I'm so confused...I just did a session and all of the file sizes, when processed from RAW, are just under 2 MB. Why are they so small?? This is my first indoor shoot, so is it because they are all relatively monochromatic? I am just worried if I crop into one, I won't get print quality. After cropping, I am ending up w/ images slightly under 1 MB. I'm afraid I just don't understand file size...and why some of my files are 10 MB and some are not even 2.

What type of camera did you use? My 5D gives me about 13MB images (the .CR2 file), about 1MB per megapixel. In CS3, my .psd files (unflattened) usually get up to 70MB easily, but I make a copy of the background layer first and then pile it on from there.

Okay what the heck...this is a 5D. WHY am I getting only 2MB? I have to be doing something wrong...


Edit...oh wait you said the RAW files are 13 MB...that is about right, but when I covert to JPG they are slightly under 2MB this time. Usually they are around 3.

Originally Posted by ~Jan~ Okay what the heck...this is a 5D. WHY am I getting only 2MB? I have to be doing something wrong... Edit...oh wait you said the RAW files are 13 MB...that is about right, but when I covert to JPG they are slightly under 2MB this time. Usually they are around 3.

Do your cropping to a copy of the raw file and then save to jpg and that should make your final file decent for print quality......I do everyting to my raw file resizing and cropping before my jpg conversion...........

hth

Originally Posted by ~Jan~ I just did a session and all of the file sizes, when processed from RAW, are just under 2 MB. Why are they so small??

Ah, that's clearer. When you say "processed from RAW" you mean convert from RAW to JPG.

A couple of things come to mind:
1) JPEG compression basically takes redundant information and throws it away. So an image where wide portions of it are the same (skies, green grass, white wedding dresses/black tuxedos), the file should be smaller.
2) JPEG conversion settings. If I use ACR, change the image size to about 4000x2700, 120 dpi and use an '8' (or high) quality rating, my files JPEG files are about .5 to 2MB in size, mostly in the 1.5 MB range.

So your file sizes seem reasonable.

Okay it had something to do w/ the settings on ACR. I was transferring them at a smaller resolution. I'm so glad I figured this out, thanks to the help here!!