Resizing and image compression-HELP!

[marioana]

Hi All.
I've been here a few months now and really enjotying it. I'm getting a great deal out of Trek Earth, but every time I upload an image I've spent ages fine tuning, that looks beautiful on my screen and I'm proud of, I go to re-size it to upload proportions and there goes all my quality. I know most of us have similar problems, we're all in the same boat with the 200kb limit, but I find I'm having to compress my images down to as low as 60% when saving for web. This undoes all the nice sharpening and makes the images look like happy snaps from a disposable camera. Can anyone give me some tips to get that compression percentage up? My workflow is as follows:
Step 1. Save As (jpeg maximum quality.)
Step 2. Finish all corrections and re-size (72 resolution and 800 pixels width).
Step 3. Save For Web.
I'm using Photoshop Elements 2. I've just started dabling with Photomatix HDR software, and that makes the problem even greater. Anyone using Photomatix, I'd apreciate some comments.
In anticipation.
Steve.

[Emiel_Skyfreak]

Maybe resize your photo's to a bit less than 800px. Add a simple border to remake it 800px, a white or black border..doesn't add much extra bytes..but it let's the photo stay 800px width. By keeping the original photo just a bit smaller, you can maintain just that necessary extra bit of detail which you would like..

If your in troubles with the filesize..I think this is one of the best tips..Other programs that need to compress a photo too, will give quite similar results I think.


Why two times save? just save on the end..
..not before finishing all corrections.