What are your settings for jpeg's?

I know we all use differnet settings (K10D) - but I'm just wondering which settings you are using for jpegs.

Do you use standard settings or did you tweak them.

I'm trying to get my pictures a bit brighter in jpeg. Which one should I tweak? (English isn't my native language so I'm a bit confused about the menu in the camera at times)

Thanks for the help in advance....

Shoot RAW and do everything else on a calibrated screen, you get the exact result you want.

The relevant settings here are saturation, contrast and sharpness.

Saturation refers to the intensity of the colours.

Contrast refers to the difference between the brightness of the bright bits, and the darkness of the dark bits. The more the difference, the more contrast.

Sharpness refers to the way the software in the camera enhances the contrast in the immediate vicinity (ie within a very few pixels) of the edges it detects in the image. This gives the appearance of sharpness, without actually creating detail that wasn't there before.

You have a lot more control of these if you leave the settings neutral and do the tweaking on a computer, preferably as Tyr says, having the original RAW file available to you.

But it's really down to individual preference. Usually I use neutral settings, but occasionally (especially if I'm using RAW+, where I have the JPEG and the RAW file), I might up the settings a bit.

I'd suggest experimenting. Once you discover you want to tweak beyond the camera's ability, you can change the way you do things.

So this is the one for a brighter picture - or is my WB settings wrong?

I have used RAW+ because I tend to only save my jpegs (space limits). I only use the raw if the jpeg is way off or the picture is a landscape/nature picture.

Comparing the two side by side (raw vs jpeg) leaves me confused. The jpeg is a lot darker than the raw and I cant figure why.

I will try find an example and post them here for views.

A JPG file will be created using whatever adjustments you have made in the set-up menu - Contrast, Saturation, Sharpness. The RAW file will be unadjusted.

Any difference in brightness may to a small extent be attributable to the Contrast and Saturation settings, but the main reason will probably be because image programs are not necessarily consistent in the way they display different types of image file.

Owning a digital camera means using a lot of hard drive space. You would be well advised to shell out a few more dollars on a 500GB external hard drive. Then your computer won't be dictating your style of photography.

G

Increasing the contrast will make the light bits lighter, but it will also make the dark bits darker.

If overall, your picture is too dark, then it is likely to be underexposed - you need a wider aperture or a longer exposure to get more light in when the picture is taken.

White balance doesn't affect overall brightness either; it affects the way the camera adjusts for the yellowness of light at a low colour temperature (such as from a lightbulb) or the blueness of light at a higher colour temperature (such as sunlight, or higher still, a cloudy overcast), so that a white subject still looks white.

I've noticed this too - only when using RAW+, not JPEG alone, and I don't have an explanation yet either. It's easy enough to adjust the brightness of the JPEG on the computer, but if I have the RAW file then I'll be working on that so it hasn't been a major sticking point for me.

If this is the "JPEG overall too dark" you're referring to, then I don't know the answer. I don't see it when shooting JPEGs alone and I haven't had time to really look at whether there's a difference between JPEG only and JPEG from RAW+.

Ok so it might be I need a wider aperture (please explain that to me) is that a smaller F-value?

Exposure is longer shutterspeed right?

Reg. the raw+ see this link for an example.

http://picasaweb.google.dk/jkoppenm/SusannesFDselsdag2007/photo?authkey=yrgRhzwi...

So far I have only noticed it with raw+ - not jpeg alone since I don't shoot the same shoot in jpeg and then raw (without the + function). I might should try that to see the result

Yes to both.

The difference between the two I would suggest isn't large enough to worry about at this stage. As George says, different image processing programs treat things differently.

If you converted the RAW to JPEG in the camera without any other modifications, it's interesting and worth more of a look.

Are you new to photography? If so, it might be worth getting more used to the camera, and picture taking, before worrying too much about the difference you've seen.

No it isn't - just a plain upload of the jpeg and the raw image - from the raw+ feature.

Lol - yeah I'm pretty new - but was fuzzed about the dark tone.

Thanks for the replies - from you and G.

I'm trying to get more used to the camera - that's why I asked

Thanks again.

Sure, but the pictures that you uploaded to your Picasa web album are both JPEGs - the RAW one must have been converted somehow.

So it's possible that whatever did the conversion treated the two differently.

Very sensible to ask. It's just that there are lots of variables to worry about - there's the exposure, there's whatever happens to it in the computer, and there's the monitor.

Sorting out all these things and being certain of which one causes which effect is not easy.

So maybe stick with either JPEG or RAW for now, and eliminate one of the variables !