Shrink Shrink the photo to the desired thumbnail size. If all thumbnails are to be the same size, whatever the photo's original shape, then specify the small size in one dimension so that the other is too big, and can be cropped. Most of the thumbnails on Hilton Harbour are shrunk to 192 by 119 pixels at this stage, a good size that happens to be a good approximation of the golden rectangle . Increase saturation Increase the saturation by ten or even twenty per cent. If there are people in the photo use a smaller value so that skin tones do not become lurid.
More saturated colours help make the subject more recognisable in a small thumbnail.
Also, more colourful thumbnails look better, in a way that wouldn't be the case for a large photo. Sharpen Sharpen the thumbnail using Unsharp Mask with a radius of 0.5 pixels and a strength of 100-120 per cent. Alternatively, the Adobe Sharpen filter is usually about right. If anything, it is better to slightly over-sharpen thumbnails, to accentuate detail in the photo, because the artifacts of sharpening show up less on a small image. Add a border Set the background colour to black and use Canvas Size to enlarge the picture but six pixels in both dimensions.