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Digital Photography: File Size Matters
by Patty Hankins & Bill Lawrence
© 2003 Hankins-Lawrence
Images, LLC.
Are you just starting out
using a digital camera? Did you just get your first digital camera
over the holidays? Are you unsure of how to take the best photographs
with it? Here’s one tip that may help end up with better results
– set the file size setting on your camera to the largest file
size possible.
With most digital cameras,
you have a choice of what size files you want to save your images
as. The larger the files – the fewer files you can fit on your
storage media (compact flash, smart media, etc). So the temptation
is to set you files as small as possible, so you can fit more
images on your camera before you download. For example, on my
Nikon Coolpix 775 (set on minimal compression) with a 128 MB compact
flash – I can fit 780 of the smallest file size on the card, 318
of the medium size and only 133 of the largest size. The largest
images on my Coolpix are 1600 X 1200 pixels – or a 650-700 KB
JPEG file. The smallest images are 640 X 480 pixels – or about
130 KB JPEG file.
The reason
you want larger files is that it gives you more options down the
road in editing and printing your images. If you need to crop
out parts of your image – you’ll end up with a smaller file. And
the size of your file, determines how large of a print you can
make.
With the large files on the Coolpix 775 – I’ve printed
images as large as 11 X 14 inches. This happened to be an image
that filled the frame – so I didn’t have to do any cropping. If
I had tried to print larger than 11 X 14 – the image wouldn’t
have looked very good. Usually, even with some cropping of the
image, the 650 KB JPEG files from the Coolpix can easily be printed
in an 8 X 10 size.
The small files from the Coolpix 775 are a completely
different story. A full frame image of one of these files will
look good only up to about a 4 X 6 inch print. If we do any cropping
of the file, it’s hard to get a good print any larger than 3 X
5 inches.
So imagine
you take a fantastic photograph that you really want to hang on
your walls. Let’s also assume you have to do a little cropping
to get the framing of the image just right. If you’ve set your
camera to create the largest files possible – you will likely
have a lovely 8 X 10 inch print to frame and hang on your walls.
If you’ve set your camera on the smallest file size – that same
picture will only be 3 X 5 inches. Which would you rather display
on your walls.
So remember – set your digital camera to create the
largest files it can make. You’ll be much happier with the prints
you can create if you have bigger files. The downside is you will
need to download your photos more frequently, but even with our
Coolpix 775 at its highest resolution, we can get almost as many
photos as 4 36-exposure rolls of film.
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