What PP is Flickr doing?

[prafultripathy]

Whenever I'm uploading my pictures to Flickr, they automatically undergo some minor amounts of PostProcessing. Most of the times its just a little bit of sharpening and saturation.

For Example look at the same photos on Flickr and Picasa.

Flickr

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2751/4070455079_2f660ff70f.jpg http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2661/4072580975_34d55f4534.jpg



Picasa

http://lh4.ggpht.com/_ik5QUkP1AzU/Su72Ap0TIEI/AAAAAAAABMY/_yOZnlwC1ao/s512/IMG_1921.jpg http://lh3.ggpht.com/_j1o57PWOFbQ/SvBi-imYXXI/AAAAAAAABBI/yPQfjL84KDI/s512/IMG_0900.jpg


So the question is what is Flickr upto? Whatever it is doing its AWESOME! I want to replicate the same PP effect without the need of putting up on Flickr.

Any ideas?

[KrishnenduKes]

Interesting observation.

Approved

Would also like to see what the original file looks like in the same size. Then would we know if what Flickr is doing is awesome!

[prafultripathy]

Interesting observation.

Approved

Would also like to see what the original file looks like in the same size. Then would we know if what Flickr is doing is awesome!
The file that you see for picasa is the same file I've put up in Flickr too.

Do you want me to attach the jpg here on the forum too?

[Xavier]

I clearly see some sharpening and contrast enhancements.
Does the original one resemble the Picasa version?
It could also be that Picasa is highly compressing the picture and thereby 'softening' the photograph. Uploading the files via the attachment tool will result in a noticeable degradation of quality. Zipping the files and then attaching them should be your best bet.

[KrishnenduKes]

Does the original one resemble the Picasa version?


This is what I wanted to know. What does the original resemble?

[Deltaone]

Picasa is probably the culprit here. They have a rather bad algorithm for reading and storing the photographs. This results in very evident artifacts in the photograph and degradation of quality.

Synn knows this well, he had the very same problem when uploading his satio pics to picasa, the pictures were rather hmm bad :D.

[prafultripathy]

Here's the original file in about the same size as posted here...

http://www.mediafire.com/file/zgmt45zyn1d/IMG_1921_s.zip

[anvancy-(macro analyst)]

the algorithm of flickr is way better than picasa web albums.details stored in flickr is more than picasa.thats why the difference.

its like when u upload images on facebook,they re size for fast viewing and their sizes are mainly two dimensions one is 800 length and sometimes 640 range..that changes your shot.

a simple rule followed in web publishing is sharpening the shot for the size that you want to show.so if i want to show at 1024 max resolution,ill resize my image to those dimensions after my editing and then apply sharpening to the resized to avoid any losses.

anvancy

[Xavier]

Hmmm, the original file definitely looks closer to the Picasa version. I would put it down to Flickr's more aggressive sharpening algorithm. Anyway, I find Photobucket to be a better alternative than Picasa for my 'experimental' pictures.

[Deltaone]

the algorithm of flickr is way better than picasa web albums.details stored in flickr is more than picasa.thats why the difference.

its like when u upload images on facebook,they re size for fast viewing and their sizes are mainly two dimensions one is 800 length and sometimes 640 range..that changes your shot.

a simple rule followed in web publishing is sharpening the shot for the size that you want to show.so if i want to show at 1024 max resolution,ill resize my image to those dimensions after my editing and then apply sharpening to the resized to avoid any losses.

anvancy

The problem is not the resizing..... The problem is the file read algorithm. Picasa and flickr handle it in two different ways, and flickr's algorithm seems to be better.

[shutterbug]

Though I too use flickr I never noticed this( I dont use Picasa much basically).
But from your photos uploaded it is quite evident. so which are the other image hosting site which do this?

[prafultripathy]

Picasa is what I use for most of my mass uploads. Flickr I use only for specific photographs which I consider are of a decent quality! :(

I observed one thing, the original image still is not as sharp as the one on Flickr. Any ideas on how to replicate their sharpening algorithm?

[Xavier]

I observed one thing, the original image still is not as sharp as the one on Flickr. Any ideas on how to replicate their sharpening algorithm?

USM (UnSharp Mask) in Photoshop from the Filter>Sharpen menu. Play around with the sliders.

[prafultripathy]

USM (UnSharp Mask) in Photoshop from the Filter>Sharpen menu. Play around with the sliders.
Used USM for the pic, but did not get the quality of flickr. :(

[synn]

The flickr picture looks nice because they are downsampling a large image. If the algorithm is right, downsampling a high-res, well detailed image always ends up producing a sharp looking file. Picasa attempts to do the same, but they seem to be using way too much interpolation, resulting in artifacts.