Increasing size/resolution after croping

[gary payne]

<p>I shoot NIkon RAW and do modest post processing in Nikon Capture NX2. My question is, following cropping to improve composition, does it make sense to resize the image back to its original 4256 x 2832? In so far as i can tell on my MAC Book monitor, it doesn't seem to have any negative impact on the image. Of course, I realize that following drastic crops there is a loss of image quality, no matter what resizing is used. However, I'm curious what the "normal" practice is within the community after what I would call, lacking a better term, normal image cropping.</p>

[phule]

<p>It only makes sense to do that if you need to print at a size that would require you to uprez the newly cropped file in order to print at a specific dpi. </p>

 

[r_johnston]

<p>Id not do that, too many chances when tired, etc to damage the original. <br>

If you crop you might save it as a TIF or PSD and whatever, to the same folder. In Lightroom you can make many variations, never working on the original. LR keep all together next to the original. <br>

Drive space is not so expensive, that we need to save room by saving it over an original... 1 or 1.5 Teribyte drives are on sale at Frys.com Electronics all the time.<br>

If for some reason in the future you may want to have an original without a crop. <br>

If you get in the habit of saving them over the original, you'd lose it.</p>

[leicaglow]

<p>Resize for your final output, but don't save it over the original file, but instead a copy. Also, keep the image in 16 bit while resizing, and only change it to 8 bit when you have the size you need. If you think you will need a larger size later on, then keep a copy in 16 bit so you can resize with as little degradation as possible.</p>

<p>A portion of my workflow is to keep the original, then evaluate what the maximum size of the print will be, based on factors such as contrast and apparent sharpness. (not all images are as tack sharp as others) Then I produce a file, with all corrections, resizing it to the largest size I think I will use, then, and only then, make it 8 bit.</p>

[kerry_grim]

<p>I am having a hard time following your question. If you are shooting RAW and you crop, your original RAW file is NOT cropped. Keep your original RAW file. You could post process and create, say a 600x400 pixel image to send in an email, but your RAW file remains untouched so you could post process and it should be fine for a large enlargement.</p>