don't want to increase the size later, it will degrade the quality. I usually scan at 300 dpi, it's plenty, and results in an image far greater than life size.

If you don't have a scanner, maybe a friend can scan them for you. There are also services that will develop your film right onto a floppy disk or CD, or even post them to a web page, where you can "grab" them.

"OK, I GOT PICS, NOW WHAT?"

This is where many people go wrong. Great pictures get attention, lousy pictures are ignored. How do you make attention-getting pictures online? Well, an important thing is how quickly your images will load. How many times have you left a page because of a slow-loading picture? That's why it is important to optimize your pictures before you put them online. Optimized pictures look good and load fast. The trick is to CROP your pictures, REDUCE your pictures, and COMPRESS your pictures. This is done in a graphics editor like "Corel." Just about every computer comes equipped with a graphics editor, or it may be provided free with a scanner or digital camera. Look each of these terms up in your editor's manual, or help menu.

CROPPING PICTURES

This means cutting away the border, so that all that remains is the subject. Doesn't it drive you nuts when a picture is slowly loading and there is line after line of empty space before you get to the Smurf? All that should be cut out. It makes the picture file larger, so it takes longer to load. The first line or two that comes up should begin to reveal the Smurfs themselves, not the square foot of empty table surrounding it! Do this first.

REDUCING PICTURES

This means shrinking down the size of the entire picture. Sometimes, cropping the picture will leave you with a small enough image. If not, use your graphic editor's reduce function to shrink it further. A smaller image has a smaller file size, and will load faster. I like approximately 300 pixels high or wide. With a single Smurf, that comes up about life-size at 800x600 resolution on a 17" monitor.

If, after cropping the margins out of a photo, you are left with too small an image of the subject DO NOT use your graphic editor to increase the size! The quality of the image will degrade. Instead, reshoot the photo at a closer range, or, if you are scanning, select a higher DPI.

One important thing to keep in mind is that some graphic editors will automatically resize large images when they are loaded. Make sure you are viewing pictures at 100% zoom or 1:1 ratio or you will be surprised with the "wrong" size image online when you are done.

COMPRESSING PICTURES

This means saving the picture file in a special format that can reduce the file size even further, without losing (much) detail. This also results in a faster loading picture. I think you get the idea here that a small file size, while retaining quality, is the key to successful Internet photos. The best format to use for Smurf pictures is the Jpeg. This is a file ending in .JPG and is an Internet standard for realistic (as opposed to iconic, or cartoonish) images online. Many digital cameras will default to Jpeg. If they do not, you want to be sure you can convert your pictures to Jpegs when you save them. The trick is to keep pictures uncompressed until you are saving it for the final time.

Unfortunately, this can get a little tricky now. There is no standard for Jpeg compression. Different programs work different ways. With some, a high setting means high compression, with other programs a low setting means high compression. Check your manual or help menu for more information.

Play around with saving under different compression settings, and then reload and view the saved versions to see what you can live with. The more you compress an image, the smaller the file will become. Of course there is a trade off...the higher the compression, the more detail you lose. Some programs prompt you to enter a percent, others a number from 1 to 100 or 1 to 256. Once you find the degree of compression you like you can stick with it always. It never changes, and will compress/degrade every image the same at any particular setting.

To get a rough idea, try saving your image at three different compressions, the lowest, the highest, and midway. Now load the three images to compare them. KEEP YOUR MASTER IMAGE UNCOMPRESSED AND WITH IT'S OWN NAME! Once you compress an image, you cannot uncompress it! When your final version is ready, take note of it's name and location on your computer, so you can find it again when you are ready to upload it!

MORE TRICKS

There are other tools that may improve the look of your image, such as brightness, contrast, intensity and others. Not every program has every feature, or uses the same names for the same functions, so you have to explore your program a bit. REMEMBER! It's OK to tweak a picture to make a better picture, but proceed with caution when you are looking to sell an item. It is very easy to erase damage and brighten colors with a computer! Don't misrepresent anything!

NOW YOU ARE READY TO UPLOAD!

You can upload your images to your own server or to a free hosting service, which typically makes it's money by forcing people to come to their site to see your pics, and then showing them ads.

At the Smurfy Bulletin Board Board, you can upload your pictures for free to my server, then add your pics directly to messages on the Board to share them, or to ask for ID help! To learn how to upload your pics to MushroomVillage.com, visit Posting Smurf Pics.

Buy Smurfs Now @ The Smurf Shop!

© 1999-2004 MushroomVillage.com, all rights reserved. Reproduction of any portion of this website, including images, design or content, by any means, is prohibited without written permission. www.MushroomVillage.com - We care about your privacy & security!