Thread: JPEG File Size
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Old 11-13-2007, 08:37 AM
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Darryl Darryl is offline
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What are your problems with that large file size? Is it storage space, or processing time- Personally, I like to keep my images as high quality as I can, since I don't always know what I'll be doing with them. If you're running out of drive space, you might consider what your computer needs are going to be in the next couple of years. Maybe it's time for an upgrade. Hard drives are getting huge these days, and processor speeds are up to the task of handling large files, even with lots of photoshop work done on them.

If it's more of an intellectual problem (why have such a large file when I can't see the differences in the images) then you need to do your own test. Take one raw file and make a series of jpgs from it, at decreasing levels of quality. If you find that you can live with one, but not another, there's your answer. Another test is to crop out the same 4x6 section from each, then have them printed as 4x6's. If you see no difference between say, the 100% jpg, and the 80% jpg, you could then base your decision on that. If you're going to shrink an image to print or view it, you might be able to step down even more.

Some images are more tolerant than others in terms of save quality. Without getting deep into the anals of jpg, I'd have to suggest that a test is the only way to find out how low you can go with save quality and either 'get away' with it, or be happy with it.

MHO
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