How to get highest quality images on a D3?

PB_PM

Thanks guys,
yeah, i asked my teacher about just upscaling in photoshop and they said no, that it had to be shot in raw at a bigger size than what i had. Ive just upscaled it to basic A2 dimensions and honestly it looks fine on the computer. But it might turn out differently in print. Ive just opened up the raw file and this is what it says in camera raw: Adobe RGB (1998, 8bit, 2832 by 4256 (12.1MP), 240ppi

Really not sure about this. My teacher opened up my image and played around with the levels and said its impossible to do anything since colours would be blown out so the image was useless...is that really so?

So your teacher is basically saying to you that the D3 doesn't have enough resolution right out of the camera. What a bunch of crap. What do they expect, all students to own a 5D MKII, 5D MKIII, D600 or D800?

heartyfisher

Its an awesome image :-)

TaoTeJared

I played with the file a bit (probably not the look you are going for) to see what range it had - and actually it is a good exposure. I really pulled some settings and expanded the histogram and the details held really well. It is a very workable image.


Can you re-take the image? You didn't really shoot it at optimum settings.
Read settings: ISO 100 - 20mm - F22 - 1/250th
Pulling the iso (even down) degrades it a bit. The 20mm lens is not that great of one as it has a bit of distortion. Not terrible choice, but there are better ones. F22 - I can see diffraction setting in. To avoid that keep the f-stop in the range of f/8-f/11.

If yes these are the Shooting settings I would suggest:
Lens: 50 or 60mm. (less curvature and better reproduction of image)
ISO - D3 native iso is 200 - leave it at that for optimum results.
Aperture: F/8 - f/11
Shutter: let it fall where it will.

Depending on the look, you may want to try some different lighting angles and using multiple lights, even flashlights. With whites, I tend to underexpose about -2/3 comp as well.

I would shoot in NEF/raw and not use Tiffs but dng or another Adobe standard. I'm not a fan of Tiffs at all - they just make huge files and that is about it. I have never been convinced that they have any better quality than anything else in the "higher file format" realm.

Gareth

it was the complete raw file that they were looking at. not a jpg and size not changed. So when it was taken it was 29.97cmx45.04cm at 240ppi and when they went to edit it it was all the same and still a raw file

LOL, does your teacher shoot Canon? Sounds like they think like a Canon shooter pre D800. I suggest asking if you can try a print to see. I think they will be surprised at the quality.

A2 is my standard large print size (I have an Epson 3880) and all my files come from the D700, which has the same sensor as D3.

TBH at A2 size I doubt you can notice MORE resolution than the D3 can resolve in most prints. In A1 prints though, you would need to get a D800.

Images from the D3/D700 at A2 landscape length (594mm) are 182ppi.
Images from the D3/D700 at A2 landscape height (420mm) are 171ppi.

A2 is not 3x2, so you need to crop the image or cut the A2 to 3x2 dimensions (I use roll paper to get the right dimensions when I want the largest possible size. i.e. 630x420mm.

The print settings (giclee) are FAR more important than having a few extra ppi.