Having trouble converting photos to...

I am using CS2 on Mac OSX 10.4.11. I've been trying to figure the best way to do this for a few years now. I am an invitation designer and I photograph my products to be used as images on my web site. I'm starting with a 3008x2000 pixel image at 300 pixels per inch, crisp .jpg of my invite with a fabric background that I delete out after the photo is taken. I open the photo, duplicate the layer, delete the background, duplicate the layer with the invite selected and create a dropshadow, then I use the sharpen filter on the invite layer. Then I reduce the image to roughly 627x417 and use the Save for Web function. The picture comes out with a blurry haze around the text and the invite colors become pixelated looking. Here is an example http://www.invitedesigner.com/index.php?main_page=product_info%26amp;cPath=36_57%26amp;prod ucts_id=2222 the bad photo is the smaller one below the main image. The main image is a scan which I was using for a while because of the good quality but it doesn't allow me to show enough of the invite.



If you have any advice at all I would love to hear it. This has been driving me crazy for years!
Having trouble converting photos to...
In save for web, simply using a higher quality setting for the jpeg.
Having trouble converting photos to...
If the reseller website is converting the image to a lower quality JPG for storage in their database you might be best off posting the highest quality JPG to their site.

%26gt;then I use the sharpen filter on the invite layer. Then I reduce the image to roughly 627x417



You have these steps backward. Why sharpen
before resampling?



With that said, the image sample does not look bad.

%26gt;Why sharpen before resampling?



For content.

Forget the sharpening, or use the high pass/hard light method since the normal sharpening haloes everything too much. Having said that your jpg quality looks low, you should be on high quality as PeterK said. Hopefully your image is not being resaved by web people!

what method are you using to reduce your image?



I woould recommend bicubic sharper

Thank you guys so much, I thought I was choosing the highest quality .jpg in the 4 up but I didn't realize I could also adjust the quality of the .jpg in a dropdown on the right. I was on low and changed it to maximum and the quality looks WAY better. Now I just have to get better at the photography portion of it. My lighting is off and the red background I used is reflected on the product. Thanks for the advice!

and it would not surprise me the image was being resaved.