How to save images at the highest quality

[thing]

Hi all,

I thought I should post this one as I have noticed during my time here that alot of you are unaware of this.

Everytime you save a jpg you lose data. If your processing your images and saving them as jpg each time............DON'T.

Each time a jpg is saved it loses data. It's called jpg artifacting (you may have heard of this). Your image will eventually become a mass of pixels. I recieive jpg logos all the time (even though a logo should be vector art i.e. an illustrator file) that people have resaved hundreds of times and I am expected to produce something decent out of them....No can do. Once a jpg has been resaved too many times it is stuffed forever, there is NO WAY to repair it. (you can try some ps work to help it a little but basically it's gone).

So here's what to do with your image:

1. Download from your camera
2. If working in RAW format do your stuff and finally save as .tif
3. If is a jpg from camera save as .tif
4. Work on the .tif and save it as many times as you like
5. When you are happy with the image then save it as a .tif first for archiving, and save your .jpg for emailing, posting etc. That way you always have your original version to change later if you wish.
6. Bottom line, work in .tif format, then save as jpg.

Hope this helps you keep better quality images.

[redredwinealert]

Thanks mate for the very good review.

Not being hugely fussy on prints before, I must say that even though I knew of the Jpeg "deterioration" problem, I didn't care much of it - until now. Good points were raised, tif here I come

("Tiff Here I Come"...sounds like an arthouse film title )

[Ronbo]

please be aware that .tiff files can be quite large, so if you're going to archive them then it may be advisable to burn to DVD while retaining your .jpeg's on your hard drive.

[SSSchwing]

might be time for me to set up my external hard drive

thanks for the tip!

[arthurking83]

4 x 250Gig or (500Gig!!) internal drives should present any storage problems for a while!

Now all I need is a motherboard that can accept the 4 SATA drives!

[sans2012]

Sound advice thing

Quick tip on saving jpg for web. Do a quick sharpen or unsharpened mask before you save as jpeg. Tends to soften the image when you save as jpeg.

Sorry for a bit OT

[Craig Miller]

4 x 250Gig or (500Gig!!) internal drives should present any storage problems for a while!

Now all I need is a motherboard that can accept the 4 SATA drives!

SATA RAID Controller!

[amberz]

I have been converting RAW to tif, then saving them as jpegs



will be following your advice now TY very much

[J.M.White]

Thanks for a very informative thread.

Quick question: Is there a way I can save a lot of jpg's as TIF's quickly?

ie Once I download all the jpg's from my camera, can I convert them all to TIF's in one go, or should I open each one individually and do some PP them save as TIF?

At the moment I'm just saving them as jpg's after each edit.

[arthurking83]

What editing programs do you have/use.

In PS there is a Image Processor script/batch tool.

File->Scripts->Image Processor

Check the options in the new window carefully, and process away!

[J.M.White]

What editing programs do you have/use.

In PS there is a Image Processor script/batch tool.

File->Scripts->Image Processor

Check the options in the new window carefully, and process away!

I have Photoshop CS.

Under File->Scripts there isn't an Image Processor option. The 4 options listed are Export Layers to Files, Layer Comps to Files, Layer Comps to PDF and Layer Comps to WPS

Is the Image Processor an add-on that I need to download?

[arthurking83]

Ah! CS2 ... my apologies ...

Maybe in the batch options?

Or maybe try a freebie like IrfanView! It does batch conversions.
(no need to clutter up the PC with junk, Like I do! )

I'm sure PS has a batch process to convert to other formats.. etc.

It's just a matter of finding where it is...

I have to say it's taken me the best part of the morning to figure out that (in CS2) the process done using the Image Processor command!

I looked for a long time at the batch options... and couldn;'t figure it out.... **Doh!**

All I wanted to do was use a higher compresion setting (lower quality) on images uploaded to my webspace, as 10 megs of space just doesn't cut it!

[jaydoncabe]

thanks for passing this on.

[tmd77]

whats the benefit of working in .tif over RAW (unless you are needing to do multiple different styles of PP)?

[ricktas]

whats the benefit of working in .tif over RAW (unless you are needing to do multiple different styles of PP)?

You can't really ever work on a RAW file, you always work on a rendered version of the RAW data. You can only edit a RAW file in a raw converter (lightroom, Adobe Camera Raw, etc), Your software has to have RAW convertor software to allow you to display and edit a RAW file. TIF is editable like any other format (JPG, GIF, etc) in your photo editing software.

[Chinook]

Very informative. Thank you.

[Patagonia]

I know that that happens with every format and not olny image files. Music, etc also suffer the same.

But what happens when working in Picassa or LR, I thought these programs kept the originals and saves the "changes" you made not to the photograph but as a series of instructions and only when exporting the JPG they received the changes. When I open the files from the finder (or explorer in Win) I don´t see the changes so it supports my theory...is there something correct in what I wrote or I`m totally dreaming ?...hope someone can explain.

regards

[soulman]

I know that that happens with every format and not olny image files. Music, etc also suffer the same.

Not every format - only ones that use lossy compression, like JPEG and MP3. TIFF, PSD and WAV, AIFF are examples of lossless formats.

But what happens when working in Picassa or LR, I thought these programs kept the originals and saves the "changes" you made not to the photograph but as a series of instructions and only when exporting the JPG they received the changes. When I open the files from the finder (or explorer in Win) I don´t see the changes so it supports my theory...is there something correct in what I wrote or I`m totally dreaming ?...hope someone can explain.

Don't know about Picasa, but Lr does as you say here - saves changes as a set of instructions, either in its database or as a "sidecar" file which is stored with the image. When you export an image, the changes are "baked in" to the exported file.

[Namus]

Big thanks for this; I didn't even know this happened (Jpeg deterioration) Only downside is that TIFF files take up SOOOOOOO much room!!!