Digital camera use ?

[Holehog]

Since I am such a rookie, I ask, When using a digital camera, should I utilize highest resolution settings possible and utilize editing software to cut files down to managable sizes?
Any reccommendations?
Thanks in advance!!!

I'm out

[Cool Texan]

I havent noticed much difference among the settings on mine...so typically I just use the highest settings and scale the picture down. If you have room on your storage card, why not.

[Day Late]

Experiment between the settings. I've found the "normal" setting on my Nikon Coolpix 2100 works great for prints out to 5 x 7 and super prints from Costco (4x6) at 19c each. Allows more photos per card too! :smile:

Day Late

[pdxkevin]

What are planning to do with the photos?

Photos for web posting do not need to be more than 72 dpi. Most forums try to maintain images sizes roughly around 400x300.

Photos for printing out at 4x5 and larger should be saved in the largest format you can (depending upon the camera).

One thing to remember is you can always lower the image size and quality. You might be able to enlarge the photo with some software but never to the detail level of the original.

RAW format offers all the info the camera captured and how it was captured. The file size is, usually, smaller than that of a TIFF. Sometimes not by much and sometimes by about half (depending on the camera). With RAW you will need to do some information processing on the PC before you can print it. RAW is the only format where you can change the white balance after the shot was taken!!!

Remember with film photos, some film was best out doors and other was for indoor (without a flash to color balance it)? Well, RAW esentially allows you to change the type of film after you take the picture. This does require the step of processing the image on the PC. Chances are if you are using the PC to resize the image anyway, you might want to experiment with working with the RAW format. RAW format is the choice of pros who print large/high quality images. Just a lot more flexibility and control.

An easy way to think about the three formats is:

JPEG => web published images
TIFF => print images
RAW => enlarged print imaghes you want the most flexible output from.

Since it is digital film anyway, take some shots of the same thing using all your different options and see which produces images at the level of quality you seek. I remember a radio ad for digital prints (4x6) from Walgreens being 29 cents. Seeing a nice image on the screen is great but can be deceptive if youthink it will printout exactyly the same. Make sure they are printing the way you want, too.

We use the lowest setting on our digicam at work to document a project during its construction. That is about the only time I can see using the largest compression.

There are several tutorials out on the web... Probably the most extensive list of tutorials and hot-to's is over at DCviews. (Click the tutorials link on the left)

One of the better sites is The Luminous Landscape. They have a bunch of info. The Understanding Series is a good series.

Here is a good FAQ page

If you are looking for something more specific let me know... :smile:

[Silver Eagle]

Good Posts, on mine I use the lowest setting because I usually send it over the Web and it travels better that away........If your planning on printing from them you'll need more resolution. A picture is worth a thousand words, grainy or not..........Ray

[Thumper]

Ooohhhhhh, I am soooooo old. :blush: Still trying to figure out how to get the roll of film in...... :depressed:

[STGRule]

I always take my pictures in the highest resolution. My thinking is it's easy to drop the resolution to send it over the net. It is impossible to bring the resolution up and what if it's the picture of a lifetime? I burn them to a CD so they don't take up any room on my hard drive and I can't lose them if (when, who am I kidding) the hard drive crashes.

[ampersat]

Media is relatively cheap. Shoot at the highest setting and if you find yourself running out of space on your media buy bigger media.

[Silver Hilton]

Originally posted by Thumper:
Ooohhhhhh, I am soooooo old. :blush: Still trying to figure out how to get the roll of film in......

<font size="2" face="verdana,arial,helvetica">And we enjoy watching. :smile: