RAW + JPEG for 6x4s and enlargements?

[Philip Freedman]

My neice wants me to take lots of candid shots on my D70 throughout

her wedding weekend in Italy and insists that I get 6x4s printed

there right away to hand out to the guests as well as being able to

make larger (and better) prints when I get back home. In Venice I

probably will not have access to a laptop or PC loaded with

Photoshop or any RAW conversion software. So my questions are -

(A) If I shoot RAW+JPEG will the JPEGs be good enough to get printed

to 6x4 on an automatic shop machine? (B) Can I just hand the shop

the CF card to load into their machine even though it will have both

RAW and JPEG on it? (I will back up onto a portable storage device

first, of course). © Any other ideas? Thanks Philip

[ilkka_nissila]

How about shooting some color negative film? The small prints would certainly be much better.

[kyle baker]

If you had one of those little picturemate printers you could run them off right on the spot. I

dont know how much time you have to print, but it could be an option. I have used them

from time to time and find they have very good quality. and the package concept with the ink

and paper is nice too.

[lex_jenkins]

I don't know what's available in Italy but I often get an early peek at my photos shot simultaneously in NEF/JPEG mode by plugging the CF card into one of the DIY (do it yourself) kiosks at a Wal-mart or other store. The Fuji/Aladdin machine generates prints on light sensitive Fuji Crystal Archive paper in about an hour (often less since they're not developing film). The Kodak kiosk generates dye-something (thermal?) prints directly from the kiosk. A 4x6 costs something like 24-40 cents depending on the machine and store location. You can also make larger prints on the spot.

 

These DIY kiosks recognize only the JPEGs. They'll ignore RAW files and, as far as I know, they'll ignore TIFFs too. That's one reason why I'll often preset sharpening, color space and other tweaks in the camera when I expect to make prints from JPEGs right out of the camera. The DIY kiosks don't offer many options for tweaking, especially intelligent sharpening.

 

Alternatively there are several inkjet printers with media card slots. Plug your card directly into the printer and generate the print. Several printers include color LCD preview screens and the ability to make minor tweaks before printing. Some of these printers are designed to be portable to take to parties or other events for on-the-spot printing. Epson and HP make several models. I haven't paid much attention to what Canon or Lexmark make.

 

Olympus offers the same thing using, I think, dye sub prints. Cost is about the same per print but it's based on the assumption that no mistakes will be made. Replacement supplies for expendable materials, including paper, come bundled in packs of a preset number. With inkjet printers you can replace ink cartridges as needed, paper as needed and have a wider choice of papers.

 

None of this is as cost effective as turning in a roll of color film for one hour processing and printing, even if you opt for multiple prints of each frame ahead of time. The advantage to digital is that you can be very selective about which photos to print. No one ever sees your "bad" photos. So everyone thinks you're a great photographer.

 

Maybe it's a reasonable trade-off.

[david_h._hartman]

You will want to shoot NEF plus JPG Fine and you will probably want to use color space I or Ia (sRGB). See page 59 in your D70 instruction manual.

[jay_blocksom]

<BLOCKQUOTE><I><B>Philip Freedman, jul 20, 2005; 05:38 p.m.</B>

<br>

My neice wants me to take lots of candid shots on my D70 throughout her wedding weekend in Italy and insists that I get 6x4s printed there right away to hand out to the guests as well as being able to make larger (and better) prints when I get back home. In Venice I probably will not have access to a laptop or PC loaded with Photoshop or any RAW conversion software. So my questions are - (A) If I shoot RAW+JPEG will the JPEGs be good enough to get printed to 6x4 on an automatic shop machine?

</I></BLOCKQUOTE>

 

Ouch.

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The main problem is that the JPEG part of the D70's "RAW+JPEG" is the (rather poorly chosen, IMCO) "Large Basic" type -- meaning that while the image size is still relatively huge (3008x2000), the camera's maximum JPEG compression setting will unavoidably be used, with the inevitable image-quality degradation that implies.  Whether or not you (or your niece, or her guests) will consider that "good enough" for quickie 4x6 machine prints is a judgement call -- but I'm not terribly optimistic.

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Are you *sure* you can't manage to have a laptop handy (even a borrowed/rented one, if necessary), loaded with Nikon Capture (which can be set up to do very acceptable "Excellent Quality" RAW-to-JPEG conversions in "Batch" mode -- i.e., essentially painlessly)?  Presuming you also use at least two CF cards and a $10 PCMCIA CF-card adapter, the *net* time consumed by this process would be next-to-nil, as you could keep shooting on "Card B" while "Card A" is being downloaded/converted, and vice versa.  If the laptop has a CD burner in it, you (as most recent ones do) could then batch copy the JPEGs to CD-R or CD-R/W, and then hand that disk to the shop drone.

 

<BLOCKQUOTE><I>

(B) Can I just hand the shop the CF card to load into their machine even though it will have both RAW and JPEG on it? (I will back up onto a portable storage device first, of course).

</I></BLOCKQUOTE>

 

Near-certainly, yes -- but I'd still prefer to use CD-R, for obvious reasons.

 

<BLOCKQUOTE><I>

© Any other ideas? Thanks Philip

</I></BLOCKQUOTE>

 

See above for how I would do it, if at all possible.  But if this really turns out to be impossible, you have a decision to make:  If you shoot in RAW+JPEG, the "quickie" prints will near-certainly be of noticeably (at least to you) sub-standard quality.  If you shoot in straight JPEG mode, you can make excellent "quickie" prints; but you'll then be "stuck with" the JPEG files for your more serious work back home (and for archiving purposes -- which I, for one, would not want.

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Bottom Line:  Without *some* means of out-of-camera RAW-to-JPEG conversion, you can only optimize for *either* the quickie hand-out prints, or the post-processing/archival stage (and the more "serious" prints that would presumably be made from this); the other request will *have* to suffer.

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<BLOCKQUOTE><I><B>David H. Hartman, jul 20, 2005; 06:54 p.m.</B>

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You will want to shoot NEF plus JPG Fine

</I></BLOCKQUOTE>

 

Not do-able on the D70.

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[david_h._hartman]

<em>Not do-able on the D70. JB<br>

</em><br>

Oh no! Not another reason to dislike the D70.

[david_h._hartman]

<em>Not do-able on the D70. JB<br>

</em><br>

Oh no! Not another reason to dislike the Nikon D70.

[briany]

I would think RAW+JPG would be fine. As Lex noted, set all the in-camera settings such as sharpening, and make sure you use colorspace I (sRGB). I really don't think you're going to see much (if any) image quality degradation with the JPG setting for a 4x6. I use RAW, but when I first got my camera and only had a tiny flash card on hand, I shot either medium or basic JPG. One of those first shots is still one of people's favorites that I've shot with the camera.