Image resolution/quality overrated for most people?

The other day my wife wanted to put some animal pictures on the wall of our nursery, she sent me the pictures via WhatsApp for me to print off on A4.

I printed them but the quality was quite poor, they were fuzzy and had many compression artefacts. I checked the file sizes and noticed they were less than 1mp.

However, my wife was delighted with the photos and despite my objections didn't want me to try to source the originals to print off at better quality.

This got me thinking. I think there is a minority of us who think that image quality is that important. Most people don't really care about this much at all. I guess this is why most people are totally satisfied with the output of their smartphones.

Any thoughts?

markyboy81 said:

The other day my wife wanted to put some animal pictures on the wall of our nursery, she sent me the pictures via WhatsApp for me to print off on A4.

I printed them but the quality was quite poor, they were fuzzy and had many compression artefacts. I checked the file sizes and noticed they were less than 1mp.

However, my wife was delighted with the photos and despite my objections didn't want me to try to source the originals to print off at better quality.

This got me thinking. I think there is a minority of us who think that image quality is that important. Most people don't really care about this much at all. I guess this is why most people are totally satisfied with the output of their smartphones.

Any thoughts?

Click to expand...

Totally right. I shot a wedding a couple years back. I gave the clients a USB stick with 600x800 JPEGs so they could choose what to print and told them that I would supply the full size images for printing. They just went and made posters from the small JPEGs.

markyboy81 said:

The other day my wife wanted to put some animal pictures on the wall of our nursery, she sent me the pictures via WhatsApp for me to print off on A4.

I printed them but the quality was quite poor, they were fuzzy and had many compression artefacts. I checked the file sizes and noticed they were less than 1mp.

However, my wife was delighted with the photos and despite my objections didn't want me to try to source the originals to print off at better quality.

This got me thinking. I think there is a minority of us who think that image quality is that important. Most people don't really care about this much at all. I guess this is why most people are totally satisfied with the output of their smartphones.

Any thoughts?

Click to expand...

Given the masses of people that are perfectly happy with smartphone photos, isn't that obvious ? ;-) Convenience is much more important to the majority. Nothing wrong with that.

Mark

aquavideo said:

markyboy81 said:

The other day my wife wanted to put some animal pictures on the wall of our nursery, she sent me the pictures via WhatsApp for me to print off on A4.

I printed them but the quality was quite poor, they were fuzzy and had many compression artefacts. I checked the file sizes and noticed they were less than 1mp.

However, my wife was delighted with the photos and despite my objections didn't want me to try to source the originals to print off at better quality.

This got me thinking. I think there is a minority of us who think that image quality is that important. Most people don't really care about this much at all. I guess this is why most people are totally satisfied with the output of their smartphones.

Any thoughts?

Click to expand...

Totally right. I shot a wedding a couple years back. I gave the clients a USB stick with 600x800 JPEGs so they could choose what to print and told them that I would supply the full size images for printing. They just went and made posters from the small JPEGs.

Click to expand...

I hope they still paid you for them!

Mark B. said:

markyboy81 said:

The other day my wife wanted to put some animal pictures on the wall of our nursery, she sent me the pictures via WhatsApp for me to print off on A4.

I printed them but the quality was quite poor, they were fuzzy and had many compression artefacts. I checked the file sizes and noticed they were less than 1mp.

However, my wife was delighted with the photos and despite my objections didn't want me to try to source the originals to print off at better quality.

This got me thinking. I think there is a minority of us who think that image quality is that important. Most people don't really care about this much at all. I guess this is why most people are totally satisfied with the output of their smartphones.

Any thoughts?

Click to expand...

Given the masses of people that are perfectly happy with smartphone photos, isn't that obvious ? ;-) Convenience is much more important to the majority. Nothing wrong with that.

Mark

Click to expand...

Nothing wrong with it, but then why bother making 12mp,16mp,20mp smartphone cameras?

aquavideo said:

aquavideo wrote

Totally right. I shot a wedding a couple years back. I gave the clients a USB stick with 600x800 JPEGs so they could choose what to print and told them that I would supply the full size images for printing. They just went and made posters from the small JPEGs.

Click to expand...

This was... Hilarious

markyboy81 said:

aquavideo said:

markyboy81 said:

The other day my wife wanted to put some animal pictures on the wall of our nursery, she sent me the pictures via WhatsApp for me to print off on A4.

I printed them but the quality was quite poor, they were fuzzy and had many compression artefacts. I checked the file sizes and noticed they were less than 1mp.

However, my wife was delighted with the photos and despite my objections didn't want me to try to source the originals to print off at better quality.

This got me thinking. I think there is a minority of us who think that image quality is that important. Most people don't really care about this much at all. I guess this is why most people are totally satisfied with the output of their smartphones.

Any thoughts?

Click to expand...

Totally right. I shot a wedding a couple years back. I gave the clients a USB stick with 600x800 JPEGs so they could choose what to print and told them that I would supply the full size images for printing. They just went and made posters from the small JPEGs.

Click to expand...

I hope they still paid you for them!

Click to expand...

Sure. I got paid for the shoot

My companion made a screen saver of a Tuscany landscape. It was shot with an old Canon compact at dusk (high ISO) and heavily cropped. It's full of NR smearing and looks decidedly water coloury which is about the worst that can be said about IQ in a review. Yet we both think it's beautiful.

We may care about photographic quality, but how much do we care about, for instance the quality of musical instruments ? Do you insist on having a selected Steinway Grand in your house, regularly maintained by a top technician ?

If you are giving a recital, do you check out several pianos to select the best one ?

How particular are you about cooking ? Do you take care to select the very best ingredients, absolutely fresh ? Grow your own herbs ?

Different people are perfectionists about different things.

markyboy81 said:

Mark B. said:

markyboy81 said:

The other day my wife wanted to put some animal pictures on the wall of our nursery, she sent me the pictures via WhatsApp for me to print off on A4.

I printed them but the quality was quite poor, they were fuzzy and had many compression artefacts. I checked the file sizes and noticed they were less than 1mp.

However, my wife was delighted with the photos and despite my objections didn't want me to try to source the originals to print off at better quality.

This got me thinking. I think there is a minority of us who think that image quality is that important. Most people don't really care about this much at all. I guess this is why most people are totally satisfied with the output of their smartphones.

Any thoughts?

Click to expand...

Given the masses of people that are perfectly happy with smartphone photos, isn't that obvious ? ;-) Convenience is much more important to the majority. Nothing wrong with that.

Mark

Click to expand...

Nothing wrong with it, but then why bother making 12mp,16mp,20mp smartphone cameras?

Click to expand...

Marketing. "More is better!"

[No message]

First, it is an important human quality to be able to "let go" and not to strive to perfection in absolutely every aspects of their lives. Otherwise humans would simply go insane. Imagine if you were constantly preoccupied in achieving the best aestetics in your meals, drinks, clothing, furniture, house, music, just like you are trying to do in photography. Not only it would be very difficult to achieve financially, it would be simply exhausting for your mind and body.

So being able to let go on every detail in many areas around them including photography, helps people to really focus on something that matters to them in their lives without over-stressing themselves. And this is one good thing.

Another good thing from this fact of life comes for people who find their interests in photography, presumably like you and me. This helps our passion really stand out and be noticed. My colleagues and friends who only take pictures with their phones are constantly amazed at my DSLR pictures that I show them on my phone. They immediately see the difference and compliment the quality even without me telling them that I was using a DSLR. Parents at my kids' soccer teams tell me that they refuse taking pictures with their cellphones after seeing their kids photos in action taken by me with a professional telephoto lens, which I happily share with everybody.

Also, if people don't find the activity of taking high-quality pictures interesting enough in comparison to other things they need to achieve in their life, it doesn't mean they don't appreciate high quality photos taken by somebody else. So maybe find that picture in better quality without asking your wife and print it to the best you can and let her see the results. This might as well "blow her mind away".

So let's celebrate the fact that only a handful of us in the world care about quality photography. In the end, if everyone's an artist, nobody is.

markyboy81 said:

The other day my wife wanted to put some animal pictures on the wall of our nursery, she sent me the pictures via WhatsApp for me to print off on A4.

I printed them but the quality was quite poor, they were fuzzy and had many compression artefacts. I checked the file sizes and noticed they were less than 1mp.

However, my wife was delighted with the photos and despite my objections didn't want me to try to source the originals to print off at better quality.

This got me thinking. I think there is a minority of us who think that image quality is that important. Most people don't really care about this much at all. I guess this is why most people are totally satisfied with the output of their smartphones.

Any thoughts?

Click to expand...

Maybe the quality was good enough for her, but maybe the fuzziness and compression artifacts improved the pictures by giving them a lo-fi character...

markyboy81 said:

The other day my wife wanted to put some animal pictures on the wall of our nursery, she sent me the pictures via WhatsApp for me to print off on A4.

I printed them but the quality was quite poor, they were fuzzy and had many compression artefacts. I checked the file sizes and noticed they were less than 1mp.

However, my wife was delighted with the photos and despite my objections didn't want me to try to source the originals to print off at better quality.

This got me thinking. I think there is a minority of us who think that image quality is that important. Most people don't really care about this much at all. I guess this is why most people are totally satisfied with the output of their smartphones.

Any thoughts?

Click to expand...

For many people "good quality" is the picture on the telly, the photographs in a colour magazine, a poster or even a 6x4 from the mobile. Maybe they are right. Impressionist art is not designed to be inspected from close up but to be taken as a whole. Could be we need to start looking at photographs not the pixels

For most people the photo is the idea or representational of the subject. It is representative. Close is fine.

For me the photo is the subject and as such IQ is an important option to have at my disposal.

Mark B. said:

markyboy81 said:

The other day my wife wanted to put some animal pictures on the wall of our nursery, she sent me the pictures via WhatsApp for me to print off on A4.

I printed them but the quality was quite poor, they were fuzzy and had many compression artefacts. I checked the file sizes and noticed they were less than 1mp.

However, my wife was delighted with the photos and despite my objections didn't want me to try to source the originals to print off at better quality.

This got me thinking. I think there is a minority of us who think that image quality is that important. Most people don't really care about this much at all. I guess this is why most people are totally satisfied with the output of their smartphones.

Any thoughts?

Click to expand...

Given the masses of people that are perfectly happy with smartphone photos, isn't that obvious ? ;-) Convenience is much more important to the majority. Nothing wrong with that.

Click to expand...

What you guys are always forgetting is that it all depends on the purpose. Of course I don't use a smartphone when I'm shooting a ballet performance, but the following image was shot with my iPhone to be used on a web page, and guess what, I am perfectly happy with that.





Moti

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aquavideo said:

markyboy81 said:

aquavideo said:

markyboy81 said:

The other day my wife wanted to put some animal pictures on the wall of our nursery, she sent me the pictures via WhatsApp for me to print off on A4.

I printed them but the quality was quite poor, they were fuzzy and had many compression artefacts. I checked the file sizes and noticed they were less than 1mp.

However, my wife was delighted with the photos and despite my objections didn't want me to try to source the originals to print off at better quality.

This got me thinking. I think there is a minority of us who think that image quality is that important. Most people don't really care about this much at all. I guess this is why most people are totally satisfied with the output of their smartphones.

Any thoughts?

Click to expand...

Totally right. I shot a wedding a couple years back. I gave the clients a USB stick with 600x800 JPEGs so they could choose what to print and told them that I would supply the full size images for printing. They just went and made posters from the small JPEGs.

Click to expand...

I hope they still paid you for them!

Click to expand...

Sure. I got paid for the shoot

Click to expand...

But if they made large prints, some people will see them and think you did a poor job.

That is why it is probably better to add a conspicuous water mark of your name. on the proof usb stick

whvick

markyboy81 said:

The other day my wife wanted to put some animal pictures on the wall of our nursery, she sent me the pictures via WhatsApp for me to print off on A4.

I printed them but the quality was quite poor, they were fuzzy and had many compression artefacts. I checked the file sizes and noticed they were less than 1mp.

However, my wife was delighted with the photos and despite my objections didn't want me to try to source the originals to print off at better quality.

This got me thinking. I think there is a minority of us who think that image quality is that important. Most people don't really care about this much at all. I guess this is why most people are totally satisfied with the output of their smartphones.

Any thoughts?

Click to expand...

A lot of it, I think, depends with actually laying eyes on the difference. Without comparison, people will think a shot is perfectly fine; which it may be. However, I bet if you had printed from the originals and let her look at them side by side, she would most likely have appreciated the difference. It's not that image quality is overrated, but that many aren't aware of it until they see it.

As far as smart phones are concerned, under many circumstances, quality photos can be produced quite easily.

markyboy81 said:

Any thoughts?

Click to expand...

Perhaps she was just grateful to make you do anything?!

But for a proper test, you should make a hi-res print as well and ask, which she prefer...

I've printed off A2 size from instagram, which I don't think would have been even 1MP. Still worked out quite well, because it's decorative. Nobody inspects it with a magnifying glass.