Mista Sparkle: So, I tried using picture manager to compress my images this week before uploading to Flickr but they still show up as too large at 640, anyone know any other batch methods that offer more compression control so I don't get stuck with tiny images?

Thanks all

What program are you using to process your images?
Several photoediting/manipulation programs have a "save for web" type of feature that allows you to save at a lower "quality" to trade file size for image size.
Knowing your software would allow us to help you more successfully.

Mista Sparkle: So, I tried using picture manager to compress my images this week before uploading to Flickr but they still show up as too large at 640, anyone know any other batch methods that offer more compression control so I don't get stuck with tiny images?

Thanks all

Dovetailing off what BecauseISaidSo said, basically Flickr uses a high quality compression algorithm to ensure your photos look as good as possible when they are resized. High quality means large file sizes. So if you let Flickr resize for you, you will end up with file size bloat. Flickr considers this a feature because they're protecting your image qualitiy (unlike Facebook, which mangles your images 10 ways to Sunday even if you've already compressed them and even if you choose their higher quality option). In addition to the save-for-web option in your photo editor, the easiest way to deal with this is to only upload Fark sized images to Flickr--both in file size and pixel real estate. The max Fark sizes are 640 pixels wide and 1100 tall. The max file size is approximately 200k, however, images can and do drop at smaller file sizes, notably above 150k. It's safest to aim for 130k and under, and I personally try to keep it under 100k. When you post your Fark-sized photos from Flickr, be sure to grab the original size from the posting options; anything else, even if the large size is the same as the original, will be subject to the re-compressed file size bloat. You can always upload a larger version separately to Flickr and link to that from your Farktography post.

olavf: I have a batch resizer that I've played with a little with good results, but unfortunately I don't remember the name, and it's on my home computer :/. I'll link it up tonight

Batch re-sizer may or may not be the most quality-friendly option.

Gimp^ is a great free program (a bit of a learning curve, but very robust and full-featured) that will allow you to retouch and re-size and save in a manner most likely to keep you happy and competitive.

FWIW - it's robust and featured enough that several of Fark's best "photoshoppers" are actually Gimpers.

Mista Sparkle: Cool.

Any suggestions on an easy way to resize/compress images? I've used The GIMP but its quite slow and tedious.

As a side note, I'm running out of room on Flickr, does Picasa use a lower quality compression for links, or would that lead to the same issue?

Set up a new Flickr account at Mista Sparkle 2.

Either you're using an old computer, or you're trying to use Gimp for batch compression. Don't. Use it for the 3 images for the contest and batch compress with what you're comfortable with. Also, compress each photo individually. Unless they're all of the same subject file sizes should be different. Last week I took some photos at an air show. The pics were of airplanes and blue sky. Even with that, some photos were in the low 2mb range all the way up to the mid 3mb range.

Hope this helps.

Mista Sparkle: Cool.

Any suggestions on an easy way to resize/compress images? I've used The GIMP but its quite slow and tedious.

As a side note, I'm running out of room on Flickr, does Picasa use a lower quality compression for links, or would that lead to the same issue?

I've had remarkable success with Irfanview (dot com). The program file is small, it's safe (I've used it for some 15 or so years, no problems), and by installing the plug-ins, there's a 'save for web' version that does a very good job. Click 'open file', resize to what you need, click 'save for web', choose the quality (it tells you the expected filesize, so you can get as much bang-for-the buck as possible), and save. Easy-peasy--but do keep in mind about the iffy 200K limit--130K or so is usually fine.

The caveat is the next-to-most recent version had some issues regarding it's resizing qualities and it's 'save for web' functionality--which have now been fixed. So should you go this route, make sure that the mirror from which you download has the very latest version (given at the irfan site), and same for the plug-ins.

Congrats to Ranger Joe for his "Stairway to Heaven" win this week!


Next week's theme is "Fifteen Minutes": Travel via any means available (walking, driving, swimming, boating, flying, cruise missile, interplanetary ion thruster, etc.) fifteen minutes away from where you live. Take pictures of whatever is there.

Just voted on a bunch of great entries, Farkers!

I like this weeks theme a lot!

Double Plus 1 ^^

Congrats to BecauseISaidSo for his "Fifteen Minutes" win this week!

Apparently, the presence of Farktography.net means this forum is superfluous?

Well, Farktography.net came first before we had this forum, but this forum was always intended, much like the PS'ers have their place on Fark. However, there is a lot of good technical information that's more easily accessible on Farktography.net since it's a forum set up instead of a running thread. This thread should be the preferred place to ask for envotination/disenvotination/deletion requests. And since it's a more general, informal place, anyone's welcome to post random stuff and pictures that have nothing (or everything) to do with current themes.

Sports B-Side

This was the between innings entertainment during the Red Wings game in my first photo:

kestrana: Still checking this forum once a week or two can get some people involved who would otherwise miss out.


This is what I hope will be the major benefit of having the forum here. It will be a more obvious "Hey check us out!" that will hopefully result in even more participation.


Yugoboy: Nice!

Hooray, I can finally enter a contest. Yay!

Eeek: Hooray, I can finally enter a contest. Yay!

And with authority, too. Nice shots!
/perusing your flickr stream now.

Eeek: Hooray, I can finally enter a contest. Yay!

I was hoping you'd enter this week--I was just on the point of emailing you a heads up on the theme when you entered. w00t!

Congrats to Ranger Joe for his "Sports Photography" win this week!

Elsinore: Congrats to Ranger Joe for his "Sports Photography" win this week!

Woo hoo!

{b}U-ManThe bathroom shot is great. I thought about doing that, but decided if someone walked in on me it would be too creepy. You got guts, and an excellent capture.

I never got around to pulling it off, but I was considering going "Harry Potter" and standing on a toilet seat with dress shoes and pants.

Lots of amazing stuff this week, especially the out-of-the-box stuff.

Elsinore: Doorway to the Universe
[farm7.static.flickr.com image 467x700]

The bright "star" above and to the right of the observatory is Venus.

Based on the date of the photo, the two stars above and to the right of that should be Pollux (leftmost) and Castor, for you Geminids out there. :-)

ravnostic: Elsinore: Doorway to the Universe
[farm7.static.flickr.com image 467x700]

The bright "star" above and to the right of the observatory is Venus.

Based on the date of the photo, the two stars above and to the right of that should be Pollux (leftmost) and Castor, for you Geminids out there. :-)

Good to know, thanks :) I had a landscape shot from that night taken with my wide angle that captured a couple very faint shooting stars. Unfortunately, they'd turned on the regular white light in the observatory at that point, and the long exposure meant the doorway was very overexposed.

On any given night you can catch a few meteors--there's no particularly recognized shower in June at the time (happens to be my dad's birthday, btw.).

However, at the more-or-less opposite end of the calendar, Dec. 13th this year, are the Geminid showers. Unfortunately there will be a near-full moon at that time. In fact, after midnight when viewing is best, every shower for the remaining year will have a moon screwing up things. Best chance is the Orionids, October 21st the moon will be in last quarter, and it will be possible (though of course difficult) to capture meteors in the same frame as the moon--and not have the moon completely blown out in relation to them (less than 2 seconds, perhaps.)

...and I'll be working that night. :-( And the next, as well.

//Poo.

Elsinore: Unfortunately, they'd turned on the regular white light in the observatory at that point

Heresy. People have been killed for less. Well, kicked off of telescopes, at least. There's a whole etiquette about lights (especially white lights) among observational astronomers. Opening any door or dome with lights on, pointing flashlights upwards, or even using car headlights is strictly verboten.

plamadude30k: Elsinore: Unfortunately, they'd turned on the regular white light in the observatory at that point

Heresy. People have been killed for less. Well, kicked off of telescopes, at least. There's a whole etiquette about lights (especially white lights) among observational astronomers. Opening any door or dome with lights on, pointing flashlights upwards, or even using car headlights is strictly verboten.


Oh I know. They'd had the red light on the whole time, so everyone was dark adapted, but I think there was a problem the telescope or something, and they couldn't see well enough with the red light to address it, so the white light came on. I'm just gonna have to go back and re-shoot a wide landscaped shot another time.

Congrats to U-Man on his "A Portal Through" win this week!

ravnostic: {b}U-ManThe bathroom shot is great. I thought about doing that, but decided if someone walked in on me it would be too creepy. You got guts, and an excellent capture.

Elsinore: Congrats to U-Man on his "A Portal Through" win this week!

Thanks and Thanks. :) I usually forget to visit here. Maybe I'll remember to check it out this week.

ravnostic: Best chance is the Orionids

Wait. What?

/Seriously though. The way my luck holds out, my namesake has been cloudy for the last 11 years. Not expecting any change this year.

orionid: ravnostic: Best chance is the Orionids

Wait. What?

/Seriously though. The way my luck holds out, my namesake has been cloudy for the last 11 years. Not expecting any change this year.

Aren't you in a new geographic location this year? That might help, some.

Congrat's, U-ey!!

Much awesomeness, U-Man. And many thanks for sharing the technique. i really want to try it sometime. Did you have a spotter?

oddmind: Much awesomeness, U-Man. And many thanks for sharing the technique. i really want to try it sometime. Did you have a spotter?

Thanks and you're welcome. Nope, no spotter. I just did it 6 or 7 times.

ravnostic: orionid: ravnostic: Best chance is the Orionids

Wait. What?

/Seriously though. The way my luck holds out, my namesake has been cloudy for the last 11 years. Not expecting any change this year.

Aren't you in a new geographic location this year? That might help, some.

Congrat's, U-ey!!

Yeah, but that hasn't seemed to help in the past. What I should have done was head over to Mauna Kea when I lived in Hawai'i to be above the clouds. I was still too butt-hurt though from being on the wrong side of the world and missing the first ring solar eclipse in North America since seventh grade.

U-Man: oddmind: Much awesomeness, U-Man. And many thanks for sharing the technique. i really want to try it sometime. Did you have a spotter?

Thanks and you're welcome. Nope, no spotter. I just did it 6 or 7 times.

Yikes. I don't think I could walk backwards 10 feet in daylight without some sort of derpy incident! But I'm willing to try.

orionid: What I should have done was head over to Mauna Kea when I lived in Hawai'i to be above the clouds.

Good idea. Maybe I'll do that next year.

plamadude30k: orionid: What I should have done was head over to Mauna Kea when I lived in Hawai'i to be above the clouds.

Good idea. Maybe I'll do that next year.

Next year's moon will be FAR more favorable, too. I'm sure you'll get great shots. I'll probably head down to Tucson. I have this friend who works at an observator....

oh, wait. Damn.

U-MAndy Worhal:



I am so hating my interweb right now. Almost all of them look this way, or worse.

ravnostic: plamadude30k: orionid: What I should have done was head over to Mauna Kea when I lived in Hawai'i to be above the clouds.

Good idea. Maybe I'll do that next year.

Next year's moon will be FAR more favorable, too. I'm sure you'll get great shots. I'll probably head down to Tucson. I have this friend who works at an observator....

oh, wait. Damn.

I chortled.

ravnostic: U-MAndy Worhal:

[fossilspringsaz.com image 640x490]

I am so hating my interweb right now. Almost all of them look this way, or worse.

Actually, that is pretty damn cool. Buttacept I'm glad my 'puter isn't doing that.

Gonna leave these links here for those who aren't sure what "bokeh" is for this week's Farktography theme:

Bokeh from Wikipedia (new window)
Ken Rockwell's bokeh article (new window)

Elsinore: American Decency Association: i should have read the rest of the thread 1st

/call the contest "out of your depth" or something instead, cause there's plenty of lovely shots

//rules is rules


Other comments in the thread further explained bokeh, particularly sleeping's comment. I don't see any entries that have broken the rules. Bokeh does not require bright/obvious out of focus disks; the word simply means "blur" in Japanese.


Some helpful links for those who want to read more: Wikipedia's entry on Bokeh (new window)
Ken Rockwell's article on bokeh (new window)

At this point, I'd invite anyone wanting to discuss bokeh/the theme itself to move the discussion to either the Farktography forum on Fark (new window) or the forums on farktography.net (new window) so the thread doesn't get further clogged up with commentary.

+11ty to this.

orionid: ravnostic: plamadude30k: orionid: What I should have done was head over to Mauna Kea when I lived in Hawai'i to be above the clouds.

Good idea. Maybe I'll do that next year.

Next year's moon will be FAR more favorable, too. I'm sure you'll get great shots. I'll probably head down to Tucson. I have this friend who works at an observator....

oh, wait. Damn.

I chortled.

I laughed my arse off.

/Gotta practice that triumphant supervillan-style laugh

OMG!!! My first first!! I love this place-I am learning so farking much! There were many photos this week that I admired in a big way--one of my faves was by Spinach Gunk--you had me LMAO over "is it gone yet??" johnebones' bee taking off into the unknown just made me drool, and I sure hope that Deveyn's rainy leaf is displayed prominently somewhere, so that others can gaze on in awe, too.

Thanks to all.

Congrats, oddmind!! The first win is exciting, isn't it? Excellent creativity with the theme.

Congrats on the "Mmmm Bokeh 2: Electric Bokehloo" win this week, oddmind :)