[Darthchaffinch]

PS-ing some wedding photos- I may have a few questions...

1) When I crop (to say 6x4 or 7x5) the file size goes from ~28Mb to ~8Mb- am I decresing the quality drastically by doing this??? The crops are fairly minmla, say ~5-10% of image.

Ta!

[Liddle ol' me]

Originally Posted by Darthchaffinch

PS-ing some wedding photos- I may have a few questions...

1) When I crop (to say 6x4 or 7x5) the file size goes from ~28Mb to ~8Mb- am I decresing the quality drastically by doing this??? The crops are fairly minmla, say ~5-10% of image.

Ta!

I always thought you lose the sections you crop but don't decrease the quality of what remains - although I will be interested to hear otherwise. Might have something to do with save format?

I presume you are keeping the full original and cropping a copy? I wouldn't crop the original with wedding pics...

[tontoshorse]

28Mb?

What are you shooting with and what format are you saving it to?

[OrbitalPete]

OK.

If you are cropping an image (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cropping_(image)) then you are not reducing the quality of that area, but you ARE reducing the total size of the image.

Lets say, for example, you have a 12 megapixel camera. If you take a photo then it is made up of 12 million pixels. If you only want the bottom left quarter of the photo and crop the rest out, then you're basically throwing away three quarters of your picture, leaving you with the original 3 million pixels in that one quarter. Obviously this results in a smaller file size.

If, ont he other hand you want to preserve the whole image but reduce its size you want to re-size the image, not crop it.

Many digital cameras default to taking photos at 72 pixels per inch (ppi), leading to images which appear to be metres wide wide. To reduce to a 5x7 print, what you want to do is this:

Change the image size properties so that the dimensions are the same BUT then INCREASE the resolution (ppi value) until the file size is close to the same as the original. Be careful however; you have to perform both these steps at the same time, then press OK. If you do one, press OK, then change the resolution what you will have done is discarded loads of pixels, then asked the programme to just insert new pixels. All it will do is blur out your image.

300 ppi is about normal for print quality. If you're saving for the web or digital photo frames you only need 72 ppi

[Darthchaffinch]

Thanks chaps(??); Im using RAW images from a D60; doing the raw conversion/processing in PS CS4. Am converting to tifs (and yes am indeed saving the crops etc as copies!!).

[Darthchaffinch]

Next question (processing): for almost all raw shots (using CS4 Camera raw 5.0) I'm:
-upping fill light (bushes behind subject bit dark)
-decreasing brightness to compensate
-increasing contrast, clarity, vibrance, and saturation

Am I comprimising my shots in anyway?? They abviously look much better afterwards...!

Edit: found this really useful tutorial for anyone in same boat: http://www.sally-jane.co.uk/tutorial...cr-basics.html

[mgleslie]

Originally Posted by Darthchaffinch

Next question (processing): for almost all raw shots (using CS4 Camera raw 5.0) I'm:
-upping fill light (bushes behind subject bit dark)
-decreasing brightness to compensate
-increasing contrast, clarity, vibrance, and saturation

Am I comprimising my shots in anyway?? They abviously look much better afterwards...!

Camera Raw files are lossless and retain all the info regardless of the changes you make in Camera Raw.