ANother trick I use on occasion is to place the photo into anAdobe Illustrator document and, with it selected go to "Save For The Web" in the FILE Menu - you'll get a new window showing the image and at the upper right you'll see the control panel for this function - ignore the "setting" list, choose "JPEG" for the type, default for the rest of the settings, "Optimized" should be checked and then there is a small button just to the right of the file type list with an arrowhead pointing right - Click it and you get a dropdown which sghould have an entry "Optimize to File Size" - Take that option and when the next window comes up enter a suitable number - in this case I think 85 or 90K is about right for posting here - it will process this and then you just click the "Save" button at the upper right , fill in the name and path you want to save it as/to and the optimized jpeg will be saved -
Seems like a lot to do, but the quality of the original is unchanged, just the file size - Don't ask me how it works - I think it's sorcery, but IT DOES WORK! To check this, save the optimized JPG under a different name in the same directory as the original and then compare file sizes in the directory listing - Then place tyhe two images side by side and compare them - It's astonishing.
Oh Yeah, I'm using Version 10, but the same feature is avalable in 9.0 -
And Webb, are you sure that 72 dpi is the max your scanner will do? - Those photos look awfully crisp to be scanned at 72 dpi - I would think that about any scanner available today can be adjusted wayyyyyy on up there in resolution, to the point of ridiculous overkill...
Anyway, you have a real eye for it - keep on top of it, and I'd be interested in seeing some of your images with some of the effects filters available in Photoshop applied to them - Some of the artistic filters like watercolor, pen and ink, conte crayon, film grain, etc. can give you really nice results and are certainly fun to play with - As to getting into the business - you're young and that's in your favor - Digital art and it's related fields are going to be some of the hottest occupations in the coming years - Get in on the ground floor and when you're my age (NOT young) you can make a nice living sitting behind a desk instead of carrying it around.
Good luck!
Bob M. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/thumbsup.gif