Hands up: who's using the capture tool for submit thumbs
 

...instead of preparaing decent thumbnails before submitting?

I really can't understand this: I get quite a few submissions from established webmasters who submit with crab thumbnails (to a thumbnail TGP!), yet all thumbnails on their page are optimised and color-corrected - what good is that if I won't list your page due to a shitty preview thumb?
|angry|


When I prepare my own new submissions I quite often think already about the preview thumbnail during the process of the initial image selection! Like with couple series I look for an image where some couple action is showing without genitals in the picture to comply with all the "no hardcore thumbnail" rules... Or I pick some particular facial expression which I know would make a good tempting thumbnail... And I spend at least as long getting all my different thumbs done (15+) as I spend on the rest of the page (if it's a template repeat)...

But then: I also get listings and often high thumbnail positions on sites where the surfer clicks determine the thumb position.

|santa| |peace| |santa|

I always make my own thumbs, about 6 or so I think. The crop tool makes fuzzy thumbs!

I just submitted a video gallery and their thumbs suck. I try my best with them but sometimes it's hard for sure.

I actually set its compression ratio rather generously at my site and the thumbs are o.k., but they can never be better than the original gallery image!

Whereas if you're preparing your own thumbs you can use the uncompressed content (as purchased - I hope at least that you bought it...), color-correct it if needed, enhance contrast, and I usually make thumbs a little lighter and run a gentle "Unsharp Mask" over them to compensate for their small size. Occasionally I even enhance the color of lips or eyes. Yum: nothing as seductive as some bright red lips curled around [insert object of desire]... Even mainstream advertising knows all about that!

http://free-pics-of-sex.com/kiss.gif

zerbinacrity
 

i try to do that too. but being a not so experienced gallery submitter and builder (admittedly) i forget about it until i get the gallery all built 50% of the time :) i use thumbs plus cropping tool for all my thumbs. i go like this:

pick an appropriate larger picture (uncompressed original like you said). i usually make a hardcore and softcore for each different size except 90x130 - i only need softcore for that one.

transform > trim to exactly > 88 x 88 (or whatever)

then

expand the selection box to include the part of the pic i want in the thumb

then

transform > resize > 88 x 88

then

image > filter > sharpen even less

then i can usually save at about 90% and have it be well under 5kb :)

i just realized - i hope youre not referring to my thumbs lol |jester|

I prepare about 5 or 6 thumbs ahead of time, but the cropper at the TGPs that demand their own unique size. I still have the worst time trying to create a clean thumb that will won't get kicked back for being to kb heavy.

now that my dry wall project is almost done in a couple days I can work on that and during the summer I made a nice preview thumb but cant remember how I did it, I use thumbs plus for compression and the gallery thumbs.. What programs do you guys use and what steps.. for a cropped preview thumb..

I think hermit uses T plus and I played with that method a little...

I've been using Arles and saving thumbs as various percentages. I've toyed with touching them up in photoshop, but I suck at that. I'm going to have to find a tutorial on that.