Enhancing images

[MKJ]

I got this background picture (off a site so am not sure whether I am allowed to use it - bugger if for now!) which I am using for my site. I really like the dramatic effect is has but it is somewhat blurry around the edges of the buildings as you should be able to see below. I have experimented with Photoshop but to be honest I know silch about using the program. Can the blurry look be removed or is it an integral part of the picture? You can see it working on my site here. If I could sharpen it somehow it would improve the look of the site a great deal.

 

[Jonty]

Hi MKJ

Forgive me if this sounds somewhat harsh, but you really cannot go around taking other people's work and using it as your own. Either contact the person in question or check if the resource is available under license. If all else fails at least make sure you credit the person in question on your site

As to your problem, the image in question looks like it's been compressed or resized a little too much so you won't be able to make it look crystal clear. Your best bet would be to draw your own in Photoshop or the likes. All you need is a background filled with a sunset gradient, then a layer on top of that with your skyline. I'm sure there are probably plenty of tutorials on how to achieve such things, and this way whatever you produce will be yours and you'll have learnt a lot along the way

Kind Regards

 

[MKJ]

I think I am allowed to use the image. Will check on that. Was available off a site that was teaching css techniques. Knowing me I will alter the site very soon anyways. As you say I could probably make a background using Photoshop. Powerful program for sure.

 

[old.user4556]

Try this

A fair few silhouette skyline images there for you to manipulate?

 

[MKJ]

Found loads on a site. Going to make my site have adjustable background images. Will be using a lot of transparency - or lack of background - and copy the whole site into different directories. Then I can build in a colour changer. Did it once before. All that means is I can put links in to send the visitors to different directories that are all identical bar for the background pics and style.css file. Make the site somewhat dramatic and highly changeable. Just stuck up a very red background image now on my site. Big picture but because I am not using much apart from the image the index.php file isn't too big so loading time isn't too bad. Can always chop the image though. Left it on the large size to accomodate most resolutions. Always a bit of bother though with text colouration if you are using background pics. Unless they are regular in colour - all dark or light - then you run into text becoming unreadable on certain sections. Always a way around such things though.

Hehe - just noticed the picture above has changed cos I overwrote it - pretty dramatic red pic eh?

 

[MKJ]

Ah got me a nice City Header now. Free picture too. Girlie don't like it cos she say it is too dark. Looks fine to me though.

MKJ
City at night

 

[old.user4556]

That's much better.

If it's too dark, slap it into photoshop and play with the levels slider to bring it up a little bit.

Reminds me of Bladerunner a bit .

 

[MKJ]

This is the picture I took the skyline off. The original pic was huge so I have reduced the size of it to show you. Staggering picture though. I have put a link underneath one of the boxes on my site that will display this with reference to the photographer.

 

[Clown]

Why did you reduce the size and make it tile to the right? It just makes it look silly for whoever uses a higher res.

 

[MKJ]

Good point. Will take a look at that now. Sure is a nice picture but the original was huge. Something like 3000x2000. Will experiment a bit now with the window size. Was thinking more of the way low res users would see the pic. The window can be maximized though.