RAW vs. JPEG: I am new to photography, I am familier with Manual, but I went to print out an image that I shot and got a warning about quality above 5X7. What setting should I have my...

GinaP

I am new to photography, I am familier with Manual, but I went to print out an image that I shot and got a warning about quality above 5X7. What setting should I have my camera set to, right now I have it at L and thought that is the highest you can go with JPEG before RAW? Also, what editing programs do you have to have with RAW, right now I use Picasa, can you edit RAW with that?
Thanks,
Gina

Wahawk Loc: NE IA

GinaP wrote:

I am new to photography, I am familier with Manual, but I went to print out an image that I shot and got a warning about quality above 5X7. What setting should I have my camera set to, right now I have it at L and thought that is the highest you can go with JPEG before RAW? Also, what editing programs do you have to have with RAW, right now I use Picasa, can you edit RAW with that?
Thanks,
Gina

What kind of camera? What megapixel size are you shooting?
A quality 5x7 has a size of approx 1500x2100 pixels (approx 3MP).
A 12MP camera has a file size of approx 4000x3000 pixels so should be able to print a 13x10 inch with no problem. These are based on printing at 300dpi. Some can be printed at 200dpi and come out very good so that makes them even larger.

Depending on your camera the JPG-L setting might be the best setting. Some have a Super Fine setting.
So the final answer will depend on WHICH CAMERA you are using and what your settings are, which determines the physical size of the file.

GinaP

I have a Canon Rebel T3i.

Wahawk Loc: NE IA

GinaP wrote:

I have a Canon Rebel T3i.

If you have that camera set to take pictures at the highest resolution possible you should get very nice shots to 8x10 and probably quite a bit larger unless you are cropping down to a very small portion of the frame. Since the T3i is an 18MP camera, you should be able to easily get 16x20 prints if you shoot at full resolution and don't do severe cropping.

Post the file in question and make sure you click on the 'store original' option for a better answer.

GinaP

No, I did not do any cropping, would it have to do with how I saved the images to my pictures or when I burned them on a CD?

JR1 Loc: Tavistock, Devon, UK

GinaP wrote:

I am new to photography, I am familier with Manual, but I went to print out an image that I shot and got a warning about quality above 5X7. What setting should I have my camera set to, right now I have it at L and thought that is the highest you can go with JPEG before RAW? Also, what editing programs do you have to have with RAW, right now I use Picasa, can you edit RAW with that?
Thanks,
Gina

Sounds obvious but have you read the manual

Wahawk Loc: NE IA

GinaP wrote:

No, I did not do any cropping, would it have to do with how I saved the images to my pictures or when I burned them on a CD?

Yes, that might have resized them.

EstherP

GinaP wrote:

I am new to photography, I am familier with Manual, but I went to print out an image that I shot and got a warning about quality above 5X7. What setting should I have my camera set to, right now I have it at L and thought that is the highest you can go with JPEG before RAW? Also, what editing programs do you have to have with RAW, right now I use Picasa, can you edit RAW with that?
Thanks,
Gina

On page 76 of your camera manual is a table of the various sizes/qualities for the photos you can take with that camera. It looks like if you set the camera to "L" with the smooth icon your image will be at a 3:2 ratio and dimensions of 5184x3456 pixels - that's enough for a 17 1/4 x 11 1/2 photo (or even larger, I have used a resolution of 300 ppi for this calculation).

I do not agree with the manual, where it seems to indicate that a low quality (S1) jpg image is sufficient to print an A4 sized image (comparable to our "letter size") (see page 77).

Unfortunately, it doesn't seem like the manual gives all the dimensions for all the sizes, but maybe you can find that on the camera itself when scrolling through the various size settings?
May I suggest that you always pick the setting with the smooth icon, as it has less compression than the one with the "ragged" edge?

Hope I haven't confused the issue further for you.
EstherP

GinaP

Yes, I have the manual right in front of me, I have my settings on Manual and size L. So, when you transfer images to the computer and to a CD, what exactly do you have to set it at and how do you set it?
Thanks so much!

Wahawk Loc: NE IA

GinaP wrote:

No, I did not do any cropping, would it have to do with how I saved the images to my pictures or when I burned them on a CD?

Could you post a photo with your question? Make sure you click on the 'store original' so that we can see the ACTUAL pixel dimensions of what you are trying to print.

EstherP

GinaP wrote:

Yes, I have the manual right in front of me, I have my settings on Manual and size L. So, when you transfer images to the computer and to a CD, what exactly do you have to set it at and how do you set it?
Thanks so much!

There will not be a change in image size when transferring from camera to computer.
I always shoot in the largest size with the least compression my camera allows. It is easy to make an image smaller, not so easy to make it larger in pixel count.
EstherP

cthahn

If you want the best quality, use RAW. You will not loose any informaton as in JPG. Once you change the original JPG, you can not return to it original form. RAW file can not be changed.

GinaP

Here is the picture I was trying to print and it warned me for larger than 5X7.

Josh

GinaP

Here is the picture I was trying to print and it warned me for larger than 5X7.

Josh

Wahawk Loc: NE IA

GinaP wrote:

Here is the picture I was trying to print and it warned me for larger than 5X7.

If you clicked on the 'store original' then this picture definitely won't print much larger than 5x7 without severe pixelation. Must have either been resized, cropped, or taken with one of the lowest resolution settings on the camera.