What IMG Quality settings do you shoot with ?

[Roxanne]

Do you set your camera to Normal ? Fine ? Hi ? Just curious ! Also , which size ? I just got my new Nikon 8800 :) and want to know what I should set it at ? I know alot of it depends on what you are going to do with the pictures , but most of my subjects are my family and pets , and I do Print out the good ones sometimes . I usually dont print higher than a 5x7 , but I dont want to set it down low JUST in case ! Its also a 8MP camera ....so I do want the highest quality , sharpest Pic I can get ( without doing RAW of course ) Right Now I have it set at Fine , and size 5M . That produces about a 2.5 mp pic . What are your thoughts on this ? Thanks

PS : I am just getting into this , so I hope the above makes sense , If I didnt get it right PLMK . Thanks !

[zero]

If I were you, I would set the quality of the picture to the best setting available but the size should be based on what you would do with it. You mentioned that you would probably print 5 x 7 most of the time and for that size, I believe 3MP (2048 x 1536) would suffice. At that setting, you would be printing a 5x7 around about 300dpi (which is excellent print quality).

This is what I do to calculate what size I would need. I take the width and height and multiply it times 300. I am very very picky about print quality and that is why I multiply around 300. Therefore, if I wanted an 8 x 10 image,
8 x 300 = 2400
10 x 300 = 3000
I would want a size 2400 x 3000, but thats just me.

[D70FAN]

Do you set your camera to Normal ? Fine ? Hi ? Just curious ! Also , which size ? I just got my new Nikon 8800 :) and want to know what I should set it at ? I know alot of it depends on what you are going to do with the pictures , but most of my subjects are my family and pets , and I do Print out the good ones sometimes . I usually dont print higher than a 5x7 , but I dont want to set it down low JUST in case ! Its also a 8MP camera ....so I do want the highest quality , sharpest Pic I can get ( without doing RAW of course ) Right Now I have it set at Fine , and size 5M . That produces about a 2.5 mp pic . What are your thoughts on this ? Thanks

PS : I am just getting into this , so I hope the above makes sense , If I didnt get it right PLMK . Thanks !

Always shoot with the highest JPEG setting. Period. Why would you buy a top of the line 8MP all-in-one, and then shoot at a lower quality?

Later on, when you get the hang of it, you might want to shoot in RAW (NEF) for the very best quality.

[Geoff Chandler]

While I agree, in principle, with George about using your Camera to the best of it's ability - I also think Zero's equation is very helpfull.
Meanwhile - I think it depends what you are going to be doing with the photos after taking them. I long for more mpx, and will shortly get a second higher res. camera - BUT I personally won't always use it at top resolution.!To explain, there are other considerations: When on holiday I don't have a laptop or anything to download to - so 'snaps' tend to be taken at a slightly lower setting. (Don't want to run out of storage - even though I usually have several cards) I have taken a test pic at all resolutions and compared the results and blown them up to see the difference. Close up portraits of the 'snap' nature (kids on holiday) need only 2 - 3mpx for me. I have even taken pics at lower than that and as long as they don't need printing off large they're fine. I do, however, want a really good quality setting available at all times ~ that large cityscape, as I have mentioned in other notes, with lots of small details must be taken at best quality. So, for me, I decide when taking the pics what setting, and go with that.
Larger pics are larger file size and use up more storage. So a happy snap just for the memory doesn't always need top quality. That super scene with lots of detail however needs the best you can give it (usually).
That's my thoughts on the subject anyway.
Geoff

[Newbie]

The natural answer is at the highest JPEG size with the least compression. In my case(A95) it means 5mp in Superfine mode.

But there are a few cases where smaller resolution could be ok. When taking picture for the web, you can reduce the resolution of the image, knowing that it will limit your ability to crop. Also, when taking in picture unimportant things which will need to be printed, but at a small size, it can be taken at smaller resolution.

But generally, get the memory u need and take your pictures thinking they can be cropped and printed large... because they can be. You never know when you'll make an excellent shot which could be printed large and u can't retake the shot most of the time when ur on your computer seeing an amazing shot, which you took at 2mp with normal compression.

[D70FAN]

While I agree, in principle, with George about using your Camera to the best of it's ability - I also think Zero's equation is very helpfull.
Meanwhile - I think it depends what you are going to be doing with the photos after taking them. I long for more mpx, and will shortly get a second higher res. camera - BUT I personally won't always use it at top resolution.!To explain, there are other considerations: When on holiday I don't have a laptop or anything to download to - so 'snaps' tend to be taken at a slightly lower setting. (Don't want to run out of storage - even though I usually have several cards) I have taken a test pic at all resolutions and compared the results and blown them up to see the difference. Close up portraits of the 'snap' nature (kids on holiday) need only 2 - 3mpx for me. I have even taken pics at lower than that and as long as they don't need printing off large they're fine. I do, however, want a really good quality setting available at all times ~ that large cityscape, as I have mentioned in other notes, with lots of small details must be taken at best quality. So, for me, I decide when taking the pics what setting, and go with that.
Larger pics are larger file size and use up more storage. So a happy snap just for the memory doesn't always need top quality. That super scene with lots of detail however needs the best you can give it (usually).
That's my thoughts on the subject anyway.
Geoff

A good point (as always). I guess I've been doing this long enough so that I rarely think about not having enough memory to shoot in hi res, best quality mode.

Since I always travel with my light (4 lbs.) and cheap ($599) Twinhead laptop, traveling/vacation storage is not a problem. Although now I travel with 2-3GB of CF cards, as well, since I shoot RAW quite a bit. I will occasionally switch between RAW+JPEG (~6MB files) and JPEG Fine (~2.5MB files) to save memory, but this is not the same as changing resolution.

To each their own on this topic. It's definately better to get the shot at lower resolution than to miss it due to lack of memory space. ;)

[Roxanne]

Thanks ! I have decided to shoot at the Highest JPG setting , for me its ExtraFine , and 8m , which is the least compression . I have a 1 GB Card , so unless I am going on vacation ( which I will buy another card for when we go this summer ) storage isnt a problem , since I DL frequently to my computer .

The one thing that I did notice , is that my pics are coming out smaller than what the table says they should be at this resolution ?? At these settings they are coming out at 4.?? MB , and the table says they should be 7.6 MB ..WHY is this ???? I am just downloading them using windows xp ( dont know if that makes a difference ??)

[zero]

The one thing that I did notice , is that my pics are coming out smaller than what the table says they should be at this resolution ?? At these settings they are coming out at 4.?? MB , and the table says they should be 7.6 MB ..WHY is this ???? I am just downloading them using windows xp ( dont know if that makes a difference ??)

As long as you have the settings correct in the camera, (SuperFine 8M right?) the output file size shouldn't be a concern. I do believe that a camera will not always output image of the same size (file size wise). Even when you have about 4.xx MB, it sounds pretty good to me. If you want, go to the review section of this website, locate your camera's review, view the sample pictures and compare the file size of those images with yours.

[TDT]

Thanks ! I have decided to shoot at the Highest JPG setting , for me its ExtraFine , and 8m , which is the least compression . I have a 1 GB Card , so unless I am going on vacation ( which I will buy another card for when we go this summer ) storage isnt a problem , since I DL frequently to my computer .

The one thing that I did notice , is that my pics are coming out smaller than what the table says they should be at this resolution ?? At these settings they are coming out at 4.?? MB , and the table says they should be 7.6 MB ..WHY is this ???? I am just downloading them using windows xp ( dont know if that makes a difference ??)

Note that sometimes RAW will be necessary for your shooting, even if it's too big of a file. I usually shoot RAW files on things I'm really gonna sit down and do some heavy editing to. From my experience, although JPG is good, editing a JPEG file with heavy editing where you want precision sometimes gives bad results. It all depends on what you're shooting and how you want to modify it.

For me, I generally use fine, in 8mp form. I have a nikon 8700.

[Roxanne]

TDT , what do you mean by
I generally use fine, in 8mp form I am new to this , so bear with me !

[Ray Schnoor]

Most if not all digital cameras give you the option of saving your photos at different resolutions. In the previous example of a Nikon 8700, you have:

8MP(megapixel), 5MP, 3MP, 2MP, 1MP along with a few others we won't mention here. The native resolution of the camera is 8MP, so you save all of the usable pixels with this resolution. With the other resolutions, the camera resamples the image to give you a lower resolution giving you less fine detail. In my opinion, I don't see any reason to do this. If you want 5MP images, don't buy an 8MP camera.

Digital cameras also give you the option of how much image compression to save your files. Again, with the Nikon 8700, you have raw, TIFF, fine(JPG), normal(JPG), and basic(JPG). With raw and TIFF, there is no compression and you will have huge files, but you also have more information saved. The 3 levels of JPG are just increasing amounts of compression which is basically averaging neighboring pixels to save space, which gives you smaller files. I think you will find that if you save in fine(JPG), you will not see any noticeable difference from TIFF, but with a file 1/4 the size. This is what I use most of the time.

Ray.

[Roxanne]

I agree ! I have the Nikon 8800 , so I want to use the 8mp . But what I am confused about is this ( again , sorry to be a noob ) But , in my settings for "Image Quality" it says Raw,Hi,( which I know is RAW and Tiff) and then it has Extra,Fine,Norm,Basic ( all JPG) It doesnt say which ones are 8mp,5mp,3mp ect . So do I just assume that the Extra setting is at 8 mp ? Thats what I have been using , but I want to be sure .

I dont think something is right though :o bc this first pic was taken with my olympus C700 which is just 2mp , the second pic was taken in the same spot , same time of day and it looks awful ! Not only is the color off , but the detail is not nearly as great ! HELP !!!

http://images7.fotki.com/v142/photos/5/53082/1754569/irlsintheirnewValentinesHearts-vi.jpg


http://images7.fotki.com/v135/photos/5/53082/1326908/Jan05108-vi.jpg

[Geoff Chandler]

There could be several reasons for this apparent differnce in quality.
Firstly, sometimes a lower mp pic can 'look' sharper than a higher one - a bit like some basic sharpening programs. Also - Olympus tend to have the default sharpness higher than some. Then, sometimes, Nikons can look softer than Olympus's - and the colour? - well each camera has a slighlty different interpretation of what is right - on top of that were they both on the same white balance setting?? You only have to visit Imaging Resource and look at the house pic for a few different cameras to see all these effects above. I know all this can seem a bit bewildering - but I'm sure with time and experiment you should be able to get the results you want from the Nikon.
Geoff :rolleyes:

[Ray Schnoor]

But what I am confused about is this ( again , sorry to be a noob ) But , in my settings for "Image Quality" it says Raw,Hi,( which I know is RAW and Tiff) and then it has Extra,Fine,Norm,Basic ( all JPG) It doesnt say which ones are 8mp,5mp,3mp ect . So do I just assume that the Extra setting is at 8 mp ?

"Resolution" and "image quality" are independent settings from each other. You have to set both. You can have 8MP extra, 8MP fine...; 5MP extra, 5MP fine...; 3MP extra, 3MP fine and so on. For the 8800, you have to set "image size" and "image quality" in the "record menu".

As for the color - check your white balance(auto isn't always accurate) and colors vary from camera/manufacturer to camera/manufacturer; sharpness - different cameras have different default sharpness values(you can fine tune this in the record manu under image sharpening); and detail - since you weren't sure of 8MP extra, 5MP extra..., could you have possibly had it set for a lower resolution? This could also be fixed by sharpening.

Good Luck.

Ray.

[Roxanne]

I shot these with both cameras in Auto Mode ...so I dont think you can adjust the WB , can you ?

As far as the Image Quality VS Resolution ...... i cant find anything on settings for Resolution :confused: I only see "Image Quality" and "Image Size" Do you know where I can find the resolution settings ? ( I dont see a record menu ???)

What I see is the little Image mode on the dial ...I turn to that ....then I see Image Quality >Raw,High,Extra,Fine ect and then...
Image Size > 8m,5m,3m ect

Now where do I find the megapixel setting ??

Thanks !

[Ray Schnoor]

Image quality would be for choosing among raw, high, extra, fine...

Image size would be for choosing among 8M, 5M, 3M... (this "is" the megapixel setting)

You probably can't change the white balance setting in Auto mode. I know that you can't on the D70. You might try different WB settings in P mode. This mode is almost as automatic as Auto mode.

Ray.

[Roxanne]

AHHHHHHH I feel SO Stupid !!!!! I think I had it Backwards ! So , I think I will go with Fine and 8 mp ...thank You so much everyone !!!