transfering photos

[blackears]

I have a question about downloading my pics from my memory card to my hard drive...Right now, on my camera, I have the settings on high in order to capture as much detail as possible. But the pics are in the 3-4 meg size and that is a large size...what should I be doing, or my settings be at? Because of the large size, it takes quite a while to upload to pics to my online storage-Picassa-for right now. Any suggestions on what and how I should be doing? Thanks,

 

[MICKEY88]

it's best to shoot at as high a setting as possible.. are you talking about uploading to your pc, or uploading to a website..

do you upload from your camera to pc, or use a card reader, a good card reader is faster, it also helps to make sure your pc is usb 2 and not usb 1

as far as uploading to a web site, is it for storage, printing, just sharing with otherts....

if just sharing with others you could resize your files before uploading, but keep your originals for printing..

if you are uploading for storage or printing, you want to keep your file sizes as large as possible..

I shoot raw, my file size is 18-19 meg per picture, uploading from card to pc is rather fast with a usb2 connection..and a good card reader, before uploading to my website I convert to jpeg, and my file size is then 8-11 meg per picture.. a dial up connection would take me forever, so I switched to comcast HS for business reasons..

give us more details and we can give more answers..

 

[blackears]

mickey88, I guess the biggest problem that I am having is the uploading to websites like Picassa...how is the best way to resize? I am new at this part of life...Thanks,

 

[MICKEY88]

mickey88, I guess the biggest problem that I am having is the uploading to websites like Picassa...how is the best way to resize? I am new at this part of life...Thanks,

I use paint shop pro photo for most of my post processing, with that I can batch process, resizing an entire folder, I always save to another folder, to maintain my originals...

I'm sure other people will share the programs they use..

 

[zackiedawg]

mickey88, I guess the biggest problem that I am having is the uploading to websites like Picassa...how is the best way to resize? I am new at this part of life...Thanks,

What Mickey88 said above would be the key to speeding up your upload times. First, check if your computer's USB port is a 2.0...most newer computers in the past 2 years should have 2.0. Then, if you really want to speed up the operations, buy a card reader with a fast load speed. A good card reader can be much faster than even a good USB2.0 connection direct from camera. You can leave it plugged into your computer, and it will still load photos direct to Picasa for you. You just pull out your memory card and stick it in the card reader.

Personally, I still load direct from my camera using the USB2.0 cable - my 10MP camera uploads very quickly, whether I'm loading the 3-5MB jpgs or the big 15+MB raw files...by quickly, I mean no more than 1.3 seconds per photo on jpg and 4 secs per raw. That's quick enough for me - I usually plug in my camera, start the load process, then go get something to drink. When I get back, I can unplug the camera and start moving, naming, editing, batch processing, etc. as needed. I also use Paint Shop Pro for my processing.

 

[MICKEY88]

What Mickey88 said above would be the key to speeding up your upload times. First, check if your computer's USB port is a 2.0...most newer computers in the past 2 years should have 2.0. Then, if you really want to speed up the operations, buy a card reader with a fast load speed. A good card reader can be much faster than even a good USB2.0 connection direct from camera. You can leave it plugged into your computer, and it will still load photos direct to Picasa for you. You just pull out your memory card and stick it in the card reader.

Personally, I still load direct from my camera using the USB2.0 cable - my 10MP camera uploads very quickly, whether I'm loading the 3-5MB jpgs or the big 15+MB raw files...by quickly, I mean no more than 1.3 seconds per photo on jpg and 4 secs per raw. That's quick enough for me - I usually plug in my camera, start the load process, then go get something to drink. When I get back, I can unplug the camera and start moving, naming, editing, batch processing, etc. as needed. I also use Paint Shop Pro for my processing.

I've heard of more problems/file corruption etc, when uploading straight from camera,, plus why put wear and tear on the camera,, a card reader is cheaper to replace..

 

[Groucho]

mickey88, I guess the biggest problem that I am having is the uploading to websites like Picassa...how is the best way to resize? I am new at this part of life...Thanks,

I would check out Irfanview, a free image viewer and basic editor. It's tiny and very powerful and very fast, it is ideal for resizing your photos and can easily be configured for batch processing (ie, resizing many photos at once.)

Copying from the camera vs a memory card reader won't affect the Smugmug upload times. (Memory card readers always win out over cameras, though; they're dirt cheap especially if you use SD cards and will almost always be faster. Many Canon cameras also don't behave like an external drive as they should when you plug them into your PC.) The slow uploads are a combination of your internet provider's speed and the size of the photo... which takes us back to resizing.

One thing to remember is that there are a couple things that affect file size... not only the resolution of the photo (which resizing changes) but also the compression level. The more compression, the smaller the photo but the more you'll see artifacts such as big "blocks" especially in darker areas.