How to achieve crystal clear images?

RjLPhotography

RjLPhotography

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137
Name
Robb
Edit My Images
No
It may be an artefact of .jpeg software compressions most internet sites use, but I notice whenever I upload images I take they appear grainy and with 'spokes' coming from blackened areas of the pictures in certain parts. I always save the raw files as .bmp, at a resolution of 16:9 (1920x1080) yet still the problem persists.
The camera definitely isn't the issue nor the lead in as the DSLR replaced my old Olympus FE330 which showed the same artefacts, so it must be me doing something wrong to show such grain on the images. I normally shoot ISO at between 200 and 400 as recommended throughout all articles & books i've read and studied. Any clues to what I could possibly be doing wrong in achieving the 'less than perfect' quality.

:shrug:
 
Have you tried saving the images as jpeg rather than bmp. I think you'll find bmp has a smaller pallet than an 8 bit jpeg file. What you could be seeing is a limitation in the dark area rendering, not enough data being available to give smooth transisions
 
Chappers said:
Have you tried saving the images as jpeg rather than bmp. I think you'll find bmp has a smaller pallet than an 8 bit jpeg file. What you could be seeing is a limitation in the dark area rendering, not enough data being available to give smooth transisions
Click to expand...

:plusone: I have no idea why you would save as a .bmp :shrug:

Matt
MWHCVT
 
Yeah, just save as jpg.

bmp is actually lossless but they are NOT internet friendly and they are huge so there is no real reason to use them. You could use .tiff but I don't see the point when you already have the raw file.

Also, I don't see the point in automatically limiting yourself to an 'HD Crop'?
 
Thanks for the suggestions, I just assumed that with .bmp being a larger image file to save it must be saving more pixelation resolution in comparison to .jpeg files. I'll fire off a couple of sample shots over the weekend and go from there.
 
A lot of hosting sites use file resizing software which isn't necessarily kind to your images and can produce just the effects you describe. Try uploading your images at the maximum size you intend to hotlink to them and optimally sharpen them at that size.
 
Firstly, 16:9 isn't a resolution its an aspect ratio, and 1920 on the long size will be a reduction in resolution from what most DSLRs will be producing. So, don't resize your files for storage purposes, either shoot in jpegs and leave them as is, or shoot in RAW. The only resizing you need to do is when you upload them (1024 is around as large as you need to go for the web).

What camera are you using? If you do want to use Raw, there should be RAW processing software that came with it or you can use 3rd party software like Lightroom or Aperture. If you're interested in keeping as much scope in your files as possible for post processing purposes, then shooting in RAW will be better than editing a jpeg produced by the camera. If you have cataloguing software like Lightroom or Aperture it will also take all the headaches of converting etc out of the equation - they handle importing pictures and you can open them as if they were any other picture file. All you then need to do is export as a jpeg for the web in whatever size you want.

As far as ISO goes, why limit to 200-400? If theres enough light, go down to 100. The lower the ISO the less noise you will see (although 200 - 100 is probably not going to be very noticeable, but its there so use it if you can). Most modern DSLRs are pretty good for noise, so use higher ISOs if necessary. Its much better to have a properly exposed image at a higher ISO than an underexposed one at lower ISO - bumping up the exposure in PP is one of the best ways to add noise.
 
What size are the images being displayed at?

If you're uploading at 1920x1080 but the standard size that people are viewing is 600 to 800px on the long edge, you're relying on the software displaying the image to do the resizing rather than taking control of it and pre-sizing for display.

Save as jpg rather than bmp for uploading, but check whether you're uploading at the most appropriate size in the first place.
 
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