As I go through the new days crop of images I come accross this phenomenon, thumbnails that appear clearer (I know its all to do with image size) and better cropped/composed than the actual work.  There are times that I prefer the thumbnail to the original.

What are peoples feelings on this and on those thumbs, apart from those shots that contain nudity,  cropping these can't be avoided due to site policy.

IMO, it seems to me that some artists here put more effort into the thumb. 

Sometimes it seems that more effort went into the title. 

OTOH, what sense can you make of an upload that doesn't have a title? 

It's all food for thought. 

... now I'm going to have breakfast. 

--
Martin

I agree..once in a while the thumb is better in compo than the entire image. I have done that myself then asked: Why didn't I see that beforehand in my image?   Then again, I miss a few fine images because the thumb is not drawing me to look.

Thumbs can be little peices of art in an of themselves. I have recently seen several that have better overall composition than the image they represent.

Maybe these particular thumbs come from photographers who aren't  seeing the bigger picture when they take the shot and what looks good, really, is the viewfinder image that their brains are working from...did I make any sense there? Seems to me a matter of having a sense of what size the image will present well at and that's that. In my other life as a graphics designer I often work at 4x as large as the finished product because I learned early on, reduction will forgive a myriad of bad decisions...LOL, but have never worked from small to large.. ...

Interesting point Bobby and as a graphic designer myself, good thinking! :) My take on it isn't neccessarily the image quality, but rather the composition. Sometimes the crop used for the thumb suits the image better than the full size they are working from. As an aside, I sometimes like to have fun and animate my thumbs. I know some people frown on it, but it is all in good fun, right. And sometimes it will get someone to look at the image that might now have in the first place. I haven't done that since the new thumb rules...I'll have to see how they apply. These days I just shrink down the whole image and put it in a black border for the sake of consistancy.

Agree - on all of the above points. 
I have often commented to that effect - no one has ever responded.

That is a shame Richard, I for one value your insights. I do seem to remember comments of your to that effect.

To that effect..yes, I look at the viewfinder image and try to see it as the final compo. Alas, when being edited, the image shows much more than in the small view.  So, constructive cropping happens when needed.  Same with thumbs, as with TwoPynts I now generally shrink the entire image unless the elements in that will be too too small for any recognition.   When I have cropped to make a thumb, I would try to choose an important part of the entire shot.  Yes, at times that is better in compo than the entire shot! Alas, then the crop is often too small to be useful in printing(file size of the crop prior to resizing to thumbnail) unless I blow it up.

The eye tells(and for some does not) how to frame the original image. Still..elements are missed and show in the larger view and crop is needed.

An interesting debate and I agree with many of the points raised... I also think that Thumbs can look oversharp if any images have been tweeked with some sharpening software, as the thumbs often look sharper due to the smaller size.. This can ruin them..

I've seen my fair share of thumbs that are interesting and drawing and then you open the image and you actually feel cheated because the image is so far from the thumb or is just terrible.

I don't say anything about it anymore because I got sereval IM's lashing out at me for expressing my thoughts about their thumb vs image (whether intentional or not) but now I've stopped saying anything - is it worth the backlash?

 I saw that PeeWee05 said,

I don't say anything about it anymore because I got sereval IM's lashing
out at me for expressing my thoughts about their thumb vs image (whether
intentional or not)

As I understand it, you gave an honest correct evaluation and/or comment
under someone's image ... and then got a nasty comment in return. 

IMO, that is something that should not happen.  If they uploaded the image
with comments enabled, they should accept whatever comments they get. 

In fact, you should consider reporting such incidents to a moderator or an
administrator

but now I've stopped saying anything - is it worth the backlash?

IMO, yes, it's worth a comment. 

--
MGD

I have received little backlash.  Then again, my criticism has been very gentle. Who knows!

Comment on Thumbs not mentioned yet, I think:

Size is important.  I do imagine with some thumbs which seem better than the full image, if the thumb were 900 pixels wide and full file size instead of the 200 pixels or less width and less than 15kb, we might see enough of the thumb to realize the full size image is actually better.  

That is a possibility worth consideraton.

I do agree that the size of thumbs can lead to the eye thinking that the quality is better than what the actual picture is but at the same time when ppl put misleading thumbs on you feel violated in a way...

@ MGD - I'm still not convinced that I'm going to say anything anymore, it's hard work being hated all the time...

All interesting views, myself......some may think it lazy, but mostly I use rendo thumbnails, other than that I have a thumbnail making program (easy thumbnails) where I use the whole image, there by not decieving the viewer into looking at something from a cropped thumbnail.

Stuart

I let Rendo do all the work :biggrin:

I think that PeeWee05 said,

I'm still not convinced that I'm going to say anything anymore,
it's hard work being hated all the time...

Very true. 

I have seen a movie with a character who says,

"There is no art without pain" <<<

--
Martin

Yikes! I just did it!  The thumb was better.

  I prepared a shot and saved to my gallelry folder then went back to do the thumb.  The crop for the thumb was the image I really wanted..  So, started fresh and what was the crop to thumb is now the posted image.  I actully did it...and messed my chances of a genre challenge at the same time..since this could have been a music genre entry but actually was taken too long ago to use this month. Oh well.  We live and sometime, sometimes learn from it.         TomDart.

Its interesting how things work out when working on an image and its thumbnail, I have found myself about to upload an image and realising that the thumbnail looked far better than the original.

Needless to say those images don't make it to Rendo!

Since starting this thread I've switched from making my own thumbs to using a thumbnail maker (EZ Thumb) that I got as freeware and it works very well and saves me time, always something in short supply.

I was suprised that some of you have had hassle after giving honest comments about thumb vs image!  I would of thought that those individuals that reacted would be happy to receive your comments/suggestions in the spirit they were ment, that is what Rendo is about I thought.  Probably they would have reacted in the same manner to any preceived "negative" comments received, some do.