John,
When you don’t want degradation of your camera files, then don’t (re)save them as jpg’s but as tif, or even better psd.
When in the future you must hand them to someone else THEN convert them to whatever he/she likes, but edit and maintain them on your local machine as psd’s.
Your were not given the quality dialog again because the jpg memorized the setting and assumes you just want to use the same.
Again JPG is often (unfortunately) the only format some cameras allow you to shoot in, but further, JPG is an output format, not a working format.
Rob
Thanks Rob
I assume then that the "max" setting is NOT zero compression. Of course saving as PSD or TIFF means doubling up on storage space or deleting the original.
If PS can "assume you want the same" after the first save, why not when the JPG is imported from the camera? Other programs do.
I suppose I’ll have to get a camera that saves "in the raw"!
Cheers – John
John,
No, "max" is not zero compression, it’s the least compression.
The problem (in my Opinion) with a camera that saves in jpg is the fact that the camera itself is doing a number of operations on the image, that you ought to do instead. One is White Balance.
When shooting "raw"-mode everything that the CCD could possibly register is actually recorded. This way it’s up to you what to "throw away" afterwards.
The best thing you can do is this:
If you have to shoot in Jpeg, then shoot in the best possible mode (highest res, least compression). Do this even if the final image will be just an icon. Reducing is always done as one of the last steps in editing.
Transfer the images from the camera to the pc. (all of them, you can cheerfully delete them afterwards if you like).
Keep those jpg’s as the original (sort of negatives) and NEVER resave back on them.
Before doing anything save them AS PSD’s. Work on these and leave the originals alone. Ever. Resist the temptation to "make the originals better", do this on the PSD’s. the originals are to fall back upon, if you have to start over. The PSD is you production version.
Keep the PSD’s with perhaps layers as work files and when you are satisfied THEN reduce/resize/flatten and save AS in the format your client wants them.
In this example you’re left wit three files on your pc:
The original camere file (keep it! Burn a CD)
the work file (keep that too, you can tweak things)
the distribution file. (I keep them too, in case they get lost).
Don’t save on disk/memory card space. Our job is photography, not storage efficiency (though it may help).
And NEVER edit/delete files in the camera. You’re a better judge when you’re in your Photshop environment.
Rob
Oh, forgot one thing: When you save a jpeg it asks you only once about the quality. This means PS "remembers" the settings for this image. A next image again invokes the dialog.
In other words, this information is tagged to the image, not to the user.
Rob
