billnikon Loc: Pennsylvania/Ohio/Florida/Maui/Oregon/Vermont

I shoot JPEG FINE image size LARGE in my Nikons. I get very sharp 16X24's and even sharp 20X30's. I will have a show this coming summer at Fresh Grounds in Greenville Pa. in July, come up and see what JPEG can do.

bull drink water Loc: pontiac mi.

some even have extra fine as a choice. keep reading and asking questions. in time you'll be able to decide the image size you want to use for any shoot.

CO

I have a D7000. These charts are on pages 86 and 88 of the owner's manual. 300 dots per inch is considered professional level. You can see by the chart that you will need to have the camera set to image size large to print 11x14 at 300dpi. Really though if the print is at least 240dpi it will look great.

For the JPEG compression set to optimal quality. For the RAW image quality, I would set the camera to lossless compressed and 14-bit.

If you want to start working with RAW, download Nikon Capture NX-D and View NX-i from Nikon's website. They're free downloads from Nikon's website. View NX-i has a transfer function that will create a new folder for you when it transfers photos from your camera to computer. It also numbers the folders sequentially.

(Download)


(Download)

photon56 Loc: North America

I use raw and then post process the image. There are many times I crop the image to get specific detail and composition. Shooting in raw gives me the detail and flexibility I need. Once I'm done with that process, then I create the jpeg for the final copy to print.

wingclui44 Loc: CT USA

If you don't shoot raw, then just set JPEG on "high" quality & "large" file size.

dlmorris Loc: Loma Linda, Ca

I once set my camera up on a single object, then shot in the lowest resolution, then several resolutions finer, to finally the highest. There was a decided difference between them, and if you plan to blow up any of them, you will be very happy if you shoot the highest resolution. I kinda learned by experience, and the hard way too. So unless shooting time lapse photos (my software can't handle the larger files) I shoot pretty much in the finest resolution. Also, if you need to crop your pictures, you'll be happy you shoot fine.

gvarner Loc: Central Oregon Coast

I have a D7000 and use large/fine for JPEG and shoot RAW+JPEG. My understanding is that the size of th JPEG file can be adjusted to fine or moderate or minimal to address storage capacity on SD cards with respect to how many pictures you want to put on any given card.

Reinaldokool Loc: San Rafael, CA

Jpeg fine and Large are your answers. By not shooting RAW you are already throwing away much of the information, but at least Fine and Large give you the best you'll get in Jpeg. You might consider making learning RAW a priority, if you are serious about photography.

If you must shoot only jpeg, copy the original and keep the original virgin, in a separate folder. Do anything else with the copies. Any time you resave your jpeg you are losing some data.

PHRubin Loc: Nashville TN USA

welcome!

I always shoot fine JPEG which is more than enough for an 8 X 10. That way if I need to crop, the resulting image will still be OK for an 8 X 10. I don't use raw as I rarely print, and never more than 8 X 10.

epd1947

Give this very short tutorial a look:

http://froknowsphoto.com/raw-vs-jpeg

CPR Loc: Nature Coast of Florida

Most times when someone asks about post-processing software there are a bunch of folks on any forum that immediately start with "FREE" or "Inexpensive" software. And that's fine if you are in the financial situation where you need that but IF YOU CAN AFFORD 10 bucks a month why not get the best? Get the Lightroom/Photoshop Deal and you have everything you might need. Later on you can consider getting specialty software that may do one or two things better than Photoshop..........................
There is enough learning stuff on YouTube to last you for 6 months.

mcveed Loc: Kelowna, British Columbia (between trips)

I suggest you set your camera to LARGE, FINE for jpegs. I would also recommend that you save jpegs to one card and NEF to your second card. Save the original jpegs to one folder and edit only copies in PSE. Each time a jpeg file is resaved after editing some data is lost through compression. Put the NEF files in a separate folder on your external hard drive. Once you learn how to handle raw files, and realize how much more you can get out of them, you will regret that you don't have NEF files of your earlier work.

Ricinus Loc: Leduc Alberta

JPEG set to Large and Fine, but I'm switching to NEF RAW. As for using Photoshop Elements, go to YouTube and use the search. I found a couple of series that walk you through the process. Much, much easier than trying to figure it out using a book- at least for me anyways..

Mike

burkphoto Loc: High Point, NC

Don't believe the person who says there is no difference! The size does not refer to FILE size (although the smaller images have smaller file sizes), but to the actual pixel dimensions of the image. An 11x14 needs a minimum of 2640x3360 pixels for true photo quality (extinction resolution... your eye can't see the pixels or resolve any more detail with more pixels).

I always capture the largest image size available, with the highest quality (either raw, or a large, fine quality JPEG, or both).

houdel Loc: Chase, Michigan USA

I agree that Adobe Photoshop Elements is confusing. I have several versions of Photoshop Elements, from PSE 9 to PSE 14, which came as an optional extra with various computers I bought over the years. I also have several versions of Corel Paint Shop Pro, from PSP 3 to PSP X9 Ultimate, which I purchased outright. As earlier mentioned, the hot setup is to get the Adobe Photoshop subscription for $10/month as Photoshop is the gold standard of photo editors. However, I am too cheap to spend $120/year for the rest of my life on a photo editor (not to mention that being retired living on a pension that takes a fair bite of my disposable income). I will stick with Paint Shop Pro and update every two years as the annual changes aren't worth it to me. If you watch the sales you can pick up PSP for $40-$60 when it is on sale.

Why Paint Shop Pro? It does pretty much most of what Photoshop will do - maybe not EVERYTHING, but certainly everything that I want to do. It is much more intuitive to use than Photoshop Elements and its syntax is nearly identical the that of Adobe Photoshop. If someone describes a Photoshop technique or you see an interesting Photoshop tutorial, you can generally use the Photoshop instructions step for step in Paint Shop Pro and get the same results, and save a bunch of money at the same time!