Taking photos at highest resolution?

MY Photography

I need your thoughts please ...

I've been setting my camera to take photos at the highest resolution possible - 3333 x 2592 pixels.

So, when I do my post production on the computer, I realize that it's really slowing me down because of the huge file size.

My question is, do I really need to set the resolution that high when shooting? I find myself reducing the image size quite substantially during post-production work, so that it doesn't take so much space on my computer and makes it so much faster.

In most instances, I don't think I'd ever need to enlarge a photo to that size in print. I tend to think it's better to start big in case there is that one rare instance where I might need it.

Thoughts .... ? Thank you!

Michelle

Cato

I'm a big believer in using max quality for "just in case" purposes. You can always make an image smaller, but you can't make it bigger - well, without severely degrading image quality, anyway.

Also, for image quality purposes, I save 2 versions of each file - a TIFF version, and a JPEG version. The JPEG I use for posting to SmugMug, whereas the TIFF is for my archive. Since JPEG involves lossy compression - that is, it degrades the image when writing the file - I use the TIFF version in case I want to re-open the file and do more work on it. If you do that with a JPEG, the image quality gets worse with each subsequent save. Think of it like making a photocopy of a photocopy of a photocopy. Each succeeding generation is worse than the previous.

I don't have a terribly efficient workflow, though.

What kind of computer are you using? My camera's resolution is 3008x2008 - about 3/4 size of yours - and my PC churns through things pretty handily. It's not a terribly powerful computer by today's standards, either - the CPU is a dual core AMD @ 2.5 Ghz, 3 GB RAM.

Michiel de Brieder

Hi Michelle,

I think starting big is always the best way to go, however, what you can do is the following:
- download the free program IrfanView ( http://www.irfanview.com/ )
- when you upload your files to your computer from the camera/memory card downsize them in a batch with IrfanView and save the downsized files in a different folder than the original files

In this way you will have downsized files to work with and the large files if you have a picture that you really really want to print

As an alternative: some new hardware for your computer

Hope this helps
Michiel

Richard

MY Photography wrote:

I need your thoughts please ...

I've been setting my camera to take photos at the highest resolution possible - 3333 x 2592 pixels.

So, when I do my post production on the computer, I realize that it's really slowing me down because of the huge file size.

My question is, do I really need to set the resolution that high when shooting? I find myself reducing the image size quite substantially during post-production work, so that it doesn't take so much space on my computer and makes it so much faster.

In most instances, I don't think I'd ever need to enlarge a photo to that size in print. I tend to think it's better to start big in case there is that one rare instance where I might need it.

Thoughts .... ? Thank you!

Michelle

I suppose it really depends on what you intend to do with the final results. If you print seldom and don't ever expect to go back and rework your shots, a smaller size might be OK. On the other hand, you could come to regret this choice in the future. I would say that if you are serious about photography, you should be shooting in RAW at the maximum size your camera allows. External disk storage is really cheap these days and you might also want to consider getting a more powerful computer. Your machine must be rather old if it is taking forever to process your pics. A refurbished or second-hand machine can be found for very little money.

jonh68

I am going to get backlash for this, but I don't think it's necessary to shoot full quality. If you primarily shoot for 4x6 prints, you will not tell the difference. I shoot for a newspaper and I have my D300 and D700 set at Large/Basic and I shoot jpg. I may be living dangerously, but if you get that once in a lifetime shot, peopel are going to pay attention to the moment and not the few pixels here and there that may show some artifacts. If I were shooting for a magazine cover, you bet I would max it out.

I had a pic I put online formatted for 800x600. The original was deleted by accident. I was still able to salvage the pic and upsize it for 8x10 pic. Of course it wasn't sharp or detailed as the original, but because it was a special moment, it's not noticed.

thebigsky

Michelle,

How much memory does your computer have, if it's low increasing it can make a huge difference?

Charlie

Cato

MY Photography wrote:

Still, I find it takes quite a while to upload my originals into SmugMug albums, even when using my new computer.

That's actually more dependent on your Internet connection than on your PC.

What kind of camera are you using? You have your "Camera Info" turned off, so I can't see from your pics.

How many MB, in general, are each of your uploaded photos? On my 6 MP Pentax K100D, my photos are generally 1.5 - 3 MB each.

Tee Why

If you are thinking about making prints, I would recommend using the largest file size possible. For a small print, it may not make a big difference but as you print larger it probably will.

I'm assuming that you are using JPEG and not PSD or Tiff files though as those other files can be much bigger than JPEG.

Getting a faster computer is probably the best solution in my view and get as much RAM as possible for your computer. Also turning off the unnecessary items on the task bar on the right bottom on the computer (if you are using PC) can open up more RAM so that the computer runs faster.

As for uploading, you can upload a few at a time or just upload the batch and walk away as uploading can be slow, especially if you don't have the highest speed internet connection.

Good luck.

cmason

I think it best to take all photos at the highest resolution possible, because each edit, or crop removes detail as the digital file is altered. If you start with too low quality, you may end up with a final image that is unusable.

Unless you are expert at perfect composition and get your images perfect out of camera, this will be important. Additionally, I often find other or better images from cropping or editing in photoshop. If you start with a image designed for 4x6, and find you need to crop it down by half to get the image you were after, it would be the same as blowing up a 2x3 image to double its native size, thus you would expect lots of noise and dithering. Best to start as high as possible, to allow room for creativity.

Upload speeds are going to be slow for most of us, since most ISPs (in US anyway) provide much higher speed for download than upload. For instance, I get 6Mb download, but only 350k upload. So upload feesl glacial. A few things to do to reduce this:

1) reduce the JPEG quality by increasing compression. There is little noticeable difference, if you start with good quality, between a JPEG with no compression (100% quality), vs one with 10% compression (90% quality). Best to alter your file size with JPEG compression than limit your options at capture time.

2) use an upload program like StarExplorer, which can mange the uploads in the background for you, resuming the upload if it does not complete (say you turn off the computer for some reason) and it can shut down the computer for you when it finishes uploading (say at 4am). This is only for Windows sadly.

Good luck!

picturegirl

I shoot RAW only, process the image save as a large JPEG, upload the JPEG's to Smug Mug. I keep folders inside my folders, one folder for JPEG/Processed and one folder for the RAW images. I like to keep the RAW images so that I can go back to the original in case I want to process it differently. I found it to be very affordable to just keep upgrading my hard drive and memory on my computer versus sacraficing image quality.

Plus I have an exteranl hard drive for backing up the files.