Images "shrinking" when I use photo-editing software

[realdereal]

Hello! Was wondering if someone could tell me why I start with my raw image at 4000x3000 pixels, and then only have 2870x2008 when i turn it to black and white or something? I'm not cropping at all though. Just curious. I'm loving how my photographs are looking but not liking that I may only be able to print 8x10s.

[Colin Southern]

Hello! Was wondering if someone could tell me why I start with my raw image at 4000x3000 pixels, and then only have 2870x2008 when i turn it to black and white or something? I'm not cropping at all though. Just curious. I'm loving how my photographs are looking but not liking that I may only be able to print 8x10s.

Hello,

What software are you using?

[Hansm]

When you convert to B/W the file size (MB) decreases but the pixel amount h/v should stay the same.
As Colin asked what software do you use and maybe you can put both somewhere online?

[Dave Humphries]

Hi "realdereal",

It would be great if you would edit your profile and provide a first name in the Real Name field and also a Location - we do use first names here at CiC as it makes things much more friendly.

On the subject of "may only be able to print 8x10s" - I thought we had dispelled that ugly romuour in one of your other threads?

We do need to know what software you are using and how you are getting a jpg from RAW.

Given your preoccupation with print sizes, I wonder if you have inadvertently set something that on export, is automatically resampling to match a physical size and ppi. Because as you say, otherwise, if not cropping, it should not be doing this. Most odd. Hope we get you sorted soon.

Welcome to the CiC forums from ...

[realdereal]

OK- check and check. And I was using picnik and that. Also picasa seems to do it too. I had lightroom but sold it. (I felt wrong keeping it on my computer and selling the software and packaging.) That was a dificult delete program decision. And yes- Most helpful were the other postings almost completely dispelling my fears of small prints however I thought with the loss of some thousand pixels that may still pose an issue. I appreciate your help immensely.

[Geoff F]

Kristen, check your image size immediately after converting from Raw and before doing any other editing. I wonder if the problem is in the Raw converter settings.

Then, if you still have problems, check again before and after saving to your hard drive.

It certainly sounds as though there is a bit of auto resizing going on somewhere.

[Dave Humphries]

~ however I thought with the loss of some thousand pixels that may still pose an issue.

Hi Kristen,

Thanks for adding your name & Location.

I agree, the loss of a thousand pixels is significant and we need to find out why/how that is happening.

Unfortunately I'm not a Picnik user, I have previously used Picasa, about 4 years ago, but not recently.
I'll see if I can remember how to get one of Canon 12MP (4000 x 3000) shots into it and convert to monochrome and see what happens.

Cheers,

[realdereal]

OK- It was when I first uploaded the photo to the monkey site- It would resize it to about 2460x1980 instead of the original 4000x3000 so first off, I just resized it back to the original size before editing, and everything seems fine now. When I move it to my computer it still has the same MB now. It even took one down to like 958 KB instead of the original 2.2MB before. Well, I hope that was the right way to go about it. Guess I will ask the lab guy how big the file I give him is on Monday and see if it is the right value. Not sure what else to do. It just seems wierd that I am able to reize and make it bigger thats all.

[Dave Humphries]

OK- It was when I first uploaded the photo to the monkey site- It would resize it to about 2460x1980 instead of the original 4000x3000 so first off, I just resized it back to the original size before editing, and everything seems fine now. When I move it to my computer it still has the same MB now. It even took one down to like 958 KB instead of the original 2.2MB before. Well, I hope that was the right way to go about it. Guess I will ask the lab guy how big the file I give him is on Monday and see if it is the right value. Not sure what else to do. It just seems wierd that I am able to reize and make it bigger thats all.

Hi Kristen,

I have tried with Picasa tonight and of course, given your latest information, it wasn't responsible

Yes uploading to a website may cause a downscaling, for example, TinyPic we use here will downsize to 1600px on the longest edge.

If you can, I'd suggest always working from the files on your computer, rather than uploading and downloading as who knows what happens in 'the cloud'?

The other thing to be wary of is that online storage may use a lower than ideal jpg compression setting, which can degrade images, especailly noticeable if you subsequently open, edit, re-save and upload them.

All the best,

[Colin Southern]

It would resize it to about 2460x1980 instead of the original 4000x3000 so first off, I just resized it back to the original size before editing.

Hi Kristen,

Just wondering if you could expand on this a bit for us, as it doesn't sound right. If one loses pixels then the information they contained is lost forever ... you can bump the image back to it's original pixel dimensions, but you'll never get back the original information ... so just wanted to check that this wasn't happeneing.

[Manfred M]

One other thing to look at. Some sites / software assume that you are going to display the files on a computer or the internet and will reduce from whatever pixel density your camera produces (in my case, I get 300 dpi (dots per inch)) to 72 dpi which is typically used for computer monitor resolution.

[Ludwig]

Allow me to jump in with more questions to Kristen:
Do you still have the original RAW image on your computer?
Do you have software, or a "codec", provided by your camera manufacturer for converting the REW format to JPG other others?
Do you have any program on your computer for image editing, including converting to B&W on your computer?
If you are planning on making prints be very wary of online editors as most will down-sample to a smaller, i.e fewer pixel, image. Resizing that upward will always cause substantial image degradation.
You might ask here for recommendations of free image editing programs. There are many, and many good ones.

Ludwig

[realdereal]

Wow- So much great information here. (ie. I don't know enough to respond to half of what you experts said.) Colin, yes- I thought it was strange too. Perhaps someone could go to that site and try it out? It's weird. You take your 4000x3000 image and upload it to monkeypic and then it goes to say 2460x1980 And then you can hit "re-size" and bring it back up to 4000x3000 again and upload it back to your computer where your new edited version is 4000x3000 (or whatever value you gave it.)

Update: It gets stranger. One of the pictures decreased dramatically as far as pixels but doubled in MB. Went from 2.3MB to 4.1MB.