loss sharpness after flatten image

[FemkeD]

Hi,

I have this picture which is not that sharp and since I want that picture on my website and there it's always turns out less sharp, I used high pass filters to make the picture extra sharp.

But when I flatten this image (couple of high pass layers) then the flattened picture is less sharp than the picture with the layers (before flattening).

The same thing happens when I export the picture (without first flattening and quality100%) to a jpeg file. I use the most sharp resample Lanzarote 3 non- separable. But still I lose a lot of sharpness.

Can anybody tell me what I'm doing wrong? Are there ways (besides taking better pictures in the first place  ) to keep the sharpness in sharpened pictures in jpegs for the web?  And also tips and tricks for  what's the best way to get sharp pictures on your website are more than welcome because that's a big struggle for me.

Thanks for taking the time to think with me,

Femke

 

 

[NotMyFault]

Hi Femke,

would it be possible for you to upload an example file (Affinity Photo, or zipped)?

If you use sharpening, it is best to use 100% zoom, as sharpening depends on zoom level, and can give wrong impressions when zoomed.

If you want to resize the images when exporting by a large factor,  it might be reqired to manually resize before sharpening, and the export without any resize.

Other typical problems are using text / fonts with low resultion images, not using pixel alignment, using objects with sharp edges with position or size not pixel-aligend.

 

Regards,

Timo

[FemkeD]

Hi Timo,

Thank you for thinking with me! 

I discovered something stupid that might be the problem. I compared the original affinity file with the exported jpeg but the jpeg file I opened with the regular software from my pc instead of in Affinity. The jpeg opened outside Affinity lost a lot of sharpness. When I open it in Affinity too the quality is ok. How come it has such a bad quality when I open it outside Affinity? When I share my pictures with people they will not open it in Affinity. I'm insecure of what quality they receive. 

I can't upload my zipfiles.

About losing sharpness when uploading for my website, I'm still looking for the answer. But I think maybe I still keep the pictures to big, I am now trying to look up in inspector what size I should best use.

Cheers!

Femke

 

 

[NotMyFault]

Hi Femke,

it will be difficult to help without example files.

If the actual files are not suitable here, can you please try to use different example files showing the issue, and suitable for upload?

BTW:

If you loose sharpness AFTER the image got uploaded, this might be caused that the upload fucntion of you server reduces the quality. This is actually the case for the Affinit Forum software.

To check, just download the file again and compare it to the file on you PC.

• Filesize
• EXIF data (exiftool free software)
• put both files into one Photo document. Set blend mode of upper layer to "difference". Add a levels adjustment with "white level" set to 10% to visually boost differences.

You can do this e.g. with a RAW file and the JPEG file, and you will clearly see all cmpression artefacts.

 

 

IMG_9209b.afphoto

[FemkeD]

Thanks again!

I will look at it tomorrow (filesize stays the same after uploading is the one thing I quickly checked for now). 

 I'm a bit lost at this moment. Just look in inspector what size the picture is showed and upload the picture in that same size seems very logical to me, but only works sometimes. I really do not have a clue why sometimes it works fine and other times the quality is really bad. 

But I'm so lost that I don't even know what my question would be, so I call it a day.

 

 

 

[LeaS]

On 3/15/2021 at 8:07 PM, FemkeD said:

Hi Timo,

Thank you for thinking with me! 

I discovered something stupid that might be the problem. I compared the original affinity file with the exported jpeg but the jpeg file I opened with the regular software from my pc instead of in Affinity. The jpeg opened outside Affinity lost a lot of sharpness. When I open it in Affinity too the quality is ok. How come it has such a bad quality when I open it outside Affinity? When I share my pictures with people they will not open it in Affinity. I'm insecure of what quality they receive. 

I can't upload my zipfiles.

About losing sharpness when uploading for my website, I'm still looking for the answer. But I think maybe I still keep the pictures to big, I am now trying to look up in inspector what size I should best use.

Cheers!

Femke

 

Hi Femke,

Since I've just been through this with my website, I now know that the host site reduces the files if they are too big. I've found that any larger than 2MB gets reduced I' always export now at just under this. Hope that helps

 

 

[FemkeD]

Thanks Lea,

I do not think that's the problem but will keep that in mind. I now have a reasonable result, but no one way to get it right. Every picture is a trial and error proces to get it right. If I ever come to a proper solution of the problem I will share it here.

Cheers! 

Femke