Computers and Peripherals - Photo software?

My question Is I take all my digital pics under low very low resolution[close ups]So I do not use photo software...I can see that photo software has ruined one of my low resolution pics
I feel that photo soft ware must be for those that use the highest resolution & best quality settings...and therefore have the biggest need for editing & downsizing...I would like to hear the truth about this?Thanks..Am I on the right track?

Photo programs are for manipulating photographs, regardless of the size or quality.

Low resolution gives grainy results, generally useful for posting in the the web. When I take pictures that have a destination only on the web, I use the lower resolution to shoot more with less memory.

When I want a good quality picture, I use high resolution and work from there. Digital images are essentially free, anyway. With a high resolution image that I want smaller, I can crop it.

Sometimes, the programs that come with a camera will do a certain amount of manipulation for you. It depends upon what you want to do.

When I want to do more than just take what comes from the camera, I run it throught the GIMP and make what I want. I am not very proficient with the GIMP, so it takes me a long time. I just don't do it very often.

You can check out the GIMP here.

http://www.gimp.org/

Hope this helps.

Generally speaking there are two pieces of advice that should be followed when dealing with photo software and with digital cameras:

1) Use the highest quality setting when taking pictures.

2) Always make and work with a copy of your picture when using any editing software.

Number 1 means that you will always have the maximum resolution available when working with your picture later on. however, this means that pictures will take longer to upload to your PC and to store on the media in your camera. it also means that you generally need more media space for the opictures in the first place.

Number 2 means that, no matter what, you will not destroy your original picture. You will always have the original to go back to in the event that you mess up the picture.

Yes I agree with the last post that It works with highest
resolution settings.I know that when I have the lowest
resolution settings they are much much easier on camera batteries...Yes I have found out that there is a few adjustments on the camera also...but I know that only low resolution and poorest quality settings & a close up on top of that Is what makes the web..!so I take all my pics like that..plus I save them to file in my documents\my pictures all under a very low resolution
I have had compliments on how good my pics look also.Thanks for the help..just affirming what I thought anyway

A major consideration when editing and saving picture files is the file type and compression ratio. Different file types compress files differently - JPG's can be adjusted (and are typically the best for web viewing.) The higher the compression, the worse the picture will look - keep the resolution higher and the compression lower for better looking pics.

BTW, if you have no use for high resolution pics, there no reason to waste space taking pictures at the highest resolution - for example, web viewing pics. Many people use their digitals for business use - transferring files, and taking pics of work-related items. Some people just want to print pics out at a low resolution. Others like to have very nice pics at a high resolution for the best possible pics. Choose the resolution and quality that suits you best - no reason to take all your pictures at the best resolution.

Good luck!

I don't believe resolution or picture size has anything to do with battery life. LCD screens use 90 percent of your battery capacity.
But, larger pics do take a bit longer to load into camera memory, maybe that's where you're losing battery juice.
I use NimH rechargeables and always carry an extra couple sets with me.

If I take Fine(jpg) or even Hi mode Tiffs, they can easily be resized to 640 x 480 for the web. I use Irfanview most of the time. It's a quick, simple, and free program.

I take all my pics in Fine mode (600 to 900 KB). when I resize for the web they're about 100KB, or about 2/3 screen size.
Storage space is cheap, so there's no need to skimp on quality.

fred

las is on the right track about quality and size. The higher the quality, the larger file. When putting on the web, a large pic needs to be resized whereas a low res pic does not.

The web shows great pics with low pixels/inch, so if thats all you'll do, no need for higher resolution. And you may indeed end up with a better looking pic on the screen this way. The reason is that every time you save a pic as a jpeg (or other compressed format) you lose some of the quality. So take a large pic and save in the camera as a jpeg you lose some quality. Use photo software to resize and you lose more.

For printing, you don't sacrifice that much by shooting low res. Most printers aren't that much better than your computer screen.

A lot also depends on your photo software. Most of the "free" software (comes with your camera or with a reader or bundled from a pc vendor) is low end and can't do much and very little well. A step up is Adobe Elements 2.0. This has a lot of the photoshop engine in it and can do great stuff. Top of the line is photoshop. Its not called a digital darkroom for nothing.

If you do any cropping or have a pic printed professionally, low res will not look so good. You need to start with better resolution.

The quality also depends on the firmware in the camera. Unless you save the raw image, the camera will make a lot of corrections before the pic is saved. This includes contrast, saturation, sharpness, and color (white) balance.

The low resolution pics I've saved to file
were o.k cause I sent some to myself just to see
how they looked I feel there all I'll ever need.
and serve my purpose quit well...I feel I'll
never need the photo software nor do I
care for It anyway?but I usually send a pic off the camera drive
then It's saved to file afterwards In my documents\my pictures
All the help has been great.

Well I finally figured It all out..how to use photo software
I can sure see It ain't for low resolution pics at all as far as
I'm concerned...but I can sure see that high resolution pics
It would be great to down size and save in my pictures etc.?
To down size a low resolution pic It ruined everyone of em
for me but I was experimenting on the ones I could let go?
I had lots of fun learning anyway.:) See ya later

with low res, you don't have much pixel information to start with. Then you bring it into photosoftware and save it again. You lose more detail. If you use a high compression, you aren't left with much.

If you are going to use photo software, save the original and work on a copy.