What filters and tricks in photoshop can I use to get crystal clear thumbs?
 

I am making some thumbs...acctually ALOT of them soon and I want to have them as celar as possible.

Usally I just use the filter sharpen when I modify them but what other settings might help to make them crystal clear and small in size before saving them?

Would love any help I can get :)

Unsharp mask works pretty well once you learn how to use it, well and it offers more control than the basic sharpen filter.

Thumbnailer from http://www.smalleranimals.com/ has a nice cleanup/sharpen filter plugin.

SpaceAce

Let US do all your custom Thumbnailing. Only PENNIES each. http://www.webmasterlabor.com or ICQ me for a discount!

work also on levels

photoshop sucks at jpg exports, I'm using a plugin to export jpgs: Ulead SmartSaver Pro, it integrates in photoshop very nice.
After installing you'll have a menu option: File->Export->Ulead SmartSaver Pro.

I will not pay someone to make my thumbs man.

hahahah aint that the truth its a basic webmastering skill no need to pay to have it done thats like having someone pay to have thier shoes tied

:thumbsup

Well, if you need to have a few thousand thumbs created, i don't see why you wouldn't outsource it. Time is worth more than money.

Add an adjustment layer and play with the brightness/contrast. Don't go overboard with it though.

I always crop my thumbs to focus in on a certain part of the picture... You know what I mean. Then maybe add some brightness if it needs it, and then sharpen it. Always turns out nice and clear. Cropping the thumb always makes it look way better than just making the whole pic small :2 cents:

Ever hear of the "Batch" process? Photoshop 5.5 or later I think.

Copy all of the images you want to thumbnail into one big folder, record a script in the actions log, and batch the whole bunch while you take a lunch break.

I batch all of my correction operations except for individual touch ups.

Same here...I cut out a sertain part of each pic.

Most thumbs looks like shit when you just rezise the whole picture.

I always hand crop my thumbs.

More work yes..looks way better yes!

Yes, but that won't sharpen each thumbnail for you. The prices that $5 submissions offer are next to nothing. The only reason i'm not using his services is that i don't have a need for them, really. Pay a tiny amount of cash to have a better quality result.

Put a tiny bit more $ into your work and yield a lot more in the end. That seems to be the result people have been getting with webmasterlabor.com

just use photoshop..crop them and apply unsharp..play with the levels a bit when it's too dark or bright

use the "action" stuff to easily apply the stuff you did above to each thumb of the set

each picture serie is different so you have to change the "action" a bit each time

Use the unsharp mask for better settings, also make sure when you hahahahahaha an image to hahahahahaha going half at a time. So an image 800x800 -> 400x400 -> 200x200 -> 100x100 (unsharp mask after every step) instead of going from 800x800 to 100x100.

You can automate this by making a new action, for example when I hit F3 the image res1zes half and unsharpens automatically.

:thumbsup