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For digital photography, is a SHQ photo adequate for enlargements or do I need to shoot everything as a TIFF? | |
I have an 8MP SLR camera. Taking TIFF pictures I'm told is the "gold standard" however each picture takes up 23 meg of space. If I shoot picture in SHQ (compressed format) I can get many more pictures on the compact flash but I'm worried about photo editing and compression deteriation if I choose to blow the picture up to poster size. Is this a legitimate concern?
Answers:
1Depending on your camera, I'll assume that it captures in a RAW format if it will capture a tif. I don't have much experience in digital capture of tiffs, because the few times I have, I didn't like the results. In RAW format, you are guaranteed exceptional control over editing, provided you have the proper software.
I've seen (and made) decent prints from x-fine/SHQjpegs, and they look decent enough-- though any upsampling will do something derogatory to an image-- and large prints should be(in my opinion) just an easier way to allow someone to look at an image from a few feet away. Gestalt takes over, and no one picks up on the pixels-- unless you started with a crap lo- res file in the first place. However, shooting RAW can slow up shooting-- so I shoot HiQjpeg ALOT-- but in order to prevent that file from further decay, when you load image files to your computer, convert them to tiffs with your editing software and keep them that way there. Then you can resize for print and web off of copied, derivative files. Your other option is to buy lots of big memory cards, which you should have a few of anyway.
The real rule is 'garbage in garbage out'. If you don't have a great exposure, composition and tonality and other 'intangible' things taking place with in a photo-- making it bigger won't make it look better. With an 8MP camera, you should be capturing with great color and tonal quality, which makes even 'just okay' pictures look nice no matter what size. And if you don't have a large format printer of your own, whatever service bureau you use, will have interpolating software that will scale your original file up that does some phenomenal algorithmic juju. (thank the gods for engineers like Mandelbrot and successors)
Take your favorite shot that you have and get a 20x 30 done and see what you think! Good luck.
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