Nikon ViewNX

[norrellphotography]

<p>When I open a jpeg in Nikon ViewNX and make an adjustment, say color boost, and subsequently save the file, the modified jpeg file size is significantly reduced. This does not happen when a tiff is modified, but seems to invariably happen when adjusting jpegs. Anyone know why and what is happening to the file?</p>

[ShunCheung]

<p>JPEG is a lossy image format. Every time you modify it and save it again, you will lose more information/quality. That is why you should edit in TIFF, DNG or PSD type formats first and only convert and save as JPEG in the last step; JPEG files are smaller and are easier to share with other people.</p>

[norrellphotography]

<p>Thanks. I ended up using the tiff file and didn't convert back to jpeg. I realized jpeg compromised quality for smaller file size, but I didn't realize it did it more than once, as in every time the file was modified and saved. Photoshop doesn't reduce file size/quality after the first conversion. Odd that ViewNX does.</p>

[Richard Williams]

<p>My guess would be more aggressive compression in ViewNX by default, which throws away more information. Mine seems to be set to 'good' quality' rather than 'excellent quality'.</p>

[norrellphotography]

<p>That must be it. Thanks.</p>

[elliot1]

<p>I did some testing and found that the file I tested increased in size pretty much each time I edited it. After three sets of extreme changes to the settings, the file size was over 3049kb - the original size was 1404kb. I did a color boost a copy of the original file and it went from 1404kb to 1577kb.</p>

<p>What exactly are you doing to your files and what are the before and after file sizes?</p>

[norrellphotography]

<p>I modified two versions of the same photo in ViewNX to test the file change. I did a "color boost" of 15 Nature on both the tiff file and the jpeg file. For the tiff file, the size went from 32.9 Mb to 33.1 Mb, a modest increase. For the jpeg file, the size went from 6.85 Mb to 2.68 Mb, an alarming decrease. I think Richard is right and the ViewNX compression goes for "good quality" as opposed to "excellent quality". I try and avoid shooting jpegs anyhow, but I certainly won't use ViewNX to save jpegs now. Thanks.</p>

[elliot1]

<p>I guess you are shooting JPG Fine because of the file size. My file test file was JPG basic so it appears the program may not further compress a highly compressed file.</p>

<p>As an additional test, I processed a RAW file and sized it quite large, ending up witha file of over 19000kb. After making a color boost adjustment, the file dropped in size to about 5500kb. Using the Convert option with the highest quality setting, the file size drops to about 11000kb. </p>

<p>Isn't it odd that NX was designed like this?</p>

[norrellphotography]

<p>Very odd indeed. I've put in a request for an explanation from a Nikon technical representative.</p>