Image Quality and Size

I hope I am in the right place. I have a new 3100 and never really worried about Image Quality and Image Size settings (mostly because I really don't understand them, and mainly did casual photos of family) I am going on a safari and hope to take some great wildlife photos. I believe it would be best for me to select Image Size of Large since then I could easily make bigger prints. I am clueless about whether to choose NEF(RAW) + PEG fine, or NEF (RAW), or JPEG. I'd appreciate ay thoughts on this. Thanks.

I usually shoot in RAW (NEF) + JPEG Fine. Whatever you do, be sure to include RAW (NEF) in your choice. It will fill up your cards faster, but you will have so much more data in each exposure to work with when you are done. Just make sure you have enough cards and backups. In addition, make sure you get the images onto a drive and a backup as soon as you can.

For the most part, cards are cheap. Take plenty of them, and keep them in a good card storage container. Whether or not the container is weather-sealed, it wouldn't hurt to keep them in a Zip-loc bag (or equivalent) for extra precaution. (A bit of air left in the bag will keep it afloat in case it is dropped into water!)

WM

If your shooting jpg then set the jpg to large fine. This will give you the best jpgs to start out with. I shoot raw as raw files allows the best post processing. Like my buddy Whiskeyman said I also recommend having raw/large fine so if you want to later you can use those raw files to help you get even better jpgs after post processing.
You have a great little camera and I hope you'll get some awesome shots! One of my favorite shots was when I owned a D3100!

I started out shooting JPEG only, then went to RAW + JPEG, then quickly went to RAW only. Doing all JPEG at first helped me learn how to use my D7000; plus I wasn't familiar with the benefits of RAW. By now using RAW, I have been able to save/improve images that otherwise I couldn't have if I was still shooting JPEG only. I just do minimal post processing to the RAW images in the Nikon View NX2 software and then convert to JPEG.

I agree with the others on shooting JPEG Fine/ Large pluc the RAW files. You may not be able to process the RAW files now but you can learn after you get back and having the RAW files will be a blessing then. But since you are shooting JPEG now there are a couple of adjustments you may not know about that can help you get sharper photos now. Here are the instruction.


If you are shooting JPG I would suggest that you use the Fine>>Large setting and also set your camera for better sharpness.



Go into your Menus and highlight the "Shooting" menu (the camera icon)

Drop down to "Picture Controls" and click right one time.

From here, highlight "Standard" and then click right one time.

From this settings menu, increase the "Sharpness" setting to "7".

Drop down and increase the "Saturation" setting +1 notch on the slider.

Press "OK" to exit the menus and you're done.

Another one for Raw (NEF) and jpeg/large fine. And then what Don said ^^^^
I shoot that way and even though I rarely use the jpeg files, I have them if I need a quickly processed photo for some reason.

Thanks much for your help

Thanks for the encouragement. I enjoyed my 3000, and thought I might want to include the video capability of the 3100

Thanks so much for this info. I didn't even realize there was another setting past "standard"!

Thanks; appreciate the help

Shoot RAW + jpeg fine. Carry a few SD cards, preferably 32GB 45MB/s. If you have time before the Safari, download the Nikon Capture NX-D from their site, install it and practice processing RAW files.

Even though you may not be able to process RAW in field, you can do so once you are back and marvel at how much details you can extract from RAW files.

Thanks for the advice. I have been buying 32GB cards when on sale, and I think I'm set there. I have never done any editing/retouching, o I guess that's my next learning adventure!