Editing, cropping and saving

[Youngstu]

I posted recently that I'm on a bit of a quest to get almost 10 years worth of jPeg images stored, edited and printed. I'm wondering what would be a good method/habbit to get into for editing and saving.
I got some help on a previous thread and now have my head around the cropping of my 4:3 images to provide me with 6 x 4 for printing for basic albums.
I know that most people on here who are advanced on photography probably shoot mostly in Raw and always save the original image and carry out edits/ crops whenever they need.(I'll get to this stage one day:blushing:
I've decided that although all my images have been taken in 4:3, for the purpose of printing I'm going to crop the majority and print in 6 x 4 for albums and certain images that I really like I'm going to print to A4 size.
Would this be the correct way to do it?
1. Take original image (Image 1), carry out any adjustments like straightening, brightness etc.(not cropping) and save this (Image 1 - Edited)
2. I would now have the original image and the edited version of the image. Save both original and edited version of each and back up to external hard drive and DVD.
3. Then for printing purposes, if I want a copy for an album, take my edited version, crop to 6 x 4, get it printed but don't save the cropped version. This way I have the original, the edited version and any time I want a print whether it be 6 x 4 or A4 I carry out required crop or sizing of the edited version.

Thanks again.

 

[Big Mike]

When my workflow revolved around Photoshop, I did end up with several different versions of my images.
1. Raw file
2. Edited 'working' file. Uncropped to allow for different cropping options. Usually in TIFF or PSD format to avoid the lossy JPEG format.
3. Cropped and resized file for print at one or more specific size.
4. Cropped, resized and compressed file for uploading to web.

Now, my workflow revolves around Lightroom.
I still have the raw files, and I still create copies (export) for printing or uploading...but I no longer feel the need that I have to keep these copies forever....because I can simply go back into Lightroom and re-export them for whatever use I have.

One of the nice things, is that crops are not permanent in LR. You can crop to whatever ratio you want, export them to that size, then go back and change the crops and re-export them....all from the same master image. You can sort of do the same thing with Photoshop, but LR just makes it so easy.

 

[Youngstu]

Big Mike,
I think I need to look into getting Lightroom, a few people have mentioned this now. Especially when I do start to learn more. Just now, I want this monkey off my back i.e Many years of jPegs to be sorted out.
I suppose that jPegs don't take up much so if I did want to have my original 4:3 image , an edited image and a 6 x 4 crop of my edited image it wouldn't be much of a problem memory wise.

 

[Big Mike]

Big Mike,
I think I need to look into getting Lightroom, a few people have mentioned this now. Especially when I do start to learn more. Just now, I want this monkey off my back i.e Many years of jPegs to be sorted out.
I suppose that jPegs don't take up much so if I did want to have my original 4:3 image , an edited image and a 6 x 4 crop of my edited image it wouldn't be much of a problem memory wise.

Memory shouldn't be a problem, and keeping multiple copies is handy if you need them, but my problem with that, is if you someday want to edit the image before you print or upload it (a perfectly reasonable thing to do) then you either have to edit each version the same, or you risk having multiple 'copies' that look different. It's just has the possibility to get rather convoluted.

Again, that is why I like the system I use that is based around Lightroom. All you need to keep is the original raw (or DNG), and the Lightroom catalog. The catalog is where your edits are stored....and LR will apply those edits (including whatever cropping you choose etc.) and export files for whatever you need.

If you later make changes to the image in LR, you can easily export new versions, at any size/crop that include those new changes. You don't have to keep the sized jpegs....although it's an added level of safety in case your catalog (and it's backups) fail.

 

[KmH]

What's a Lightroom "Snapshot" | Lightroom Killer Tips

Note that Camera Raw and the LR Develop module are the same software - ACR (Adobe Camera Raw) - though there are some minor differences.