Title: READ: Picture size to use
Course: Digital Photography

Picture size to use

Picture size to use

One mistake many people make is that they sacrifice picture size/quality for number (quantity) of pictures. It is very useful to shoot pictures using the best quality your camera supports. This allows you make bigger prints and it allows you to crop your picture for editing without much loss in quality.

Many people go on vacation and lesson the quality on their pictures because they are running out a space on their card. When they get back they are unhappy with their photos because they are not very good quality. Remember, you can always shrink your photo later if you need.

If you need to be able to take more photos, you can always purchase a second memory card for it. Cards are getting cheaper by the day. Just the other day I found a 16GB SD card for $32.

Many cameras offer RAW format for shooting pictures. This format stores the data the sensor captured, and does not store the picture itself. If you shoot in this mode you will need to have photo rendering software on your computer that can support the RAW file. Your camera may come with software in this case that you can use. The file size my camera uses per photo using this mode is about 11 MB - that eats up a memory card fast.

This is why I usually compromise by shooting in the compressed jpeg format at its max. In my camera a picture taken at large jpeg format will yield a 7-8MB photo and can save me time in the long run.

Summary: Choose what format and picture size work better for the situation that you are shooting.