When to Change JPG Quality Settings

Bigger is NOT always better

Recommending that you change the JPG quality settings on your digital SLR camera might sound a bit odd at first.

After all, if you've just spend a nice chunk of change on a new high-resolution camera, why in the world would you want to capture reduced-quality photos with it?

Here's the thing: not every photo that you snap with your camera will be something you want to print.

In fact, many photos you take probably won't even be worthy of keeping around on your hard drive.

This is why there are some times where you are going to want to change the JPG quality setting to get more mileage out of your camera.

I'll explain more in the paragraphs that follow.

Quality Defined

When it comes to a digital SLR camera, there are really TWO quality settings for JPG images:

The first affects the SIZE of the image captured
The second affects the amount the image is COMPRESSED

Important Note: these settings only apply to JPG images, since the camera is processing the image before it saves it to the memory card. When you take photos in the RAW format, no compression or sizing is taking place.

When it comes to the size of the image, there are typically three settings: large, medium and small.

The large size leverages the maximum number of megapixels your digital SLR camera has packed in its sensor. If you have a 10 megapixel camera, the large size image will be 10 megapixels.

The reduction in size when you select medium and small vary from camera to camera, but the idea is the same: for these quality settings, you are capturing a REDUCED number of megapixels.

The following table shows some 10 megapixel digital SLR camera and the number of megapixels that each one captures at different quality settings:

CAMERA	QUALITY (size)	MEGAPIXELS
Canon xTi	Large	10.1
	Medium	5.3
	Small	2.5
Nikon D80	Large	10.2
	Medium	5.6
	Small	2.5
Sony A100	Large	10
	Medium	5.6
	Small	2.5
Pentax K10D	Large	10
	Medium	6
	Small	2.2
Olympus E-510	Large	10
	Medium Large	7.7
	Medium Medium	4.9
	Medium Small	1.9
	Small Large	1.2
	Small Medium	0.79
	Small Small	0.31

So this shows that you can intentionally control the size of the image captured by your digital SLR camera. A 10 megapixel camera need not always take photos at 10 megapixels.

Now let's tackle the second element of quality: compression.

JPG is the standard image format for images displayed on web pages (like all the photos that you see here at the Digital SLR Guide). The reason is that the JPG format is able to reduce the file size of photographic images using compression.

Have you ever seen a video of those machines that crush cars?

This is (sort of) the same thing that happens every time you take a digital photo with the JPG setting. Each full-size image is compressed so that it conserves space on your memory card and you're able to take more shots.

The point here is that you can control the amount of JPG compression your camera applies. However, the more compression you use, the more it affects the quality of the final image.

MORE COMPRESSION = REDUCED IMAGE QUALITY

So when would you want to change these JPG quality settings? Why not leave the camera on maximum megapixel, super-high-quality capture mode all the time?

Let's find out.

When to Change JPG Quality Settings

The rationale for adjusting quality is deceptively simple:

Reduce your JPG quality settings when you don't want to make large prints.

Even though this may sound straightforward, let me provide a few scenarios (along with the quality settings) to help clarify this point.

Scenario 1 - A Freind's Portrait

A good friend of yours knows that you're handy with a digital SLR camera, and requests that you take some portraits of her and her family.

She knows that she wants some prints made, but is not 100% sure how big she's going to want the prints.

Quality Setting: Large Fine (low compression)

In this case, you're going to want to capture the highest number of megapixels with the least amount of compression. If your friend decides on a huge 11x17 print, you want to make sure you've captured enough information to print at that size.

Scenario 2 - An Extended Vacation

You're on the trip of a lifetime to (enter destination here)

Even though you have two memory cards with 2GigaBytes each, you're concerned that if you take a ton of photos you'll run out of space on the memory cards.

You know that you want memories of this trip, but you also know you probably won't ever make a print larger than 8x10.

Quality Setting: Medium Fine (low compression)

By reducing the number of megapixels your camera is capturing, you are increasing the number of images that you can store on each memory card.

This ensures that you'll have plenty of space on those memory cards to take as many photos as you like.

Scenario 3 - Learning How to Use Your Camera

Have you decided today that it's high time you learned what all those buttons on your digital SLR actually do?

As you tinker with the settings, you want to take some photos to see what effect each setting has.

Quality Setting: Small Low (high compression)

In this situation you probably won't be printing any of the images that you take, and you'll almost certainly be deleting half of them.

You also want to transfer the images quickly from memory card to computer so that you can review them on your monitor, and the small image size helps with this (10 megapixel files are slow to transfer and slow to open in an image-editing program).

Scenario 4 - Photos to E-mail

You'd like to send photos of the new baby to Uncle Bob, but you also know that he has a dialup connection to the Internet.

If you e-mail him a 10 megapixel photo with a low compression setting it might take well over 15 minutes to download to his computer.

Quality Setting: Small Fine (low compression)

Images that are two megapixels e-mail a LOT better than images with ten. Not only will you be able to e-mail out the photos faster, Uncle Bob will thank you for it when you don't crash his e-mail program.

Making the Decision

I don't recommend changing quality settings for every shot you take, since most digital SLR cameras don't make it that easy to change them (you have to dig through several menus).

I do recommend deciding when you turn your camera on what quality setting you're going to use for this photo session.

Let the print quality of the final image be the guiding factor. If there's a possibility that you'll make large prints of the photos, then stick with the highest number of megapixels the camera can capture with the least amount of compression.

If you're taking photos that you'll certainly never print (and probably won't want ANYONE else to see) then go for a reduced image size, use some compression, and maximize the space on your memory card and hard drive.

VERY IMPORTANT: If you do decide to change the JPG quality on your digital SLR, BE SURE to check the setting before you take new photos. There's nothing worse than going out to take shots for some 8x10 blowups and finding out that you've been taking small photos with a ton of compression.