Normal or fine setting?

Gumbys69

Senior Member
So I just bought a D3200 and was wondering what the most common setting you guys use (normal of fine) you would think fine would be the best option but I'm not sure?
 

KWJams

Senior Member
Raw + Fine is what I use.

Normal is basically for shots that don't require detail or vibrant colors like passport photos.
 

marce

Senior Member
RAW + fine or more often these days RAW and process the image with Lightroom 4.
I tend to batch process a set or RAWs that were shot together, set the lens profile, adjust the sharpness and reduce the noise, a small tweak to thye luminance soon gets rid of or reduces the noise that is quite visible from ISO 400 upward, and often present in small quantities when shots are low light or slightly underexposed in lower ISO,s. I now try to shoot with a + exposure, making sure I dont blow my highlights, and then posr process to get the desired results.
 
I use D3200 as back up and for my 10mm lens and we shoot two D7000 along with the D3200 always use Large Basic and have no problems ...its till 6000x4000 and the 15000 + photos we have sent to clients we have had no problems.
 

Gumbys69

Senior Member
Thanks for the info guys! I think I will run it on fine for the best pics, also I noticed its factory set on "large" pics, is that necessary? I'm not printing huge posters or anything?
 

KWJams

Senior Member
You can always re-size smaller --but you can't re-size larger.

If storage size is an issue then get more cards is my solution.
 

fotojack

Senior Member
I use Fine in all my shots. I also use Medium size, which gives me more shots per card. I defy anyone to tell the difference in the outcome of the shot! Unless I'm shooting for a paying client, I shoot in jpeg. What's the point otherwise? Unless you're making money with your photography, or you're a post production junky, or you're going to print out huge size posters, where every pixel counts, there is NO reason to shoot raw. (And raw is not an acronym for anything. It literally means you're shooting in it's raw state, as in a negative film).
 

KWJams

Senior Member
But what happens if you accidentally capture that once in a lifetime shot at the local park of another photographer and there happens to be a Alien Mothership just above the tree line? No raw file to clean up and no way to add pixels.
Drat! I hate when that happens. :)
 
there is much confusion being generated here ..
You can use large Medium Small which varies the number of pixels you record.Large gives you the full 24 mp of the camera Medium about 12 and small about 6 mp
you can use fine normal or basic which is ever increasing levels of compression. 4 8 or 16 times reduction in size of whats stored.
Large fine and large basic are both 6000x4000 pixels

there is no point in useing less than large unless you are doing a shot for e bay or to send on the internet.
You should also consider the lens you are using ....a 10mm lens covers 4x the area of a 20 mm lens (or any doubliing of lens focal length) so the information is spread over less pixels the wider the lens you use ...

why buy a 24 mp camera and reduce it to a 6 mp one ? unless its for ebay.


I think it is also silly to say there is no reason to shoot in RAW, I shoot JPEG because I shoot hundreds of photos in an hour and the processing would take a silly time BUT I have friends to do portraits who could not produce the abstract shots they do if they did not shoot in RAW. If you edit in JPEG you have less edditing options than in RAW and you must be carefull not to compress the JPEG furthur when you save your edited photo or you will end up with poor quality.When you convert from RAW to JPEG you can choose your compression ratio to suit the desired use


In my opinion any moderator on any forum should seperate his moderation duties from his advice/ comments as advertising yourself as a moderator gives unjustified weight to the comments and bares no relation to the moderators experience bias or knowledge in the matter being discussed
 
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Cowboybillybob1

Senior Member
there is much confusion being generated here ..
You can use large Medium Small which varies the number of pixels you record.Large gives you the full 24 mp of the camera Medium about 12 and small about 6 mp
you can use fine normal or basic which is ever increasing levels of compression. 4 8 or 16 times reduction in size of whats stored.
Large fine and large basic are both 6000x4000 pixels

there is no point in useing less than large unless you are doing a shot for e bay or to send on the internet.
You should also consider the lens you are using ....a 10mm lens covers 4x the area of a 20 mm lens (or any doubliing of lens focal length) so the information is spread over less pixels the wider the lens you use ...

why buy a 24 mp camera and reduce it to a 6 mp one ? unless its for ebay.


I think it is also silly to say there is no reason to shoot in RAW, I shoot JPEG because I shoot hundreds of photos in an hour and the processing would take a silly time BUT I have friends to do portraits who could not produce the abstract shots they do if they did not shoot in RAW. If you edit in JPEG you have less edditing options than in RAW and you must be carefull not to compress the JPEG furthur when you save your edited photo or you will end up with poor quality.When you convert from RAW to JPEG you can choose your compression ratio to suit the desired use


In my opinion any moderator on any forum should seperate his moderation duties from his advice/ comments as advertising yourself as a moderator gives unjustified weight to the comments and bares no relation to the moderators experience bias or knowledge in the matter being discussed

You make a lot of sense. I have a 32 GB card so use it up with the best resolution RAW + Fine. I download he images to my HD and backup to a removeable HD.

Bada Bing!
I get the most of what I paid for.
 

AC016

Senior Member
I think each to their own really. Personally, i think RAW is a bit over-hyped and a lot of people shoot RAW because it is hyped up and think it is the all and end all of photography and being a "pro". You don't need to shoot EVERYTHING in RAW. We all have very well tuned, technologically advanced cameras. If you can't bother at least trying to get it right in the camera, sell your Nikon DSLR now! I have no problem with fine tuning pictures or PP. But please, TRY to get it done right in camera first. If we can do this, then there will be less time spent in PP and in front of your PC, which means more time for you to go out and take more photos! yeah!
 

AuntieBellum

New member
What about the option to shoot raw + jpeg? Is there any downside to that? Does it slow down the camera at all by choosing that option? And it doesn't give me a size option on the jpeg after choosing raw + jpeg? Is it a default to large jpeg?
 

pedroj

Senior Member
If I'm controlling the light I shoot fine...When shooting sports raw + basic...D300...I don't know about the D3200

That information would be in your manual AuntieBellum..
 

AuntieBellum

New member
Thanks, pedroj. You're right, my manual does say that when I choose raw + jpeg that the jpeg is fine. I always forget to look there. ;)

But I still don't know if it's gonna slow me down or if there are any downsides. I don't want the added processing of saving two file types to keep me from moving on to my next pics when I'm trying to shoot quickly. Guess I"ll just have to try it out and see!
 

Cowboybillybob1

Senior Member
Even though I am new to this it seems obvious that you should shoot in RAW + JPEG. Use an external and internal hard drive and if you want to upload 1000's of pics than just upload the JPEG's.

This really seems like a no brainer to me.
 
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