ImageShack Photo Quality

[BLUE SKY THINKER]

I'm not a particularly frequent user of ImageShack hosting, but all of a sudden nothing I upload seems to bare any resemblance to the quality of the original. ...Despite not selecting resizing and the file size being the same after upload, the final result looks like a poorly compressed example.

Oddly, previously 'OK' uploads now seem to have taken on this appearance. ...Even odder - as an example - the image in this (http://www.pprune.org/forums/showthread.php?t=235228) previous post was crystal clear, now it's less so; yet when I put the cursor over the image I'm given the option (as on the ImageShack website) to 'shift+R' to sharpen and hey presto it's back to clear. ...What's that all about; presumably connected?

I'm obviously missing something here; can anyone enlighten me? ...Thanks.

[Conan the Librarian]

Think the reason for any jagged edges, etc. might be in the method chosen for uplifting the original file(s) to the server. I had a similar short term problem with Photobucket. A lot of these services are trying to resize, compress and generally force your nice square picture into their nice, round box. Have you changed the uplift method in recent times?

All you need do, is drop them a line and explain briefly, your perception of the problem and ask if they have another uplift tool. Bet that sorts it :-)

Let me know - am interested in this one :-)

Conan

[BLUE SKY THINKER]

Sometimes when you put things on here you just want to go away and hide when you realise the answer has been staring you in the face all along. ...Anyway, in the interests of the learning curve, in case anyone else runs up against this.....

It's down to me, rather than ImageShack. ...I've been away over the last few days; on the move using UMTS, via a laptop data card for the first time ever. ...It would appear this is compressing downloaded images, although not immediately obvious until it is a photo you are familiar with (a dialup download of the same has just proved the point). ...Anyone who went to the example image in my opening post must have wondered what I was on about because 'Shift+R' is likewise a feature of this program/service and consequently would (presumably) not have been able to reproduce it (!).

I can appreciate the reasons why this is done, but it would have been nice to have been told in the original documentation for the service. ...From August and the switch to HSDPA this card is suppose to bang out up to 1.8meg, as opposed to 0.35 at the moment; whether the compression situation will change from then, we shall see, although the reasons for doing so would remain valid.