How do you save your images?

[domromer]

I shoot everything at jpeg. I was told everytime you open and close a jpegs it degrades a litle bit more. How many times can you look at a jpeg before you start to notice it degrading?

Also do you save your files as Jpegs or tiffs. I've got a digital arts teacher who says we should save everything as tiffs. If I did that I would need three more hard drives. What are you guys doing?

 

[BAB]

Yes you are correct and for that reason it is best not to save as a JPEG. Rather save a master as a TIFF or other non compression format. If you need a JPEG for e-mailing or web, do a save as from your master.

 

[domromer]

How much can you open until you begin noticing degridation?

 

[ann]

opening and closing are different than saving something.

for example, you open a file , rotate it and then save the rotation, which is a change. At that time the file re-arranges itself and re-compresses itself which over time is degrading.

I use only raw files, change them to a TIff file if i am going to use it; and keep 4 copies of every file; the orginal and 3 back up copies. External Hard Drives are very cheap these days.

 

[domromer]

So If i'm just opening them in preview then nothing happens? I actually need to make a change and save it and they will be compressed again? Am i getting that right?

 

[fido dog]

So If i'm just opening them in preview then nothing happens? I actually need to make a change and save it and they will be compressed again? Am i getting that right?

That's my understanding.

 

[Josh66]

Yeah, it only compresses when you actually save it.

I don't think most people are going to save it enough times to see a change though (maybe I'm wrong, but I've never noticed any quality loss).

I keep all of my RAWs and process the ones I like into JPEGs. I used to use TIFFs, but like you said - I saw that it was going to use all of my disk space very fast.

 

[wildmaven]

I save all images which I will be using for sale as TIFFs. Other images get saved as JPGs. You never know when a customer is going to come in and ask if you can make a print larger than what you have for sale, and with the TIFF, you have a better chance.

 

[TCimages]

I save all images which I will be using for sale as TIFFs. Other images get saved as JPGs. You never know when a customer is going to come in and ask if you can make a print larger than what you have for sale, and with the TIFF, you have a better chance.

How does a tiff allow you to print a larger image than a jpg? It's just an uncompressed version of the jpg. Still maintains the same dimensions.

maybe I'm missing something.

 

[TCimages]

I shoot everything at jpeg. I was told everytime you open and close a jpegs it degrades a litle bit more. How many times can you look at a jpeg before you start to notice it degrading?

Also do you save your files as Jpegs or tiffs. I've got a digital arts teacher who says we should save everything as tiffs. If I did that I would need three more hard drives. What are you guys doing?

Only saving a jpg impacts quaility. And this is marginal. I would consider always making a copy of a jpeg to work on. Leaving your originals as is OR at least do a "save as" which would be the same thing.

 

[D-50]

Check out the thread on jpeg compression that was recently posted. Youll see the true effects of JPEG compression. I see no reason to ever save as a jpeg unless your emailing the photo to someone. Also why would you shoot in jpeg if RAW is an option, makes no sense.

 

[domromer]

File size. I don't have the money for multiple external hard drives.

 

[D-50]

You can get 300 to 500 GB hard drives for about $100 USD. I know money is tight for everyone but unfortnatly photography gets to be an expensive habit very quickly. I would strongly suggest saving up $100 and getting an external HD and stop shooting in JPEG.

 

[domromer]

Wow. Thats cheap. I haven't seem them locally for that cheap. I thought I was going to have to spend at least 250$. Could you give me a link for a reputable selller that has drives for that cheap. Thanks

 

[Alex_B]

and they are getting cheaper and cheaper everyday.