High-resolution lossless nature pics for wallpaper?

[Auric]

Can anyone point me to a source for free high-res (1600x1200 or 1280x960/1280) nature pics in a lossless format like PNG? Landscapes, particularly beaches, tropical islands and that sort of thing is what I am after. I have poked around but cannot find any

 

[notfred]

That's really not a question about applications, games, or programming.

 

[CTho9305]

Why lossless? What's wrong with a good JPEG? Lossless compression doesn't work well on photos - you'll get a HUGE file for minimal benefit. http://132.235.90.143/Twon_extras/TWON_NATURE.html <- good quality JPEGs.

 

[Auric]

This forum is the closest applicable.

I don't like blotchy, blurry wallpaper, that's why I want lossless. Then at least I have a choice of reducing size at the expense of quality.

 

[CTho9305]

With a good quality JPEG (like the TWON link above), any blurriness will be from the original shot - at least MUCH more so than from the compression. Even digital cameras save in high-quality JPEG, not lossless.

 

[mbackof]

I don't think you should go with a full size image, but if you want one, google TIF or TIFF file extension. Those are full size and very large files. You can get JPEG images that are virtually lossless that would work great on your desktop.

 

[Barnaby W. Füi]

Tiffs are needlessly large. A png will look just as good (and is probably a lot easier to find)

 

[CTho9305]

How exactly would you create a lossless initial image anyway? Digital cameras use high-quality JPEGs. What do Kodak PhotoCDs or PicutreCDS or whatever they're called store images in?

 

[SilentRunning]

Originally posted by: CTho9305
How exactly would you create a lossless initial image anyway? Digital cameras use high-quality JPEGs. What do Kodak PhotoCDs or PicutreCDS or whatever they're called store images in?

Some cameras can record images in RAW mode which is a lossless.

 

[Sid59]

i thought RAW was just a RAW picture. it's not lossess. RAW is sorta like a WAV. just data waiting to be compressed.

 

[SilentRunning]

Originally posted by: Sid59
i thought RAW was just a RAW picture. it's not lossess. RAW is sorta like a WAV. just data waiting to be compressed.

RAW is the actual data from the camera's sensor which is then losslessly compressed. It is lossless as you can get. Now if you want to argue that the camera's sensor is not lossless I can't argue with that.

 

[CTho9305]

Originally posted by: SilentRunning

Originally posted by: CTho9305
How exactly would you create a lossless initial image anyway? Digital cameras use high-quality JPEGs. What do Kodak PhotoCDs or PicutreCDS or whatever they're called store images in?

Some cameras can record images in RAW mode which is a lossless.

ah, interesting. So you get what, 1 pic per 32MB?

Originally posted by: Sid59
i thought RAW was just a RAW picture. it's not lossess. RAW is sorta like a WAV. just data waiting to be compressed.

WAV is uncompressed audio... it's just a header, followed directly by the samples.

 

[Auric]

Lets not get hung up on the technical stuff and lose sight of the goal which is a nice piccy. Eyes are lossy. Your brain is lossy.

I appreciate the TWON link but those are low-res and suffer from JPEG compression artifacts, particularly a visible cross-hatching pattern.

Oh yeah, logos and calendars are undesirable also.

The only sites with PNG that I have found are subscription services -for nature shots that is, there are plenty of CGI freebees.

I discovered an interesting collection of free high-res JPG's at the NOHAA Photo Library.

 

[Auric]

The NOHAA stuff is primarily documentary type snaps rather than particularly well shot. The search continues...

Here is a nice Earth piccy. It is described as "3000x3000 pixel tiff image (about the full resolution of the original 70mm film)" but it is actually 4579x4579. Wow.