How do I share my RAW photos via the internet without loosing so much quality? What is the best format to change them to so they are not such large files yet still high quality?
MacBook Pro
You can't change Raw files at all. You either email, ftp or whatever the Raw or you don't. Any processing done means the file is no longer a Raw.
So, can you claridy what you're trying to do exactly?
How do you intend to Share them? There is a link button to Share to Email, and others for sharing with Facebook, Flickr, etc. Nothing is required to follow through on those, except the size image and type of format to include in an email message, which is established in the Preferences/Export.
Other forms of using images to send, share, etc, will start with the Export Command. Look that up in Aperture Help.
More info, please.
Ernie
Perhaps you are dragging the photos out of Aperture or using the media browser to get them to the Internet. If yes, then you are actually sending the Preview image. The size/quality of the preview image is controlled by Aperture's preferences. Check the preferences to see what size you are using.
Set the size to something that you are happy with. But be advised that the higher quality/size you select here, the larger your library will get.
If you change the preview size, the actual previews in your library won't change until you either edit an image or force the preview to be updated for a particular image. To force a preview update, right click an image, hold down the option key and select "Generate Preview".
guppy02 wrote:
How do I share my RAW photos via the internet without loosing so much quality? What is the best format to change them to so they are not such large files yet still high quality?
The best image size depends on how the images are going to be used. If they are just going to be looked at on a computer monitor you can get by with a fairly small fie size. If they are going to be used for printing or on a high quality monitor or TV you will need to have a larger file size.
So the first question is how will the image be used/viewed?
For computer viewing a jpg with a quality setting of 8 to 10 at 50% size will most likely give you a good image with a small file size.
For higher quality go with original size at quality setting of 10 should be good. More demanding uses will require larger file sizes and increased quality and size settings.
There are no hard and fast rules there will always be tradeoffs between quality and size. You will need to experiment with different settings to see what fits your needs.
Post back if you have more questions
regards
I first want to share images via internet- is there any difference between Picasa, Flickr, Dropbox, etc? In the past I have sent jpeg via Picasa at the hightest quality on Picasa, but they have and been a bit of a dissapointed in the results. However I do realize if I send to large a file people I share with might get bogged down with to many large files. I know that all is a trade off but I wondered what other more tech savey photographers use to share with friends?
If I want to make a high quality image to print for myself, then what would be optimal?
I shoot in RAW and JPEG, I am using RAW fine tuning when I feel I need to. I always thought RAW files would be much larger then the JPEG files in the metadata, but if I choose RAW or JPEG as master, it all seems the same in the metadata when size is concerned? I always assumed I would have to convert my RAW files to JPEG before sending via the internet because the RAW wouold be too large, but but maybe (or for sure) I am confused. I can't seem to clarify this in the Aperture 3 tutorials and that is why I am asking these questions? I guess Aperture has already converted the RAW and if I fine tune it I can just send the RAW, and if I don't fine tune it just send the JPEG that is associated with it?
Thank You all for your help and patience with a newbie!
Aperture has built uploading modules for sharing to Facebook and Flickr. Aperture does not convert anything until requested by some command to Export. But to Facebook and Flickr, that command is to Share, and the resizing to the permitted specs of each is taken care of in the background, with no set ups by you.
You print from Aperture without converting to any image to save.
For Email, the size and format is set in the Preferences for Export -- check those out. Typically that is JPEG of a size you preselect. That image is not saved anywhere, but a new message is prepared to contain it, when using Mail or Outlook. If you are wanting to use web mail interface, then you use the Export command, select a size and format, and export it to an ordinary folder where you can find it to add to a new composed, say, in the Gmail or other web mail interface.
There are video tutoring aids to explain how exporting works. See for example:
http://www.apple.com/findouthow/photos/aperture.html#versions
Ernie
Sharing RAW photos
