JPEG conversion

After working with a RAW image and then saving it in JPEG format, what steps/settings do I need to take to keep the image as sharp as possible for viewing in JPEG? I know that some quality is sacrificed when converting to JPEG, but is there anything I can do to keep the colors, tones, sharpness, etc. when converting to JPEG? I remember reading someone saying that the smaller you make the JPEG the more pixels that are removed, thus lowering the quality of the image. Anythingn else?
Any information is appreciated.
Thanks,
Randall

Your mixing a few things up I think. When you re-size, you loose pixels no matter what format you are saving as, compressed or not. The smaller you re-size, the more pixels are lost. However, saving as a jpeg does not necessarily mean that you have to re-size the image.

The second part is the compression. The more you compress an image, the more visible jpeg artifacts become. Your not loosing pixels exactly, but you are loosing the color information for those individual pixels. This is going to happen no matter what when you convert to jpeg from raw. Jpeg only has 8 bits per color where your raw file has 12/14 depending on camera.So automatically some color information will disappear. When you lower the compression factor ore of that color info is lost.

If you want the highest quality jpeg possible, don't resize and set compression to the minimum amount. The files will be much bigger, bit the quality will be highest.

If you want to experiment, save a file at the maximum compression (0 for photoshop) and re-open the file. You'll see the effect that compression has really easily.

Thanks. This makes it a bit more clear.

When I convert from RAW to jpeg, I save it at the maximum resolution. Then if I need to upload it online, I will resize the large jpeg, upload to a hosting site, then usually discard the resized image from my system. I can always resize it again if I need to, so there's no sense in keeping it on my drive in different sizes which are only needed for certain websites.

TRACER wrote in post #13861263
After working with a RAW image and then saving it in JPEG format, what steps/settings do I need to take to keep the image as sharp as possible for viewing in JPEG? I know that some quality is sacrificed when converting to JPEG, but is there anything I can do to keep the colors, tones, sharpness, etc. when converting to JPEG? I remember reading someone saying that the smaller you make the JPEG the more pixels that are removed, thus lowering the quality of the image. Anythingn else?
Any information is appreciated.
Thanks,
Randall

When you convert a Raw image to a jpeg, a number of "settings" are "burned in" to the jpeg. Among those settings is the "color space" that your Raw processor is "set" to.

When you view a jpeg in software other than the Raw processor, you will likely not be using software that is "color aware" and so many things will appear "off" when viewing the image.

The safe color space to have your Raw processing software set to is sRGB.

If all this sounds like a foreign language to you, then speak up because you need to learn some basics!

Check out these threads from the "stickies" here:

Color Management

Color Problems