New to RAW - issue?

Hello all. Perhaps you could help me. I just switched to shooting RAW, and I love the ability to fix white balance. I never seem to set it right beforehand.

So I used DPP to make some adjustments to the color and sharpening. I then clicked on "convert and save" to make it a jpg. I didn't change the settings in the dialog box.

When I look at the jpg next to the raw file, the jpg is so grainy in comparison. I am so new to raw files, I don't know if I could upload it to picasa to show it to you. Here's a sample of the jpg:

I can't see what you might be talking about...? Maybe show a close crop and be very specific of what you are talking about?

Marilyn,
Some more info please; what ISO was set in the camera and how much brightening did you do in DPP? Also, please open DPP's Convert and Save dialog and tell us what the Jpg Quality slider is on (it is sticky and might have been in a very low position from a previous use). And finally, in what application are you viewing the jpg?

As Tzalman mentions, it is probably an issue with the quality settings that you are saving the jpeg at. Jpeg is a compressed image format designed for easy (low bandwidth) upload and internet display - it isn't designed for superior image quality. When you save as a jpeg it compresses the image and removes data, which impacts the quality of the image. Most software can apply different levels of jpeg compression. Low means a small file but poor image quality, while high or maximum will mean a bigger file but better quality. If you software is set to save at medium level this may well account for the image degradation you are noticing.

It is also bad to repeatedly re-save a jpeg file. Opening and closing a file is fine but re-saving it (after additional editing) results in the software running the compression process again, which deletes more image data. This means that repeated saving will further degrade the image.

Thanks for feedback. Let's see. The image quality for jpg is 10. I am viewing it in DPP. The ISO is 500. Brightening, none. I changed the white balance setting and the picture style. I also put the sharpness from 0 to 5.

Should I be resizing the picture? The other parts of the dialog box are:
Output resolution: 350 dpi
Option to resize, set at : 3888 x 2592.

The file size of this picture is 9145 KB. That is a bit higher than normal. When I look at my pictures in Picasa, the file sizes are all over the place. Some around 7000 KB, some around 4000 KB, and some around 1-2000 KB. Those are all jpeg sizes before I switched to RAW this week. Honestly, I have never paid attention to file size until now.

I have uploaded another RAW shot that I converted to jpg, that is around 5000KB. I didn't touch the dialog box for that one either. It honestly looks fine. So why are some photos different in size and after converting to jpg?

I am sorry I am so stupid. I have watched some tutorials and read some on this forum, but I have not yet found if these settings need to be changed, and if they do, what should they be changed to.

If you spot my errors here and can show me the light, I'd appreciate it. If not, I'll try to upload some crops to try to show you what I am talking about. It doesn't seem as if I can show you the RAW file, correct?

I disagree. 'grainy' typically really means 'digital noise' to most photographers these days, noise due to the use of high ISO...rather than being the result of 'lowered quality' JPG compression!

The JPG compression is largely the software comparing adjacent pixels and calling them all 'the same' for compression space saving. As a result, the sky, which consists of many dissimilar blues are all treated 'the same', so that rather than having a fine gradient of blues you end up with broad bands of 'similar blue' visible.

• When Quality is set to 10, there is 'no compression' and the files all end up the same file size.
  
• When Quality is set to a low value like 3, there is ' considerable compression' depending upon what is in the scene, so some files benefit from compression (large expanses of sky with no clouds) and other files benefit little (large expanse highly detailed area such as beach sand)
  

I don't see issue with 'grain' in the OP, so posting a crop taken from that photo would be beneficial to see what you are complaining about.

You can provide a Raw file by uploading it to a site like YouSendIt.com. If you put your email address as the "Recipient" and upload it, they email you a notification with a link that you can paste here for us. No "membership" is required.

Thanks again for further input. I have looked at other jpegs once uploaded to Picasa, and they look better than they do in DPP. They also look better in Photoshop. Ho hum. I don't know why they look so grainy in DPP as jpg. The skin is so creamy on the RAW file, in jpg it is not! Oh well, I guess as long as they look better everywhere else, I'll leave it alone.

Any thoughts on the resizing? I'd love your input.

As to resizing, you have to realize that resizing is about the image size/resolution, that is the pixel dimensions. If you resize it to a smaller dimension in pixels, it will affect how big you can display or print it while sustaining a good quality. Yes, it will also result in a smaller file size but that's a secondary consideration.

The jpeg Quality will directly affect the file size since it determines how much the image is compressed to create the jpeg.

What you do with these things depends on what you are going to do with the image. For printing you will typically want a high jpeg quality and you will crop it if you need to provide a print size that does not share the "aspect ratio" of your original shot. Prints like a 5x7 or an 8x10 will require cropping, but a 4x6 or a 8x12 will not.

Your actual file size will also vary according to the amount of detail that is in the shot. Take a frame filled with a clear blue sky and compare it to a frame filled with, say, bushes or grass and after converting/saving to a jpeg the file sizes will be significantly different even if they have the same pixel dimensions and jpeg Quality settings -- details in an image "resist" compression, whereas smooth tones are able to be more highly compressed.

So, don't worry about the file size. But I'm concerned that you may have the Resize option turned on in your Convert and Save dialog box without a specific reason. If you plan to do more editing on the image I'd definitely turn it off and only resize for a specific final output (printing/Web/etc).

Tony, thank you so much. I wholeheartedly appreciate your input.

Glad to help!