What is your digital photo size?

[Teegate]

All,

I asked this question in one of my posts and never received a reply, so lets try it again and see what comes of it.

What are the size of the photo's that come out of your camera? I am especially interested in those of you who have large MP camera's and size them for this site. Do you have your camera set to the highest MP or do you prefer to set it lower? I am asking this because I am completely unhappy with the quality of my photo's after I size them to post on this site. I take them at 3456 x 2592 and was wondering if anyone has found that they prefer to shoot at a smaller size and get the same quality.

Guy

 

[Boyd]

I shoot full size at 3872x2592 and use RAW mode. Does your camera support Raw? It will give you many more options to tweak the image on your computer, provided that you have software which supports it (I use Photoshop).

I think it makes sense to shoot at the native size of the image sensor and do your resizing in post. Hard drives are cheap, so storage shouldn't be too much of an issue. I delete the photos I don't like after reviewing what I've shot.

 

[Teegate]

No, it does not have the Raw mode. I really do not have time to play with the photo's, I just need to resize them and keep a reasonable amount of quality. I have Photoshop even though I prefer using Graphic Converter to do any adjustments. I have played with the same photo in each program and there was no difference in the quality. It sucked in both unless I saved them in a higher quality jpeg or as a TIFF.

Guy

 

[46er]

Tee, the number of megapixels does not necessarily equate to better pictures, it becomes important when making prints of your images. In some cases, such as P&S cameras, more MP may equate to poorer qulaity pictures due to the fact theat the sensor on a P&S is small and the MP are tiny, the detail required for a good picture cannot be contained on these small pixels. The general rule of thumb is to record at the largest quality setting you can for the best looking images, which is what I do for my P&S. If your camera records TIFF I would use that and save your final image in post processing as a JPEG. At a minimum. all images should be sharpened, even if you do not make any other adjustments. I use RAW on my DSLR, but for your needs there would be a bit more effort required to produce acceptable images than TIFF or JPEG. You may also want to look at other editing software as Photoshop is a bit of overkill for the needs you described. Take a look at Adobe LightRoom, very intuitive and easy to use even if your just sharpening. It is also non-destructive in that it does not permanently change your image. Adobe offers a 30 day free trial, its the main editing software I use. I dumped PS about 3 years ago.

 

[Teegate]

Maybe I have not explained myself well. I have so many photo's that I upload and post that I basically never have time to alter them in any program. I just need to figure out why when just sizing the photo's to 800 x 600 causes my photo's to loose more quality than I would prefer. I have tried multiple programs and each an every one causes this. Does anyone feel this happens with their photo's also when sizing from a large photo to 800 x 600. This did not seem to happen when I went from 1600 x 1200 to 800 x 600 with my other camera. If this problem is common with going from very large sizes, I am just going to switch to 1600 x 1200 with this camera.

Guy

 

[Chrisr]

Guy,

I don't know if this will help you out, 'cause I haven't posted any on the site yet, but here goes. I use a digital SLR and my settings are Meidum size & JPEG. The camera does have RAW & TIFF, but right now, I prefer JPEG. I really have no qualms about my photos. They're not the best, but not the worst either. If I have to do anything to them I use my MacBook's iPhoto program and do minor tweaking and they're fine to me. Also, to resize them, if I have to, I use a shareware program someone told me about called Infraview.

Chris

 

[PancoastDrifter]

2592 x 1944 for my pack o' smokes size device, but I think allot depends on the lens quality for sharpness and such. Ain't it a shame we have to resize for the internets? Almost all my shots are shrunk by a half or more for posting.

It's cold out there folks.

 

[46er]

Tee, how are you resizing? Do you use 'Save for Web' or the resize option under image? If the latter, do you have any options set? Have you tried a smaller quality setting to see if the results change?

 

[PancoastDrifter]

I don't use any proprietary software from the camera manufacturer. I have windows set to read the cards as separate drives. I use a program called ACDsee for all my filing and resizing/cropping needs. I rarely edit my photos in Photoshop unless they need brightening or sharpening. Which only maybe 2-3 photos I have on my site have editing.

 

[46er]

I don't use any proprietary software from the camera manufacturer. I have windows set to read the cards as separate drives. I use a program called ACDsee for all my filing and resizing/cropping needs. I rarely edit my photos in Photoshop unless they need brightening or sharpening. Which only maybe 2-3 photos I have on my site have editing.

You have some great shots there. Try some sharpening, especially the one you just posted. I think you'll see a very visible difference, or if you like I can give it a whirl.

 

[Boyd]

It really depends on the camera, but I am not a huge fan of image sharpening unless something is obviously soft. It has a pretty noticeable signature and cameras with small sensors are often over-sharpened right out of the box. But you have to let your eyes be your guide.

But given what you've said Guy, I would still recommend shooting at the full native resolution of the camera. The camera will capture an image using all the pixels no matter what you do. So the choice comes down to letting the camera's firmware resize it or doing it in post. Of course this will vary fr;om camera to camera, but I would put my money on Photoshop's bicubic resampling vs in-camera (since you say you already have photoshop). You can easily create a little script to batch resize all the photos in a folder, so it doesn't need to take any time.

But shooting full resolution also gives you the opportunity to crop the photo if there's a particular area of interest - like a quick shot of an animal where you didn't have time to zoom in.

Aside from that... personally I have always really enjoyed you photos, and don't think you should worry too much about any of this.

 

[Teegate]

I am just going to have to live with it. Look very very closely around my name in this Tiff. The photo’s are all 800 x 600. The left is what I am posting and the size is written on it. The far right is full quality but 452K is too big to post with multiple other photo’s in a thread.

Guy

 

[Boyd]

Those are classic compression artifacts. I don't think there's any way around that other than less compression and bigger files...

 

[Teegate]

They seem to be more pronounced when you have large files.


Guy

 

[46er]

They seem to be more pronounced when you have large files.


Guy

Whenever you reduce the size of a file you lose quality. All the resizing is doing is changing the dimensions of the image, the reduction in file size and the interpolation being done during resampling is most likely what is causing your degradation. This is symptomatic of the smaller pixels in large MP P&S cameras. You indicate you do not use sharpening. It is pretty much a given that after resizing, or during, some sharpening is necessary to restore what was lost. This can be done during resizing by using 'Bicubic Sharpen' as the resampling algorithim.

It would help if you briefly described your workflow after the image is loaded and the camera settings used. If you'd care to send a problem file, I could try it. I have to say I have never seen that amount of degradation on an image after a downsize.

 

[MartGBC]

I keep the raw pictures on a second hard drive to save disc space. If I need to do something with them I put a copy of the picture in a separate file and do what I need to it. This way I still have the untouched original.

 

[Teegate]

Sorry I have not responded tonight. Just got home from the Phantoms game and have to get to bed.

Guy