Hi Steve,

just a hint about GIF, in case you didn´t already know:
The GIF-format is a wonderful compact and lossless compression format, but limited to only 256 colors!! This small color palette is good enough for many Web purposes, but hardly suitable for photo-realistic content or according textures.

Better use JPG format, though always with high quality options, trying to avoid noticeable detail losses and visible compression artefacts, esp at fine details or along smooth color-gradients.

Or use BMP, TIF or PNG format, if you want to avoid quality losses in your pictures.

Hubert 

"All that we see or fear, is but a Sphere inside a Sphere."     (E. A. Pryce -- Tuesday afternoon, 1845)