Beginner Transferring images from camera to...??

Dan ives

Dan ives

Messages
31
Name
Daniel
Edit My Images
Yes
I have just started playing around with my new camera the D3300, the process I have been using with my images, is that I download them directly in to my ipad or iphone from a memory card reader. There are different photo programmes that I have on there like snapseed etc that I can do basic edits on but am I losing a lot of image quality with this transfer process? When I have transferred photos and tried to upload them to a website I am told that the image is too large and I normally transfer it in to photobucket to re size it.
Would It be more beneficial to open up the laptop, load the disc that came with the camera and transfer images on to that. My reluctance is that the Laptop is about 10 years old and VERY VERY Slow!
Are there also any other basics that I should be looking at, I have heard a lot about shooting in RAW or is that for a little more experienced photography a little way down the line?

I am going to try and pick up a decent starter photography book so if anyone has any suggestions of any that have helped that would also be great.

Thanks in advance
 
You are not losing any quality by using your iPad but you can't do raw on iPad so that would require the laptop (you CAN do raw but it's a faff and they take up loads of space so your iPad will soon be full). However yours that might be too old to support the software required to read the raws. My biggest bugbear is that resizing photos on the iPad is really tricky - the easiest solution seems to be to email them to yourself and in doing so you get the option to shrink them.

I wouldn't worry about raw for now (well, there's no point as you can't really use them) and continue shooting jpg and concentrate on your photography skills. The first thing to do is to understand the exposure triangle as everything stems form there, lots of people recommend Understanding Exposure as a good book for beginners but it is rather stuck in the past and doesn't teach you about some of the really useful tools you find on modern DSLRs, still worth getting. I picked up Michael Freeman's Perfect Exposure when I started and it did me well and I also got his 'Photographer's Eye' which is about composition (another key aspect of photography) and I thought that was very good too.

Otherwise I find this place to be an excellent online resource for learning (their bit on exposure is very good): http://www.cambridgeincolour.com
 
Last edited:
Hi, Always shoot RAW holds so much more data of the image and with the cost of CF or SD cards nowadays there is no excuse not to shoot RAW.
If you want to read photography book/s on a budget then have a look at https://www.talkphotography.co.uk/threads/free-photography-kindle-books.393737/
They don't stay FREE for ever but with those and information from this site there is IMO no reason to buy book/s especially as you own a pad to read on.
As for the images and again JMO get a decent laptop or computer along with maybe Photoshop Elements as that reads RAW images (not necessaily the most up to date version as older version can be found quite lot a cheaper).
Transfer images direct from the CF/SD card useing the card reader.
For the camera have a look at https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=+D3300
Loads of info.
Good Luck
Russ
 
russellsnr said:
Hi, Always shoot RAW holds so much more data of the image and with the cost of CF or SD cards nowadays there is no excuse not to shoot RAW.
Click to expand...

NO.

There is a reason not to shoot raw and it is clear in the OP what that is here. There are much better things to be doing with the OPs time than spending more money on a laptop they might neither want or need. Maybe further down the line not not right now.

Raw is not the be-all-and-end-all of photography.
 
Hi Guys,

Thanks for the views, I think for now I will carry on shooting the images in jpeg, I might fire up the laptop just to see if it does have any capability but the process of transferring on to the iPad is so simple and takes seconds so very convenient. Resizing is fairly simple with photobucket. This picture was taken just playing about with the camera, perhaps maybe you can give me some suggestions as how it can be improved and what could be done with the right tools. I don't think the noise is too bad but then I don't really know what I'm talking about ..


80A32BF0-6947-42FE-BEAB-C0F8EAA5E8A2.jpg
 
I would imagine you'll soon fill up an ipad, it's bad enough with a 2TB drive.
Can you connect an external drive to an ipad and keep moving them on?
 
Yes you are right it will soon stack up, I have been using the i Cloud to back everything up and have payed extra for additional storage. What I might have to end up doing is transferring the images to disc from the laptop as it is still capable of writing them on disc.
 
To the OP, get a flickr account, free and holds a fair few pics. so does a free wordpress account and there are a few others, and use them as a free cloud. You can move them about from your ipad.

Might help you a bit.
 
Peteaud said:
To the OP, get a flickr account, free and holds a fair few pics. so does a free wordpress account and there are a few others, and use them as a free cloud. You can move them about from your ipad.

Might help you a bit.
Click to expand...
Thanks for the advice I will have a look at doing that.
 
Dan : you like the simplicity of transferring your photos using a card reader into your iPed, am I right?
Why not use the axact same method to transfer them onto your laptop hard drive? Is there something stopping this? Card readers cost almost nothing these days, and those portable external drives are nice and cheap too.
 
Even if you download to the laptop you have, take a look at what type of screen it has before you put any processing software on it. My 10 yr old laptop, now replaced, has a screen which is rubbish for working with images.
 
Dan ives said:
Hi Guys,

Thanks for the views, I think for now I will carry on shooting the images in jpeg, I might fire up the laptop just to see if it does have any capability but the process of transferring on to the iPad is so simple and takes seconds so very convenient. Resizing is fairly simple with photobucket. This picture was taken just playing about with the camera, perhaps maybe you can give me some suggestions as how it can be improved and what could be done with the right tools. I don't think the noise is too bad but then I don't really know what I'm talking about ..


80A32BF0-6947-42FE-BEAB-C0F8EAA5E8A2.jpg
Click to expand...

The issues in quality will be from the photos themselves, not from transferring them or editing them on the ipad. Get yourself a decent laptop, you'll thank me for it later. Transferring images is exactly the same, but you can run better software on a more powerful system and have a larger screen.

The photo above, white balance is off to me, light is too yellow. Then, I'd say that your shutter speed was a little too slow which has given the photo a slightly blurred quality.

Please don't be put off by comments like this, it is how you improve your photography skills :)
 
Yes the choice is to stay on mobile devices, which has limitations, or move your pictures via a PC like most people here do. As there are a lot of programs available to do everything you'll need with ease. Downloading, resizing, raw processing, editing and cropping and uploading. However if you find a mobile way that suits you, all the better.

If your old PC is slow, maybe an upgrade to a Linux such as Mint or Ubuntu will speed it up. It's easy to check it.
 
Harvey_nikon said:
The issues in quality will be from the photos themselves, not from transferring them or editing them on the ipad. Get yourself a decent laptop, you'll thank me for it later. Transferring images is exactly the same, but you can run better software on a more powerful system and have a larger screen.

The photo above, white balance is off to me, light is too yellow. Then, I'd say that your shutter speed was a little too slow which has given the photo a slightly blurred quality.

Please don't be put off by comments like this, it is how you improve your photography skills :)
Click to expand...

I'm not put off at all mate, in fact I appreciate your comments, to a beginner I didn't think was too too bad but what do I know, I thought the depth of field was ok bearing in mind its one of the first pictures taken with the camera, Not having had any real experience with anything other than a point and shoot there is so much more that can be done so I am right at the beginning of the learning curve.

Can these things be corrected easily with some kind of software? I think I will fire up the Lap top later and see what it can do with the NIkon software that came with the camera.
 
Nothing wrong with the depth of field on it, and the color balance can be changed. The slight blur you won't be able to do much with, but try making it B&W and sharpen it a little, play around with it, see what you can do.

Always keep an eye on shutter speed when shooting indoors without a flash, it's always better to introduce more noise (to a point anyway) and get a sharper image so don't be afraid to up the ISO. Just don't forget to lower it again if you go shooting outside :D
 
Dan ives said:
I have just started playing around with my new camera the D3300, the process I have been using with my images, is that I download them directly in to my ipad or iphone from a memory card reader. There are different photo programmes that I have on there like snapseed etc that I can do basic edits on but am I losing a lot of image quality with this transfer process? When I have transferred photos and tried to upload them to a website I am told that the image is too large and I normally transfer it in to photobucket to re size it.
Would It be more beneficial to open up the laptop, load the disc that came with the camera and transfer images on to that. My reluctance is that the Laptop is about 10 years old and VERY VERY Slow!
Are there also any other basics that I should be looking at, I have heard a lot about shooting in RAW or is that for a little more experienced photography a little way down the line?

I am going to try and pick up a decent starter photography book so if anyone has any suggestions of any that have helped that would also be great.

Thanks in advance
Click to expand...

Step one: Copy the photos, either directly from camera or from the memory card in a card reader, and I really do mean Copy, no I do not mean Move, copy those photos directly into whatever folders you want on whatever Windows or Apple OS you got, on your laptop or desktop, no I do not mean iPad or iPhone, yes I do mean a computer.

Step two: Copy or move the photos, either from camera or memory card, into iPad or iPhone, same as you usually do. Then do whatever you want with them. Edit, re-size, crop, turn them upside down, accidently delete one of those photos, it is your photos, your files, your machines, you do what you want. Do what you have been doing.

The idea is: If you're worried about doing a lot of editing work on the photos on iPad, and you feel every time you do some work on those image files, you are worried about lose of quality, just stop worrying and remember that you still have the original files on your computer, according to Step one.

When you feel you have re-sized the images too small, or made too much editing work on them, or whatever. You can always copy (not transfer or move) one of the original photos from your computer to the iPad, and start afresh.

It is not a case of is your laptop up to standards, is it due to transferring the files, it is because of the websites, and all that. It is actually a case of you overlooked the fact, that as long as you have the original files safe (like I suggested in Step one), then you can accidently mess about with your copies of original as long as you can always start again by making another copy of the original.
 
Last edited:
Harvey_nikon said:
The issues in quality will be from the photos themselves, not from transferring them or editing them on the ipad. Get yourself a decent laptop, you'll thank me for it later. Transferring images is exactly the same, but you can run better software on a more powerful system and have a larger screen.

The photo above, white balance is off to me, light is too yellow. Then, I'd say that your shutter speed was a little too slow which has given the photo a slightly blurred quality.

Please don't be put off by comments like this, it is how you improve your photography skills :)
Click to expand...

Is white balance something that most people alter upon editing the image or alter the settings before shooting normally? Presumably my camera is set on AWB as I have not changed it...
 
It's best to get it right at the shooting stage, but you can always tweak it later if you need to. No big deal.
You'll find that most people do this.
Changing white balance is just one of the skills you will pick up along the way, just as with ISO, aperture and shutter speed.

One step at a time.

There's nothing wrong with using the auto modes on your camera either.

As above, the Cambridge in Colour website is probably the best online resource for understanding the exposure triangle and other basics.
We've all been there :)
 
Thanks for the info,

I have had a brief look at Cambridge in colour website about white balance etc. I am also going to have a look on Youtube tonight to see what else comes up. I hve Been looking at what Shutter speeds, Appeture settings and ISO etc do and how they work in a camera so I have a brief understanding of what they all mean. I guess its getting to grips with all of that, knowing what makes a good photo and just keep shooting and adding in the other elements. This is a great place for comments and feedback so will be interesting to see how things come along.

I appreciate everyones advice thanks.
 
I have been shooting in JPEG normal, is it better to up this to FINE?
 
Dan ives said:
I have been shooting in JPEG normal, is it better to up this to FINE?
Click to expand...
Only if the difference gives you something extra for your purposes,
but since your particular problem relates to file sizes ... I wouldn't be sure either way.

I have no issues with file transfer or storage so mostly use RAW+FineJpeg, use the Jpegs and leave the RAWs in storage for if there's some huge noise or whitebalance problem with a frame I really want.
 
Dan ives said:
I have been shooting in JPEG normal, is it better to up this to FINE?
Click to expand...

Yes. If shooting in just JPEG, set the camera to record as large and as fine (least compression) quality as it will do. You can always shrink a large file to suit the final purpose but stretching a small one is rather harder!
 
Thanks guys,

I will have a look at the book, Ive been watching a few vid's on you tube which I have found helpful.

I have fired up the lappy to see what I can do with the images and although it can handle RAW images and is just about capable, it is so slow and just too painful. I am at this stage using lightroom for mobile to edit a few of my pictures and where as I am sure serious photographers wouldn;t rely on this message I don't think the results are that bad for a real novice.
 
These are a couple of pics I've altered from the original on LR mobile, can someone who knows what they are talking About tell me if the alterations are any good please? Ignore the images they are just testers to play around with







 
The software that came with the camera will be Nikon's own software called ViewNX2 and its a pretty good but if kit. I've got Photoshop elements now but still use ViewNX2 to look through the shots as it's so much easier than in PSE.

The last couple of images look better after editing, much warmer in both and certainly sharper too.
 
Thanks for your comments buddy, the problem is with my antiquated laptop the software to edit the pics just takes so long to use and freezes things up. Think I'm stuck with mobile or I pad editing until I can bring myself to part with the cash to get a new pic
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top