High Resolution Images |
BirdPhotos.com is different than many sites because it features only high-resolution images. What does that mean? Our definition of a high-resolution image is one is at least 1024x1024 pixels, but most of our photos are much larger than this. This document is for people uploading images, and tries to explain and justify our high-resolution policy.
A high-resolution image is not necessarily a sharp image. Take a look at this image (click for attribution/copyright/usage info) by Mdf. The first shows the actual image and the second shows the actual pixels of a very small subsection. This image is razor sharp!! I think I can see the photographer in the eyeball reflection!
If an image is both sharp and high-resolution, it can be used for large printed material or screen savers. A low resolution can easily hide imperfections in the image. I would never purchase an image for print if I couldn't see the actual pixels.
There are some photos on the site that might seem a little plain, like this gull standing on a pole. In reality it is a photo with level of sharpness very rarely seen. As editor I often look at the image quality before the composition, and might pick some less interesting images over one that is more interesting but less sharp.
Many photographers who only release low-resolution versions of their images can easily hide sharpness and other quality issues. Furthermore many photographers actually do an extra round of sharpening after downsizing the image. Even Wikipedia is now sharpening their downsized previews. Since images on BirdPhotos.com are downsized on the fly, we might have images that are missing the 'pop' thay could have if they were sharpened for just one (low) resolution.