Adjusting Brightness

[snowcrash2k]

I have some photos of a hockey game that were taken with a 6.1 megapixel camera and the file size of the jpeg image turns out to be 2.5 MB. Unfortunately the pictures turned out very dark. I used Photoshop to adjust the brightness and the contrast in order to lighten them up. When I save the pictures after adjusting them the file size is only 250K. The document size is still 3072x2048 pixels (same as originally).

Can anyone tell me why the file size is being reduced so much and whether or not these images will turn out ok if I have them printed (they still look good on the monitor).

Thanks

 

[leonec]

Every time you save a jpg it is compressed. So the more times you save it the more it will be pixelized and quality will reduce. You should either be saving in the native psd format or a tiff. However your jpg is large (pixel wise) so if you are printing a 4x6 or even a 5x7 then the print out will look fine. also, never make adjustments to your orginal, always dup. it.

 

[greensweater]

You can adjust compression levels in the save-as JPEG dialog box. This results in variations in file size.

If there are fields of consistent color (blank white areas for example) compression levels can be higher as a result.