100%

[Pehpsi]

not sure if this makes sense, but here goes.

do many people use there images at full size or 100%?

i ask because most of my images look not so good at full size on my screen. i mostly handhold most shots at 1/100 +.

will a tripod make things much better at full size?

cheers.

james.

[Lukaszek]

Tripod can improve the photos in low light situations.

General rule is that you can handhold camera without much impact on sharpness as reflection of the lens length.

So if you shooting at 18 mm you can hand held up to 1/18, so for 100 mm you are OK with 1/100 shutter. If you have stable hands you can do better then that!

Hope this helps!

[Pehpsi]

thanks, Lukaszek...

[sirhc55]

James - by definition full size and 100% are the same. If you are working in photoshop the image generally does not open to 100% and by using Alt 0 it will go to 100%.

Smaller views of images will nearly always look better than 100% - but, generally an application of smart or unsharp sharpening will snap the picture into something worthwhile.

[Oscar]

James, I like to view my images at full size. This way I can see if any are not up to scratch.
If your images do not appear too good at full screen perhaps members could give some tips on how the shot could be improved if we knew the scenarios of the shots - what lens, what is the lighting, action shot, portrait etc.
Perhaps you could post a couple of shots here with the lens and settings details then someone should be able to suggest the cause of the problems.
If camera shake is the main cause then a good tripod would solve those problems.
Cheers, Mick

[MHD]

I always pixel pick (zoom in beyond 100% and look at features, hair in particular)

A few points:
1)A tripod will ALWAYS improve things... Pixels are small and getting smaller... Unless you are shooting well above 1/(Focal length x 2) you will get a lot of benefit from using some support.

2) Nikon use very low default in camera sharpening. All Digicams have a lowpass filter (about 1.5 pixels) to counteract aliasing issues (colour banding when the frequency of an object aproaches the pixel frequency). I like this (low in cam sharpening) as I can sharpen to my liking in PP...

Trying viewing at 100% and then play with the unsharp mask in PP (PS or GIMP or PP of choice)

[seeto.centric]

phew... lately ive had a suspicion that my lens or body might not be focussing correctly.. i take a shot using AF, green light comes on, looks sharp in the viewfinder. take it home, open on the computer at 1:1 and its soft

however, up close and at around 35mm upwards with good lighting (or flash) theyre usually sharp. this is in P mode and apertures are usually around 4.5 i think.

sorry to hijack this thread, but is this normal or is it time to send in for service?


-julz

[Mr Darcy]

The way I read the question is that viewing at 100% = pixel size. Viewing at full screen = use entire monitor to show photo.
If so, you have two variable here.
Screen size can vary from 640x480 up to 2048x1536 pixels or more depending on your computer (The numbers I give are for my Laptop)
The image size also varies. This can be small, medium or large. Each camera seems to use these These equate to a number of pixels wide by high, but different cameras differ in the exact values. If you are shhoting at 640x480 (Unlikely if you are using a DSLR) and displaying at 2048x1536, then the computer needs to guess at the value of a lot of dots on the screen. The result can be a very poor look on screen. On the other hand, if you are shooting at 3096x2048 and displaying at 640x480, then the computer has to throw away a lot of dots. Sometimes it throws away the important ones, and the result is again a poor picture.
If you use a Photo program (e.g. PhoyoShop, PhottoPaint etc) to change the size of the image to match the screen, the specialised software in the program genrally does a much better job at handling the size change than the freebie software within the operating system. Yuo can also play with the results till you are happy with them.

The comments elswewhere on tripods still apply. If you don't start with a good image, you can never end up with one.

HTH Greg