Which format when Saving Files from Digital Camera?

WS
Posted By
Willie_Scott
Feb 9, 2004
Views
128
Replies
6
Status
Closed
I know you recommend saving files in the photoshop psd format to avoid degrading images when editing but my camera only lets me save them onto my pc initiallly as jpegs which I know to be "lossy". I have two questions:

1. should I convert these jpegs, after saving them on my hard disk, to photoshop psd files and then edit them accordingly or not?

and, if the answer to the above is yes…..

2. I sometimes wish to use an online print service which requires me to upload these files as jpegs. If I convert them back to jpegs after editing in psd as above will it degrade them further?

Excuse my ignorance but, as you will gather, I’m new to this.
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Susan_S.
Feb 9, 2004
This one creates a certain amount of discussion here!. The key thing is to avoid repeated resaves in the jpg format, as particularly at higher levels of jpeg compression it will result in image degradation. Some people convert all their photos straight away to tiff or PSD (both non-lossy) to make sure there is no risk of resaving jpgs. What I do is to open the jpg, duplicate it and close the original without saving, (but I do write all my original jpgs to CD so if I stuff up then I can return to the original image) save the copy as PSD and keep saving it in that format until I have a final use for it – in which case I will often have no choice but to save as a jpg for web or email . As the image started off as a jpeg this necessarily results in some loss of quality…but unless you can shoot in a non-lossy format there isn’t much you can do about it…and if you have used the maximimum quality jpeg setting in your camera it is likely that there will not be any perceptible effect in any case from a single resave…
CF
Callum_Ferguson
Feb 10, 2004
Willie.
A similar question was asked of an OZ mag, Digital photography made easy (very good) which was of the opinion that provided the compression level in kept to the minimum in the camera you would need a magnifing glass to see the diference between a JPG and TIFF and if you use a inkjet to print with you’d probably go blind trying to pick a difference.
The real difference is file size, if you insist in using lossless format and you are snap happy an exobyte hard drive might be needed.
As an experiment i used Tiff in my camera – Oly C700 – its practically useless as it took about 30 seconds to write to the card, I don’t think I could stand the wait, I cannot tell the difference between HQ and SHQ which i take to be the best JPG setting.
As Susan says use a copy to fiddle with and all will be well. Regards
Malcolm
J
jhjl1
Feb 10, 2004
—
Have A Nice Day, 🙂
James Hutchinson
http://www.pbase.com/myeyesview
http://www.myeyesviewstudio.com/
1. should I convert these jpegs, after saving them on my hard disk, to
photoshop psd files and then edit them accordingly or not?

James: If you plan on making any edits you would probably want to save as PSD or TIFF according to the PS Gurus.

2. I sometimes wish to use an online print service which requires me
to upload these files as jpegs. If I convert them back to jpegs after editing in psd as above will it degrade them further?

James: This should not be a problem if you do not highly compress them when saving back to JPEG.
GW
greg_wallis
Feb 10, 2004
james

how do you put your web address after your name in the post?

cheers

greg
J
jhjl1
Feb 10, 2004
In OE go to tools>options>signatures and input the info. I’m not sure about other mail programs.

—
Have A Nice Day, 🙂
James Hutchinson
http://www.pbase.com/myeyesview
http://www.myeyesviewstudio.com/
WS
Willie_Scott
Feb 15, 2004
Many thanks for all your help here people. I will do as suggested. I am impressed with the friendliness of people in this forum and lots of info to browse through. Helpful to a newbie like me.

Willie

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