High resolution images on Overgrow

[LemonadeJoe]

Site Update

Uploads are now accepted up to 13 Megapixels or 10 Megabytes.

@orange

Joe put in compression server-side n EXIF removal

@zephyr

Even a built in or automated compression tool would be a massive improvement, especially if the maximum resolution or file size was further reduced.

With last update there is now server-side compression that allows larger images to upload so you don’t need to compress the file on your side. There is no 3MB limit anymore.

You can now upload photos up to 13 Megapixels and they will be resized on the server. BUT it is still recommended that you compress the file yourself as a part of photo editing work if you have the skills because you’ll get better results and faster upload.

You can drag and drop no more than 5 images at once. We’ll yet see how CPU copes with it…

@anon98152597

If properly compressed you can still get high res images lower then 800kb. Imagery takes up a lot of server space and can greatly increase the costs. Also why do you need a 12megapixel image of a plant? That comes out larger than most PC screens. A picture at 1920 x 1080 pixels 72 or 96dpi should be clear as day and easy to see details.

I completely agree. Two points.

Bigger resolution (and DPI) is needed for print. If you want photos to display on the monitor there is already plenty of information in 800kb of jpeg with 80-85% compression enabled. There is a reason why monitors haven’t been designed with higher PPIs until now… Human eye just can’t tell the difference.

The average computer monitor viewing distance is about 2.5 feet (762 mm). p@0.4 is 89 microns or about 300 ppi/dpi. p@1 is 222 microns or about 115 ppi/dpi. Now you can understand why most consumer computer monitors are about 100 ppi, and most professional computer monitors are slightly higher, but not by much.
Source: Notes by Dr. Optoglass: The Resolution of the Human Eye

Of course there is the point with zooming the photos which is edge case but applies to our community for the reasons that many of you stated. I’d just like to point out that resolution in Mpixes is not everything. Producers are ramping up Mpixes in phones but the limiting factor is the lens. It is still the same cheap plastic crap as before. And it won’t get any better because you need big and heavy glass lenses to take more light (and more information) to the chip. How many of us do use SLR cameras?

So if we reduce Mpixes into something reasonable we can save on both disk space and bandwidth.

@Esrgood4u

If we could somehow make certain parts of the site able to accept the high rez pictures like when we check trichomes or the sex of a plant and the grow diaries convert to lower resolutions by the server somehow would work I think but I don’t know if that’s possible

The solution I’m thinking about would be based purely on time. I think that the need for really high resolution is greatest at the time of the upload (because e.g. you want to diagnose some problem / pests) and decreases in time. We could lower the quality of the photos automatically after few months.

@anon32470837

I like that OG doesnt have advertisements, but maybe @LemonadeJoe needs to re-think that.

I still need to work on the calculations and projections of cost and this is definitely something I’ll be considering, also because few sponsors have demanded it.

@anon32470837

Come on people. Lets not go backwards. I have very little money but I still contribute a small amount each month to OG. Its what I can afford. I dont see why almost every one who posts cant do the same.

Thank you very much. If everyone using galleries as a personal archive could support the site through our Patreon it would be much easier!