About Hands-On Photography

TWiT Shows Hands-On Photography
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Sure. I can discuss a little here. RAW. The simplest way to define it is how the camera processes what it sees. No file compression happens. It creates a file format that’s not readily readable by some computer systems or apps, so it will require a photo editing program to open it for viewing or editing. Since the files aren’t being compressed, the file size is really large. But, with the file not being compressed, you typically have more freedom to push the limits in the editing process. Well, ideally you can.

JPG files are smaller, compressed versions of the raw file. In the past, jpgs that were created by your camera (or phone) lead to artifacts in the file and didn’t give great quality. I can’t say that’s true today. Some jpg files look just fine. Especially if you nail the shot and don’t require a lot of post processing. JPG files are readable on most any system or app.

Resolution. The easiest way I can explain this is to think of your television. HD televisions are called 1080 HD tv’s because of their resolution which is 1920x1080 (width x height) pixels. Same can apply for a photo. When you see images on the web, they’re usually in a smaller resolution so they’re able to load on the screen faster. Something like 500x500 is small in size and works well for web pages. If you want to print an image to hang on the wall of your home or office, this resolution won’t look good for large prints. More resolution is needed and more pixel per inch in particular (PPI). You can have a 700x700 image with 300 ppi side by side to a 700x700 image with 100 ppi and you’ll think the first image has better quality. They’re the same size, but the PPI really makes it pop.

“High” resolutions come into play once you cross the 1000pixel threshold. 1000x1000 as an example.

There are a TON of variables when it comes to image resolution and how they’re displayed around the world, but for social, web, printing for picture frames you have to to focus on the number of pixels and ppi. Your camera will have a PPI setting and resolution setting already. You you can change those settings in your image in post processing if you need to.

Hope that helps.

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@ant_pruitt thank you!!! The reason I ask is cause I was talking to a photographer that was taking photos of fire trucks. He was sending the photo to someone else and I said oh you’re going to email it in high resolution? He said no actually low resolution cause they want to shrink the image and he said high resolution would take too long to send. And he told me he sends it through Dropbox. And he said it’s rare that he edits the photo at all, he had the fire truck positioned perfectly in the sun. It’s amazing when you use the sun . His picture looked awesome. Unfortunately I didn’t get a lot of time to talk with him , that’s why I’m asking questions here. Thanks for your help @ant_pruitt.

*I may have miss understood what he said but that’s basically what he said what I wrote above.

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Excellent! Thanks Mr Pruitt. Have a great Thanksgiving.

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Hey @ant_pruitt we are planning a trip out West at the end of the year, Vegas - SF - LA, big loop road trip, would your good self and maybe @Leo fancying grabbing a burger one of the days we are in SF? I believe Petaluma isn’t far away.

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Petaluma is about an hour north of SF. I can’t speak for anyone else, but yell if you’re around

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Being old, I plan well ahead and our daughter wants to visit Glass Beach, Petaluma looks like a stop on the way.