Pixelated! Or Pixel Peeping...

ZWolfe21 · Apr 22, 2009

Ok well, first off i've had my camera for about... two weeks I think. I've taken some very nice shots (according to others). But i'm having issues with photographing sunsets and sunrises. As I understand it, pixel peeping is basicly when you view a photo at or above 100% right? PPI is for printing, and pointless for viewing photos on the PC and basicly the only way to really get a good judge for a photo is to have a print. Am I getting it so far? But still, most of my photos aren't as pixelated as these sunset pictures. My camera is a Sony A200, with a Quantaray 70-300 Telemacro Lens, yes, cheap. But not a bad lens for the money honestly. Got a very nice tight shot of a sparrow. Anyway, back on task. My sunset/sunrise photos seem far more pixelated then other pictures. A print of mine shows far more pixels then other pictures, like of the sparrow or a macro photo of this clover. At first I thought it might have been because of over saturation but going back to the RAW image, that doesn't seem to be the case? Any tips here? Having a devil of a time copying MetaData, any tips here would be great and i'll post that as well!

Idaho21 · Apr 22, 2009

I had a Sony a200 a while back, and recently replaced it with the a350. Here are 2 sunset pics that I took with my old a200. Mine seemed to come out fine. I just used the 18-70mm DT kit lens.

I used the sunset preset on the control dial, and then did a little editing with Picnik on the color temperature and saturation.

I forgot to add that I shot these in RAW as well.

ZWolfe21 · Apr 22, 2009

I see the same thing on those photos of yours as I do mine, maybe its my monitor or something? I don't know, i'm too new and this and confused lol. Very nice photos BTW.

Sherman Banks · Apr 23, 2009

What your probably seeing in the jpeg compression. When you save your pic to jpeg for posting on the web, the pixels that don't seem necessary get thrown out. This is more severe as your save quality goes down but it's pretty typical of most web photos hosted on the public sites. I have a problem with Photobucket and Flickr discarding some of my colors when I upload to either site, which is highly annoying.

ZWolfe21 · Apr 23, 2009

I was afraid of that assumption. While I know that JPEG compression degrades the quality, I see the same type of problem in my RAW files and TIFFs as well, as in my prints if you look at it close enough. It may be worth noting that I don't shoot in JPEG format. I always shoot in RAW format and sidecar the XMP files. Then save the TIFFs and convert to JPEGs if I have need, as in web posting or going to wal-mart for prints...

mrodgers · Apr 23, 2009

ZWolfe21 said:
.... or going to wal-mart for prints...

If they are anything like Snapfish, that could be a problem. Snapfish and Walmart online photo site are identical and I have wondered if Walmart uses Snapfish for anything other than the 1 hour service.

I sent the same 3 images to Adorama, MPix, and Snapfish, the exact same 3 files to each for 4x6 prints. Adorama was stunning, MPix was very good (didn't like their saturation levels very much but crispness and sharpness of the print matched Adorama's stunning print), and Snapfish looked like I sent them an image file from a 1998 cell phone camera.

ANDS! · Apr 23, 2009

You are pixel peeping bro. There is nothing wrong with those photos. You do not have a lot of "stuff" going on in your photo, so a lot of it is straight color gradients. Stop obsessing, and keep shooting.

Samanax · Apr 23, 2009

There is no exif in your sunset picture...what were the shot specs for this picture? What ISO, aperture and shutter speed? And what focal length was it taken at?