Jpeg size question?

mark66 · 11 Aug 2010 at 11:25

Hi,

A friend recently did our wedding photos. I believe he shot them in RAW? and he has sent us a disc of the 'full size' jpegs that he has converted. In iPhoto I can see that they do have a large resolution (not at home mac at the moment but something like 3600x4000) but the file sizes seem surprisingly small to me, most between 900k and 1.2mb. I would expect the photo's to be more like 5-7mb each?

I assume he did the conversion in PhotoShop, is the compression really that good now? I just want to make sure I have the best quality shots to keep as possible.

Thanks

Mark

Stickman · 11 Aug 2010 at 11:28

You can manually choose how much to compress... ask for jpegs with less compression, or even ask for the raw originals if it's on DVDR? Unless you're talking thousands of photo's they should fit.

neil_g · 11 Aug 2010 at 11:29

there are varying levels of JPG quality when saving in photoshop, maybe theyre just medium quality?

mark66 · 11 Aug 2010 at 11:33

I am pretty sure he said he converted at max settings, I just wanted to ask if you guys thought that could be possible considering the file sizes I have?

neil_g · 11 Aug 2010 at 11:45

id expect them to be larger in size if they were highest quality to be honest..

examples i have to hand..

2251x1500 300dpi highest quality JPG = 2.5mb out of Adobe PS CS3
3426x2284 highest quality JPG = 6.8mb out of Adobe LR2 (source - high ISO RAW image)
2830x1887 highest quality JPG = 3.8mb out of Adobe LR2 (source - low ISO JPG image)

edscdk · 11 Aug 2010 at 11:49

why not get a copy of the raw files as well? you can mess about with them yourself then

robertgilbert86 · 11 Aug 2010 at 12:32

I think you're unlikely to get the RAWs as they're the modern equivalent of negatives but if the JPEGs look alright at 1-2MB who cares if they're not larger?

D.P. · 11 Aug 2010 at 12:45

You will never get RAw files but ask for some hgih quality jpegs.

Stickman · 11 Aug 2010 at 13:58

I know professional photographers prefer not to give out the raw files... but you did say he was a friend? So, it's worth a shot.

Either way, the file sizes you mentioned do sound on the low side for images of that size. Most of the jpegs from my old camera were that size when set to fine quality and it was only 2 megapixel. If he is a friend he should at least be able to get you some higher bitrate jpegs even if he won't part with the RAWs.... although that sounds kinda stingy to me if you paid him for his time.

Phate · 11 Aug 2010 at 14:35

Not necessarily.

Usually my full size JPEGs come out between 1 and 2.5mb - But it does vary a lot.

peterattheboro · 11 Aug 2010 at 14:39

I've got a bunch of jpegs ready to print 5x7 and they range from 1.3mb to 2.6mb.

L0rdMike · 11 Aug 2010 at 14:43

JPG straight from my D300 range from 4mb to 11mb