Bunkershot Loc: Central Florida

I have a Nikon D7100 and have noted that the camera has three "quality" settings for JPEG; Fine, Normal and Basic. It also has three "size" settings for JPEG; Large, Medium and Small. The combination of Fine and Large produces very large files, normally around 14MB while the combination of Basic and Small produces the smallest files. Can somebody explain which settings I should use and when?

TheDman Loc: USA

Nope, nobody can tell you what sizes you should be shooting. That's entirely up to you. Do you want the best quality or not? Your call.

Dngallagher Loc: Wilmington De.

Really a personal choice - I shoot in raw and get files above 24 mb.

Depends on how much detail you want to see.

If you do any post processing at all you might want to look at shooting in raw format. If you are happy with the files as they come out of the camera, shoot the same image on all the settings and compare quality for your tastes.

By the way, the camera shoots the exact same image size all the time, then based on the JPG size/quality settings throws away different amount of details to end up with smaller and smaller files ;)

Lots of people think JPG BASIC is fine for them and they are happy with that.

Not me, I want it all, then I will decide what to throw away in Post processing ;)

LundyD43 Loc: Dayton, OH, USA

The size setting sets the resolution and the quality setting is for JPG compression. Never use anything other than Fine for quality. If you're never going to print larger than 4x6 or 5x7", Small may be sufficient, but I'd recommend always using Large and Fine. Anything less than Large Fine is throwing away data that can never be recovered. You may think at the time you're shooting that you'll never want a 16x20" or larger print, so why not save space. When the day DOES come that you want a large print, you'll regret your false economy.

I'll leave the JPG vs. RAW comments for others.

jimmya Loc: Phoenix

I'm a Canon guy and I always shoot at the highest quality and largest size my camera will produce. Yes the files are large but that's the price you pay for very high quality.

Dngallagher Loc: Wilmington De.

:thumbup:

wisner Loc: The planet Twylo

Set your camera to record it in RAW. You then can you process the file to for
whatever your you require, web, print, etc.
JPEG settings determine how much compression is applied to your file; the highest setting (large) has the least, the smallest setting has the most. If you want the best quality in JPEG, use the large setting.

BebuLamar

I would shoot RAW & JPEG in the highest quality and largest file size. The only time I might consider turning this down is when the camera can not keep up and I am loosing shot which is possible with the D7100 and long continuous burst. But if your kind of photography required long contiuous burst then you should consider buying a different camera.
Large files never bother me.

ebbote Loc: Hockley, Texas

Large and fine is the only way I shoot.

Bunkershot Loc: Central Florida

Thanks for all the quick responses, technical as well as subjective. I got the message..."don't throw away detail".

Bunkershot Loc: Central Florida

OK, now a question about NEF (RAW)+JPEG Fine...I use Photoshop Elements. Is there a downside with RAW+JPEG Fine when using Elements? I've never used RAW and frankly don't understand it at the moment; but, based on your previous reply apparently you get more detail with RAW.

Dngallagher Loc: Wilmington De.

Raw is all the data exactly as the camera recorded it. raw is NOT a picture format, it must be converted to an seeable image by a raw converter. That raw converter is called Adobe Camera Raw - part of Elements, Photoshop and Lightroom. Other editors have other raw converters.

Once converted and viewable it is edited and you can export the image with edits to a JPG, TIFF or other format image file, the raw file remains untouched, so you can go back a week, year, decade (hopefully) later and it is still exactly as it came out of the camera and you can edit it differently if you needed to and export another JPG file.

Downside? Well for one would be the space needed, raw files are large, on a 24 MP camera they will be 20 MB and higher for the most part.

Every one of them will probably need some form of adjustment in post processing, an exposure adjustment, white balance, sharpness, etc. as those settings on the camera have no effect on the raw data - when you set the White Balance for example it affects only the JPG image from the camera, not the raw data.

For me, I do not worry about WB, picture control, sharpness or any of the camera process settings since I shoot raw. All my settings get adjusted in Lightroom or Photoshop.

I suppose some will say a downside is the extra work post processing, but for me that is NOT a downside.

Now, shooting raw+JPG - that would only be wise to do if you needed a JPG in a hurry without doing any editing on it, or if you wanted to edit the raw to match the jog - but why I do not know since you would already have the JPG.

Since you can always export a JPG in a few seconds from a raw, the raw+jpg setting is not useful to me at all.

Using raw+jpg means you end up with two files to manage that are the same image. Double work?

DWU2 Loc: Phoenix Arizona area

I agree. Raw offers some big advantages, but if you don't yet know how to edit RAW files, shooting both RAW + JPG enables you to save the RAW files and later return to them when your post-processing skills have grown.

suterjo Loc: Delaplane, VA

I don't think that response was at all helpful. Someone is asking for help and your best response would have been to not repsond.

Bunkershot Loc: Central Florida

I've been playing around with RAW in the house and find a significant difference between the color in JPEG v. RAW. To me it is toned down a bit, maybe not so orange, but perhaps a truer color than JPEG. I have WB set to flash in JPEG. Would that be your opinion as well?

Also, I brought up the editor in Elements and found all those features that can be manipulated. Cool. I would also say that editing time would be the major downside but fun.

I also find the image to be sharper in RAW.

Thanks for bringing this subject up. I'll continue to play.