Anyone else wondering about the degradation of images by the time they come to post them to this site?
I have certainly had to modify what I do.
I don't use any special Photoshop etc, just simply MS Photoed to look at and modify my shots.
I have found that delineating the area I want, then copying to a new picture is definitely not the best way! Following that by saving as - and my original photo has gone down from over 1mb to around 200kb (if I am lucky!).
Now I reduce as much as possible, delineate the area I want, cut and paste as new image - and I have around 600kb - a much better quality picture!
Anyone else found a better way? I'd love to hear others' views.

dont save with any compression and try and upload non compressed images to caedes such as a PNG format instead of JPEG - everytime you resave or save as adding more compression data to an already compressed image - the data will constantly degrade.

Thanks, will try that from now on.
Kate

... also ... remember that the image you upload is NOT the image downloaded by viewers .. even if they download the fullsize you uploaded (i.e. 1600x1200) ...

the image you upload is stored and copies are made from it, utilizing another jpeg compression opportunity .. even the fullsize image

another reason to upload a PNG file

(*check the file size of the image you upload vs the same image size DL'd from the site*)

now i'm confused. i've never even saved a PNG file. do we upload PNG or JPEG. does that mean when we edit a picture we save as PBG rather than tiff or stn or jpeg? these details are confusing to me. i must sound like a fool! thanks for probably repeating what you just said! jen

*hands jen a can of alfabet soop, dabs the drool from her chin, and pats her on the head* it'll be ok...

Big improvement guys! Thanks a lot for your advice.