File compression
Digital image files carry a great deal more information than just technical data to reproduce the image. When the camera shoots the image pixels are stored, but also information such as the date, type of camera and camera settings.
Image files are also a type of computer files.
Knowing the settings for a particular image is useful to take other photos of similar quality in the same circumstances or to correct a bad shot.
Reproducing an image needs many more details than writing words, therefore a file containing a digital photography is much larger thatn one with only text.
Is this a big problem? It is sometimes. Size will not matter for the most part s memory cards are in the GB range, computer disks are larger every day and modern broadband allows for fast Internet. However, if you want to download, send, or display images in a web page, you would not want to wait for ages to have the job done.
- If the size of the file is too large, compression sounds good. Compressing the file means to remove some superfluous information to reduce the size of the file, smaller files transfer much faster.
- There is a down side. Compressing a file usually means some loss of quality.
If your camera offers different shooting modes and you are shooting in JPEG mode, you will have a choice of shooting with different levels of compression. A low compression setting will let you shoot less pictures of a higher quality than high compression one. If you know yor pictures are only intended for Internet display, by all means go for high compression. If you are not sure what you would do with the pictures and need to see them first, shoot on a low compression setting or shoot raw.
