How do i get a good quality profile photo? help ASAP

Okay, So i have a question!

- I use Photoshop CS
-I forgot how to make quality,crisp profile photos.

What size do i make them, And what format do i save them in?

And is there anything special i have to do to them to give them the crisp quality.

Search is your friend. There are several threads about that already.

You ran a search to find the threads and didn't even bother to include any links to them? That's real helpful of you.

Great page here:

https://support.secondlife.com/ics/support/default.asp?deptID=4417

1:1
Use this aspect ratio for:
Group insignias
1st Life profile tab pictures

4:3
Use this aspect ratio for:
2nd Life profile tab pictures

10:7
Use this aspect ratio for:
Search
Classifieds
Showcase
Land Sales
Places
About Landmark

3:2
Use this aspect ratio for:
The About Land window

16:9
Use this aspect ratio for:
Profile picks

To clarify on what Argus posted, make your original photo the aspect ratio stated in that post for the type of image you are making. Then, before import, rescale the image to the nearest rational "Power of two" : 512, 256, 128, 64, 32... in each direction.

For example:
4:3
Use this aspect ratio for:
2nd Life profile tab pictures

Make the pic 800 x 600 in your master image, then scale that to 512 x 512 or 256 x 256 just before you import it. When used in the profile pic, it will go back to a 4:3 aspect ratio.

Actually.....I just take my pics in 2016x1524 and crop them in PSE the way I want them.....and resize to about 35% of original....give or take depending on how much I cropped.

As for those aspect ratios......they're very handy to know. But what I do to get around them is just frame my images by enlarging the canvas either width or height.....so that it compensates for the way the image will be stretched. (if the aspect ratio is wide, I make sure I add extra width to my canvas)

The reality......except for profile pics.....most of the others you can get away with putting a standard aspect ratio image and the stretching wont be all that obvious. For profile pics....ya gotta stay close to the aspect ratio.

If you're still totally frustrated....IM me in-world and I'll do some pics for ya, or walk ya thru it~!!!

Today is the longest day of the year (in the northern hemisphere). Happy Solstice to everyone. Yay!

[Edit: Ok I'll get this right eventually. Happy summer soltice to those of us in the northern hemisphere, and happy winter solstice to those of us in the southern hemisphere. ]

So the 1st life pic is supposed to be square? It doesn't look square on my screen, but I have one of those newish stretched out monitors that may be skewing it. This is disturbing because now I'm not sure I can trust the ratio of any texture I upload -- or any avatar shape I create. Is there a way to fix this?

Most monitors have a calibration mode, that will allow you to adjust them not only for color correction but also for aspect ratio.

Note that on a flat-panel display, there is usually one and only one pixel size and aspect ration that will be "exactly right", and this is the one it is designed for. As an example, I have an HP w2408 LCD monitor on my Mac. It has 1920 by 1200 pixels, and on that setting what is supposed to be square will be square, and each pixel displayed is actually one physical LCD monitor pixel. It will let me set it to 1600 x 1200, but that stretches everything sideways. There are several other settings "allowed", but most of them will distort things to some degree.

For calibrating your LCD flat panel monitor, try the test images and instructions at this site:

http://www.lagom.nl/lcd-test/

Do you like my (in world) profile pic? It was taken in game and not tweaked outside at all.

I think those types of profile pix are perfectly acceptable - by which I mean groovypeachykeen. Just look for good lighting and backdrop in-world and go to it.

Thank you and I know a lot more now!!!!!! YAY!

And, welcome to the Forum!