As a supplement to Ken's posts in the Randall Knives Forum I thought I would post a similar demonstration in the Photography Forum attempting to demonstrate the effects of File Size and how it affect photos posted on the Forum. As many of you know, uploaded images to the RKS Server are limited to 100KB but images that are viewed on the Forum but reside on an outside server are not restricted in such a manner and many times are greater than 300KB. Just how and to what extent does this affect photo quality? That is what I hope to demonstrate. For practical purposes, there may not seem to be much of a difference when you look at the whole image but the difference gets pronounced when you start zooming in on parts of the image. To see the full effect you need to download each image to your computer and zoom in on the grind lines or the etching on the blade.

There are many aspects that affect JPEG compression that are far too involved to get into with this little demonstration. As I already stated, the difference in image quality may be inconsequential depending on what the images are used for but that is up to each individual viewer to decide and as has already been stated, a technically poor photo is a poor photo regardless of file size. It may be like looking at a beautiful girl from a distance but as you get closer your opinion may change.

I received permission from Ken Lunde to use one of his photos for this demonstration. I think Ken is one of the most technically sophisticated photo participants on this Forum. Since I do not have the capacity to post my own images greater than 100KB the first image is actually from Ken's Image Server and it is 304KB. I downloaded Ken's image to my computer and resized it using the Resizing software from Microsoft Power Toys and for this demonstration I have kept the viewing dimensions of each image the same @ 1000 X 664 and just decreased the file size. The file size of Images 2, 3 are 97.4KB and 86.4KB. If you set up the photos where you can switch back and forth between Ken's original and the 86.4KB photo I think you will see a definite difference. There are many versions of Resizing Software and there are probably some better than that from Power Toys but this is the best that I have found.


304KB


97.4KB


86.4KB

Here is the same photo, but modified using the parameters as described below:

1000x664 80% = 280K:



1000x664 60% = 164K:



1000x664 40% = 104K:



720x478 80% = 156K:



720x478 60% = 92K:



720x478 40% = 60K:

Note that all of the 1000x664 photos are still over the 100,000 byte limit. If I drop the JPEG "quality" of the 40% version by only two percent, to 38%, it brings me to just under the limit, and with no difference in perceived or apparent quality. The blade etching and grind lines are still clear.

Here is the 38% version that is hosted on my website:



And, here is the same file that has been uploaded to the forum:

One I took today... it's only 47.2 KB in size and is 1024 x 568.
~dale

Costumes 2009

And what kind of knife does a pirate carry? Around here it's a #12-9 Sportsman Bowie.
~dale

2nd night of Trick-Or-Treating and some different costumes. The cake walk only brought in 3 cakes this year... guess we need to have a couple more kids to increase the odds.
~dale


Image is a little blurry but was raining and I didn't take another "just in case" pic.

Emily wanted to be a tiger for the second night.

She "poses" for pics... looks like she has graduated from the Kelly Rippa school of posing.

She wanted her picture taken with Frank. When we walk up from the lake she always has to hug him before coming inside.
~dale