What Image Size?

emmah23

New member
Hi,

I'm new to DSLR photography, and after a lot af good advice from this forum, I have just purchased the D3300 with the Nikon AF-S DX 18-140mm lens, and I am really looking forward to learning how to use it and taking photographs.
I intend to take holiday photo's and will be getting them printed, what image size should I use? In the manual, there are 3 options: Large/Medium/Small - does it matter which one I choose? I'll probably get them printed in the standard 6x4 size.
Thanks
Emma
 

Horoscope Fish

Senior Member
Hi,

I'm new to DSLR photography, and after a lot af good advice from this forum, I have just purchased the D3300 with the Nikon AF-S DX 18-140mm lens, and I am really looking forward to learning how to use it and taking photographs.
I intend to take holiday photo's and will be getting them printed, what image size should I use? In the manual, there are 3 options: Large/Medium/Small - does it matter which one I choose? I'll probably get them printed in the standard 6x4 size.
Thanks
Emma
Hi again, Emma...

Great combination you've got there!

As for image size, the only real reason I can think of to use anything but "Large" is conserving space on your memory card and a 16GB card will hold several hundred JPG's. A smaller image will reduce nicely but a smaller image won't always enlarge as well.

Also, since your're shooting JPG, I suggest you adjust one setting on your camera, right now. As it shipped from the factory the Sharpness settings for JPG photos is set to an oddly low number; we need to fix that.

Press the Menu button and go into the Shooting Menu (the camera icon).
Drop down and highlight "Set Picture Control", then click right one time.
In the "Set Picture Control" menu you should now be in, highlight "Standard" and click right one time.
In the "Quick Adjust" menu, highlight "Sharpening" and move the slider from the strangely low setting it's at now to "7" and press the "OK" button.​

Making the change to this one setting will have a dramatic effect on the quality of your JPG photos. If you want to use any of the other Picture Controls, like Vivid or Landscape, you'll have to go into their respective menus and adjust the Sharpening setting there for each of them.

And congrats on the purchase!

....
 

mikew_RIP

Senior Member
You dont need a very large file for that but :D as you are just starting i dont think you will have any idea where your journey with photography will take you,with that in mind i would use large fine or what ever,it costs no more and you will have the file size to do any thing with.
More important is setting the defaults in your camera if your shooting jpeg,these are things like sharpening which nikon sets very low so they need adjusting.
Hope fully someone will come along to suggest the best settings.
 

mikew_RIP

Senior Member
Hi again, Emma...

Great combination you've got there!

As for image size, the only real reason I can think of to use anything but "Large" is conserving space on your memory card and a 16GB card will hold several hundred JPG's. A smaller image will reduce nicely but a smaller image won't always enlarge as well.

Also, since your're shooting JPG, I suggest you adjust one setting on your camera, right now. As it shipped from the factory the Sharpness settings for JPG photos is set to an oddly low number; we need to fix that.
Press the Menu button and go into the Shooting Menu (the camera icon).
Drop down and highlight "Set Picture Control", then click right one time.
In the "Set Picture Control" menu you should now be in, highlight "Standard" and click right one time.
In the "Quick Adjust" menu, highlight "Sharpening" and move the slider from the strangely low setting it's at now to "7" and press the "OK" button.​

Making the change to this one setting will have a dramatic effect on the quality of your JPG photos. If you want to use any of the other Picture Controls, like Vivid or Landscape, you'll have to go into their respective menus and adjust the Sharpening setting there for each of them.

And congrats on the purchase!

....

It takes me too long to type:Dyou beat me
 

Woodyg3

Senior Member
Contributor
Since you are new to this, I'd shoot JPG at highest quality (largest). Later, you will want to shoot in RAW format when you get good photo editing software and learn to use it. Have fun with your new toy!
 

aroy

Senior Member
Hi,

I'm new to DSLR photography, and after a lot af good advice from this forum, I have just purchased the D3300 with the Nikon AF-S DX 18-140mm lens, and I am really looking forward to learning how to use it and taking photographs.
I intend to take holiday photo's and will be getting them printed, what image size should I use? In the manual, there are 3 options: Large/Medium/Small - does it matter which one I choose? I'll probably get them printed in the standard 6x4 size.
Thanks
Emma
I would suggest that you shoot RAW+jpeg. Use jpeg immediately and archive the RAW. Later when you become proficient with your camera and learn how to use post processing software, you can go back to the RAW images and see how you can better them.

For card capacity look up on page 362 of the manual, here is an extract
RAW : 19.5MB
JPEG FINE : 12.1 MB
Total ~ 32MB. A 16GB card can hold 800 RAW, 1280 jpeg fine or around 500 of RAW+jpeg, that is sufficient for a normal trip. A 32 GB card will hold twice as much.
 

Kevin67

Senior Member
Just a quick thank you to the OP and members replies.....As a newbie this was really useful - I'm off now trawling through this forum for other gems! Thanks again, guys!
 
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