About IQ - not mine, silly - 'Image Quality'

I've had a few queries recently about (my) image quality with questions like 'how good are they really?' and 'how big can they print and still look Okay'?.

Pretty obvious questions if you're thinking to buy a photo off the web because it's not easy to confirm image quality, focus, 'grain' etc. when a web photo like most of those I publish is displayed at only around 500 by 330 pixels (around 300 DPI on a good day).

So, I thought I should lay out the numbers, throw up a few samples, so you can satisfy yourself with the 'IQ'.

Sample images

First up, here's a copy of a shot (thanks Narelle) from today's Canberra Cycling Club event as it appears on the web. It's 500 pixels wide - looks okay to me but it's a tiny copy of the original (you can click on these small images to see what they look like at 100% but don't worry, they're only about 150k, not the originals).




Nikon D300 f/7.1 1/1250s 95mm ISO200


And here's a snip from that same shot (thanks again Narelle) at 100% - 500 pixels wide, 300 dots per inch.



Nikon D300 specs as above


Of course this shot was not the crispiest chip in the pack since Narelle is at least 20 metres away from the camera. But if you've got the bandwidth and are willing to chew some of it up, download the full-size, as-shot freebie of John from today's Stromlo race. This image is 4200 x 2800 pixels at 300 DPI - reduce the DPI to around 210, which is okay for large prints and John will happily print himself half-a-metre meter wide - that's right - 51.5cm by 34.2cm.




Nikon D3 f/8 1/1000s 27mm ISO200

Be aware that this is a 6 megabyte Fine Large JPEG file and it might take some time to download, but if you really wanted to know what most of the recently-published shots look like then grab a copy of John and check it out.


Typical shot stats.

For those who might want to know or care, here's the technical info about the photos I'm publishing at Photostockplus:

Hardware:
- Nikon D3, 12 megapix, FX format (about the same as 35mm film)
- Nikon D300, 12 megapix, DX format (about 67% of 35mm film)

...geez, this is like bike bragging...

- Nikon 24-70mm f2.8 mounted to the D3 mostly (true 24-70mm lens)
- Nikon 70-200mm f2.8 mounted to the D300 (equates to 105-350mm lens)

Image capture:
- JPEG Fine Large gives a 4288 x 2848 pixel image compressed to around 6 megabytes.
- one notch of in-camera sharpening
- ISO 400 on the D300 (above this and we're looking at big 'noise')
- ISO 800 in the D3 (though ISO 3200 still looks fine in RAW)

bfn
Greg

Inalds on tour

Really exciting to see the Inalds performing so well on the European Tour. They finished the Giro with no major injuries nor mechanicals - even managed to survive the feed-station(s) without mishap - good skills! - but I'm not convinced that vino during the race is the best plan, but I grant you it would definitely soften the cobbles and corners.

Then I got to thinking, "When did Scotty win his last race?". Hmmm...checkin, checkin..... Oh, here it is...



Not bad; a good race face, sans headlights, streamlined cow deflector and steel wheels to boot! Now that warrants his place on the Tour in my view.

I'm really looking forward to Fi's turn-out in Giro d'Italia Femminile - back to the shoebox for me, there's gotta be a Fi victory in there somewhere.

(back into the photography techno chat soon)

bfn
Greg