DSLR picture resolution and wallpapers

As for RAW editing, when you look at the image in an editor like Aperture or Lightroom, what you see on the screen is a jpeg preview so it looks the same without regards to whether you have selected the RAW or jpeg image as a source. RAW is the equivalent to a digital negative and can be "developed" in software to a degree that a jpeg file can't. What you see on the screen will still be a jpeg, though.

Your image won't fit because of aspect ratio, not resolution. Resolution is a number representing a linear number of pixels per inch while aspect ratio is a length by width measurement of the image. To fit your screen the image has to have the same relative length and width as the viewable area of the screen. You have to crop or resize the image to match the screen. I have PhotoShop for this type of stuff but Aperture will do it too. I don't know about Lightroom or Preview. In PS I open the image and select Crop, then enter the dimensions of the screen in the length and width fields at the top and hit Enter to crop it. Some of the image is usually lost but you can move the crop preview window around to your liking.

Hope this helps.

Dale

conamor said:

Hello everyone,

so I might have a simple question for you.

I am using my D3200 RAW+JPEG (I don't know if I will ever use the RAW, I find that the image is almost the same as the jpeg, so I usually edit the JPEG) anyway... I was wondering, I take a shot, I modify it and set it as a wallpaper on my iMac 27in but it doesn't fill the screen. The picture resolution is 6016 × 4000 (24,1 MP). I suppose this is the reason and it is not 16:9. Is there anything I could do to make it fit properly on my iMac 27?

Thank you

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What software are you using? Personally I'd ditch the J-peg and just shoot RAW. Gives you a lot more scope with editing etc.

Yeah, to reiterate what's already been said, I would really shoot in raw. Of course, if you get it exactly the way you want in camera, then yeah there isn't going to be a huge difference other than compression, but more often than not I find myself wanting to bring out more detail previously hidden in the highlights and/or shadows. You cant do a whole lot with a jpeg without destroying it in the process. RAW lets you make a lot of choices after the fact.

As for your main question. All you need to do is crop it. Additionally there are some other more advanced tricks you can use if you absolutely don't want to loose something near the edges. Depending on image you might be able to use content aware scaling in photoshop. It lets you squash and stretch only the parts of the image that have less detail. This works well for landscapes, but not if you have a lot of people for example. It would make them look too distorted.

Apple fanboy said:

What software are you using? Personally I'd ditch the J-peg and just shoot RAW. Gives you a lot more scope with editing etc.

Click to expand...

Or dump the RAW if you're not using it because it's a waste of space.

I don't use RAW for certain things. I'm actually setting us a photo booth on 11/1 and will be using JPEG and probably a smaller size because the lighting and everything will be static and quantity over quality is important there.

I also will tend to use JPEGs at certain events that I shoot because there's just no need for RAW files. Wedding are not one of those events however.