D700 and D4 post processing DPI reduction.

[NorthernFocus]

...Regardless I still can't pinpoint my issue so if anyone else has any other suggestions....go hard.

The problem is occurring when you convert to jpeg. To best avoid this sort of thing happening it is best to do all of your processing, resizing, etc. in photoshop with the 16-bit file. Then as a last step convert to jpeg and save. The higher "quality" setting you use when saving, the less artifacts there will be. Also don't modify the jpeg and resave it. Every time you save a jpeg it can create artifacts. Kind of like making photocopies of photocopies of photocopies of a document. It loses detail and gets uglier with each step.

Sometimes you get stuck with file size limitations required by websites and have to reduce the quality to be able to post. If you have done all of the above and reducing the quality to meet upload requirements creates the artifacts, well too bad. The technology has its limits.

Sorry for any appearance of testiness. But it was pointed out early in the thread that you were dealing with jpeg artifacts but you seemed to be fixated on it being a camera problem. Somewhat understandable I guess. When you spend $6k+ on a camera is seems like everything that comes out of it should be perfect

[Metalstorm77]

The problem is occurring when you convert to jpeg. To best avoid this sort of thing happening it is best to do all of your processing, resizing, etc. in photoshop with the 16-bit file. Then as a last step convert to jpeg and save. The higher "quality" setting you use when saving, the less artifacts there will be. Also don't modify the jpeg and resave it. Every time you save a jpeg it can create artifacts. Kind of like making photocopies of photocopies of photocopies of a document. It loses detail and gets uglier with each step.

Sometimes you get stuck with file size limitations required by websites and have to reduce the quality to be able to post. If you have done all of the above and reducing the quality to meet upload requirements creates the artifacts, well too bad. The technology has its limits.

Sorry for any appearance of testiness. But it was pointed out early in the thread that you were dealing with jpeg artifacts but you seemed to be fixated on it being a camera problem. Somewhat understandable I guess. When you spend $6k+ on a camera is seems like everything that comes out of it should be perfect

Yes I was fixated with the camera being the issue, as I used the D700 for years and never saw this artifact issue. Then the D4 came along and I processed the files from the D4 in the same workflow as I have always done with files from D700. So it was perplexing.

What I will do for futures shots with the D4, as you suggested, is to do most of the processing in photoshop with 16bit file.
In the past it was more of a quick adjustment of the RAW files in photoshop then convert to JPEG. Once in JPEG it was more fiddling to the JPEG file.

Thanks for the information, it's useful, a good reminder of issues read sometime ago and new stuff for me to try, after many years of processing images in the same manner.

[n8changus1aj]

thanks for replying

[Manfred M]

When you say "high compression jpegs" can you please explain how you do this if you use Photoshop. For me I just slide the scale bar from 1-12 to define my jpeg size.

Set the quality to 1, and you are looking at high compression (small files, but a lot of data thrown away). Try editing a file that has been highly compressed, and you will see blocking of colours, like in the shot you have posed. Sticking with a high quality value (10 - 12) will reduce, but not eliminate this risk, depending on the image. I find that skies tend to be worst for blocking issues.

[Metalstorm77]

Set the quality to 1, and you are looking at high compression (small files, but a lot of data thrown away). Try editing a file that has been highly compressed, and you will see blocking of colours, like in the shot you have posed. Sticking with a high quality value (10 - 12) will reduce, but not eliminate this risk, depending on the image. I find that skies tend to be worst for blocking issues.

Yes...after I process the raw files I convert them at 300ppi to JPEG, and after editing JPEGS I usually save to high value 10-12. The attached picture was saved at 12.