formats for saving images

[fotolode]

Hello,

I Have a Pentat *ist DS and I have it on maximum quality. It's about 2-3MB
per photo when I shoot and save.

Now here is my question, I edit them with ADOBE PHOTOSHOP 7 and I would
save them in this fashion: IMAGE OPTIONS: Maxium quality (12)
FORMAT OPTIONS: Progressive (5)

I apologize first hand the search utility did not help at all... but to the point, am I on the right track or have I saved the photos on too high of quality? I plan to take these to the local walmart or Costcos to print them..

thank You

 

[Big Mike]

What type of file are you saving them as? Jpg? Tiff?

Does the *ist Ds have the option to shoot RAW? That's usually the best option, unless you are short of memory space.

There is no set or best way to save your files but here is my 2 cents...Shoot in Raw (or Large Jpg) and save those files, keep them unaltered and do not save over them. You want to start with the best quality.
When you work on an image, save it in a lossless format like PSD, or TIFF. (If you save as jpg. you lose quality every time you save). Save your working images separately from your original images or with different file names.
Then when you want to print the images, save them separately as 'for print' files. Make sure the resolution and print size are set properly and save as jpg. with a high to maximum setting.

I also, save some images 'for web', which are downsized and compressed much more than the print versions. So I often end up with 3 or 4 files for an image. The original RAW (or large JPG) file, the working file PSD, a 'for web' version and a 'for print' version. Often I delete the working file because those files are huge and take up a lot of space, but I keep the original just in case.

 

[Hertz van Rental]

You might do better to save the files as TIFF - no compression is involved so no loss of quality.


And I'll move this thread to General Q&A where it belongs.

 

[fotolode]

The camera saves them in large jpg formats. For some reason, the image size when
saved after a shot, is approx. 42inches by 27inches. I've read the manual and I guess
perhaps i'm looking at the wrong pages or in the wrong cat..

Now saving them for print sizes- how would i do that b/c the images are 42X27... Any tips on that would be great!

Thankx

 

[tr0gd0o0r]

When saving these photos for print, then main thing you need to consider is what size you want to print them at. For instance, if you want to print an 8x10 or 4x5, then size out of the camera doesn't translate quite right and parts of the image are going to be cut off. Its best to crop the photos to your liking if this is the case, to prevent undesirable results. That said, don't crop them down to 8x10, just leave them at whatever size they're in. When you take it to the lab, their machines will do that for you. (although, fyi, if you do want to do it yourself, go to print size in photoshop, and mess with the dpi. The output of the camera is 72 dpi. As you increase the dpi, the quality of the image will get better and it will get smaller. Going to 300 dpi, which is print resoluion ends up at about 8x11.5 or 12ish. p.s. in photoshop, i think dpi is called pixels per inch)

Hope that helped.

 

[Big Mike]

Your images are 42x27 but probably at 72 PPI. Typically you want to print at 300 DPI so if you change the resolution to 300 PPI, you will see that the 'size' of the print is smaller.

 

[M @ k o]

One question about this topic.

If you save all your images in Large Jpeg to a CD. Would you lose any quility of the photo/photos when you take it from the cd to work on them ?

 

[Big Mike]

I don't think you loose any quality simply by moving/copying the files from a CD...but every time you save a file as JPG...you loose quality. So if you know that you will be working on them, you may want to save in a lossless format.

Of course, a lot of this is just 'good work practice' and may not make much difference in the real world. With the high quality images from digital cameras these days, you can probably open & save your JPG files a hundred times before you see a noticeable difference in quality.

 

[M @ k o]

Thanks Big Mike ! Your always helpful and it's good to have someone like you in here. Thx again for replying.

 

[1mask]

Just thought I'd add my tuppence...

Big Mike is correct. Copying an image from CD to memory stick to desktop, etc, will not lose any quality. Digital files can be copied an infinite amount of times and will not lose any detail. It's only if you RE-SAVE an image, like opening it in Photoshop and then saving another copy of it. In those circumstances you are normally given an option of saving formats and quality.

I remember a demonstration with digital MPEG video, where original digital video was encoded and then decoded, re-encoded and decoded, etc, and this showed that you could do this,re-encoding and decoding, up to 8 times before anybody could actually SEE a difference between the original and the 8th generation copy.

I have no idea if someone has tried this with normal images, but I'm sure it could be done if someone wanted to.

Detail in any image is very subjective. If it looks bad, it is bad. If you can't see a problem then your subjective decision is that it looks fine.

 

[ksmattfish]

I recently attended a digital photography seminar where they purposely did just about everything you aren't suposed to do with a jpeg to see how bad they could mess it up. After opening, editing, and saving six times the damage was very subtle. Only visible under magnification on a monitor. With 11"x14" Fuji Pictrostat prints we couldn't see the differences between the 6 times saved jpeg print and a tiff print. The original files were shot with a Fuji S3.

 

[gravespinner]

Good information, as I am saving in large fine jpg but am afraid to make changes and save and then if I've not done something, make more changes and save. So I find myself going back to my original and doing it all at once.