Need Help..."Muddy" Prints

[ruffprints]

Just returned from France exclusively using my new EOS 20D.

I've loaded them into PSE 3.0 to begin the sort and sizing, while saving the originals...untouched. I experimented shooting with all the options, I also made sure I shot in Auto mode.

Unfortunately, the auto mode shots look generally muddy, like overly pixilated. I shot them in large size resulting in pixel dimensions: 3504 x 2336 with a resolution of 72.

I usually prefer to do as little enhancement as possible but these images need help. I don't need an image with dimensions of 48in. x 32 in. If I enlarged, the max would probably be 13 x 19.

What do you Pros do? Do you resize? I'm uploading a small version of the image for advice and critique. (the 100k limit makes it a bit hard to preview, sorry)

Thanks and be gentle...this is a whole new world Goldie!

[robertwgross]

First of all, when you shoot in the Green Box - Fully Automatic mode, you cannot save a RAW file, and it will force you to JPEG. That is the first problem.

With JPEG saved, it will have compressed the data and fixed it with certain shooting parameters for enhancement (e.g. sharpness, contrast, etc.). Those in-camera settings may or may not be optimal, and that is why many of us prefer to shoot RAW and then do exposure adjustment, contrast, and sharpening in the computer.

Color space might be fouling you up. You might want to know what you are using there, and then make sure that your entire computer is calibrated to use that color space from the image file.

---Bob Gross---

[ruffprints]

Got it. Then I need to calibrate my computer, and really learn the rest of the shooting modes. I appreciate your advice.

Any recommendations for re-sizing?