Ensuring it looks right...

[ChristopherCoy]

Have a look at THIS THREAD.

This was originally shot in .jpg (because I forgot to switch it back to RAW), and imported into LR for general adjustments. I then took it into CS4 and did some detail work (tones, edges, blur) etc. After saving, I went back to LR and exported at 80dpi, long edge 800px, and 80% quality, still in .jpg. After export, I opened the edited version again in CS4 to add my watermark, and resaved it. When I hit save it gave me the box where you can adjust quality yet again, so I moved it back down to an '8', which is the first 'high' level.

My question is, why does this picture look so good on the Mac monitor, but looks like complete **** here at work?

Is it just the monitor difference, or am I deteriorating the quality with the multiply quality adjustments?

What is the proper way to ensure that the picture looks good on most monitors? And what dpi and quality level is optimum, without posting a nearly full res file?

[srwatters]

Every time you save a jpg, the compression algorithm will reduce the quality. I suggest you save your master images full size in a non-lossy format such as tiff or psd. Once you have completed ALL editing, resize for web and save as jpg. I edit all my images in 16 bit ProPhoto RGB color space. Once I've completed all editing (with the exception of cropping), I will convert to aRGB, convert to 8 bit, flatten all layers, then save as a tiff (still in uncropped size). I will then crop the image as needed and save as a new master print file. From there I'll convert to sRGB and save a full size jpg at quality 10. I go back to the master cropped tiff and again convert to sRGB, resize for web (sharpening if needed), add my watermark, and save as the file I display on the forum (or anywhere else on the web for that matter).

In the end I have 5 different files for each final image;
- full size master PSD in 16 bit ProPhoto RGB with layers
- full size tiff in 8 bit aRGB
- cropped tiff in 8 bit aRBG
- cropped jpg in 8 bit sRGB
- cropped and resized jpg in 8 bit sRGB

Yes it takes up a little more disk space that way, but my image quality is never compromised. Of course YMMV...

[ChristopherCoy]

Thanks Scott! This is exactly the kind of info I need.