Best way to view digital photos?
Discussion
This might sound like a daft question but how do you view your photos to see them at their best? The reason I ask is that I recently stumbled across something that has made a world of difference!
A couple of months ago I bought a Sony A77 and, whilst being happy with the results, I hadn't really seen anything that made me think it was a wise investment. I had viewed photos on my 17" laptop and on 2 different TVs via 2 different media streaming devices...as I say, nice results but nothing particularly stunning. Then I discovered something... Following a family holiday, I had a large number of photos to share and decided to reduce their size by 50% so that they would fit on CDs rather than DVDs. I have a Samsung Blu Ray player hooked up to a 46" Toshiba LCD TV and thought I should try one of the CDs I had burned to see if there was a noticeable reduction in quality after resizing the photos. What can I say...the results are absolutely spectacular! The sharpness, detail, dynamic range, vibrance etc is amazing! I thought that putting things on CDs and DVDs was a thing of the past with the advent of media players with HDDs but I'm now having to rethink that attitude.
So, are you sure you're getting the best out of your photos?
A couple of months ago I bought a Sony A77 and, whilst being happy with the results, I hadn't really seen anything that made me think it was a wise investment. I had viewed photos on my 17" laptop and on 2 different TVs via 2 different media streaming devices...as I say, nice results but nothing particularly stunning. Then I discovered something... Following a family holiday, I had a large number of photos to share and decided to reduce their size by 50% so that they would fit on CDs rather than DVDs. I have a Samsung Blu Ray player hooked up to a 46" Toshiba LCD TV and thought I should try one of the CDs I had burned to see if there was a noticeable reduction in quality after resizing the photos. What can I say...the results are absolutely spectacular! The sharpness, detail, dynamic range, vibrance etc is amazing! I thought that putting things on CDs and DVDs was a thing of the past with the advent of media players with HDDs but I'm now having to rethink that attitude.
So, are you sure you're getting the best out of your photos?
I guess the quality looks better because the downsizing was done by whatever software you made the CD with using a better algorithm than video card in your computer was using?
HD is only about 2 mega pixels. You camera is 24 megapixels so the full size images have to be rescaled to show on a tv - as you've discovered, some software makes a better job of it than others.
HD is only about 2 mega pixels. You camera is 24 megapixels so the full size images have to be rescaled to show on a tv - as you've discovered, some software makes a better job of it than others.
In answer to the original question in the title.
Print them.
Large.
A4 as a minimum.
Screen displays are very dependent on the quality of the screen, how it is set up, how the device that is processing the image presents the results to the screen and the light settings for the screen related to the ambient light around it (this can also be important for prints but differently).
Print them.
Large.
A4 as a minimum.
Screen displays are very dependent on the quality of the screen, how it is set up, how the device that is processing the image presents the results to the screen and the light settings for the screen related to the ambient light around it (this can also be important for prints but differently).
GetCarter said:
Best I've ever seen mine is on the 27" iMac 2560px wide native res. Sharp as you like. It's currently residing in a local retail outlet selling my DVDs.
Second best, IMHO.Bestest is on the iPad 3, what with it having really really ickle picksuls.
(Although yes, my iMac does make a decent fist of showing off
CommanderJameson said:
GetCarter said:
Best I've ever seen mine is on the 27" iMac 2560px wide native res. Sharp as you like. It's currently residing in a local retail outlet selling my DVDs.
Second best, IMHO.Bestest is on the iPad 3, what with it having really really ickle picksuls.
(Although yes, my iMac does make a decent fist of showing off
Oh... and, iPads may be the best way to view, but not hanging on the wall of a shop!
Stevie P said:
Simpo Two said:
Play the resized photos back on your laptop - do they still look better or are they as before?
Nope...looks exactly the same. I think it's the Samsung Blu Ray player part of the equation that's really making the difference.So the screen/playing system combo you liked best simply has the parameters you liked pumped up. But compare the picture there with the scene out of the window. Is it realistic/accurate or is it what I call 'Chinese takeaway TV'?
If you like contrast and saturation boosted it's easy enough to do to the original image
Simpo Two said:
OK, so the resizing wasn't adding anything to the mix. I just wanted to check it wasn't doing some sneaky 'auto-correcting' on the way.
So the screen/playing system combo you liked best simply has the parameters you liked pumped up. But compare the picture there with the scene out of the window. Is it realistic/accurate or is it what I call 'Chinese takeaway TV'?
If you like contrast and saturation boosted it's easy enough to do to the original image
I wouldn't say that any parameters are boosted to unnatural levels, I just find that photos look somehow improved/more impressive viewed this way. I wasn't really looking for an explanation as to why this is...the purpose of my original post was to point out that different viewing methods give different results so a bit of experimentation is worthwhile.So the screen/playing system combo you liked best simply has the parameters you liked pumped up. But compare the picture there with the scene out of the window. Is it realistic/accurate or is it what I call 'Chinese takeaway TV'?
If you like contrast and saturation boosted it's easy enough to do to the original image
GetCarter said:
CommanderJameson said:
GetCarter said:
Best I've ever seen mine is on the 27" iMac 2560px wide native res. Sharp as you like. It's currently residing in a local retail outlet selling my DVDs.
Second best, IMHO.Bestest is on the iPad 3, what with it having really really ickle picksuls.
(Although yes, my iMac does make a decent fist of showing off
Oh... and, iPads may be the best way to view, but not hanging on the wall of a shop!
it's freakishly sharp 
Simpo Two said:
Stevie P said:
Simpo Two said:
Play the resized photos back on your laptop - do they still look better or are they as before?
Nope...looks exactly the same. I think it's the Samsung Blu Ray player part of the equation that's really making the difference.So the screen/playing system combo you liked best simply has the parameters you liked pumped up. But compare the picture there with the scene out of the window. Is it realistic/accurate or is it what I call 'Chinese takeaway TV'?
If you like contrast and saturation boosted it's easy enough to do to the original image
TVs can have different settings for each HDMI port, so is it possible that it's bumping contrast, brightness, backlight, sharpness, etc. for that specific port ?
Similarly, the bluray player knows it's delivering images to the TV, is it in some sort of 'picture mode'?
IIRC last time I stuck a usb stick into my TV to view holiday snaps it needed some menu arguing to make it look more realistic
Though how you can tell on images i've processed I'm not sure
Stevie P said:
So, are you sure you're getting the best out of your photos?
I always print out my favourite ones and also ones of trips and family occasions. In my opinion nothing beats having a printed photo in an album. It really irks me to have to sit in front of a computer to look at them.flat-planedCrank said:
Don't have one, but was using a friends ipad3 the other day to view photos - just stunning.
Shots were filled with detail (2048×1536, 264ppi), everything crisp and joy to view. Landscape shots in particular, just superb detail.
So now I want one
I got an iPad today for my birthday and this ^ is true!Shots were filled with detail (2048×1536, 264ppi), everything crisp and joy to view. Landscape shots in particular, just superb detail.
So now I want one
One of the first places I browsed to was the random photos thread and I'm now even more depressed about my own photos. Currently googling: how to improve sharpness in photos
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