Churchyard view

Did you deliberately decrease the number of colours to get that striped sky? Quite effective.

Not deliberate, twas over-compressed to reduce the filesize from over 4Mb.

I see ... generally compression works up to a maximum sensible at 30pc. I keep mine to 10pc max, and re-size to 1024 pixels width. Ships Nostalgia have a limit of 900 x 900 and file size less than 500kB. Always do this correction to a copy file.
When a file is re-sized down, it needs to be sharpened, as the circle of overlap of pixels produces a blur of colour. ::6:

I recommend VSO Image Resizer for this as it can knock 90+% off the file size with no noticeable reduction in quality at resolutions of about 1280x800 (of whatever you choose). The best reason to use it is that it only takes a right click on the photo s file name and then to select to reduce the file size. (It could be the new Autostitch!)

EDIT: It s available Free of Charge by the way, from a reputable software company, just google it.

This set of photos was taken on a different camera, with enormous filesizes, to the set uploaded earlier, which were taken on a camera which gives filesizes below the PP limit.
So, I was using MS Photo Premium to reduce the filesize, but not actually checking the result.

You should only compress a maximum of 15% and reduce the dpi (dot per inch) to 72 and more importantly, if you reduce the actual picture size to 1024 x 800 the picture will only weigh in at about 32kb from 4mbs

Wow, all this was like someone saying burble burble burble! duh

I always felt that to use anything and to get the best out of it, it either helps to read the instructions, or,
if you are like me, try out everything then, if bored, read the instructions. ::6:
I use Paint Shop Pro 7, and occasionally that wonderful little piece of free software Irfanview.

I love the composition of this pic - works well in colour and no doubt would be striking in b/w as well laugh#