Best way to save photos permanently

Canon EF 100mm f/2.8 USM Macro

06/13/2005 11:51:21 PM · #1

I wanted to know how most people save their photos for archiving after working on a RAW file in photoshop (or similiar). I used to use JPEG or RAW. RAW is big. But afer editing in photoshop what way do you recommend?

Some people said .tiff. That format is huge! 40 -60 mb per photo is tough. Any other good ways to save? Photoshop PSD? Photoshop RAW?

I'm lost.

Message edited by author 2005-06-13 23:51:32.

TechnoShroom

Canon EOS-30D

06/14/2005 12:00:26 AM · #2

Well, first off I would keep the original RAW file. Then for the edited version I would keep the unflattened PSD. It's still large but not as large as TIFF and has all of your layers still available for re-editing should you choose to do that. I then also have a jpg for printing at a particular size named appropriately. Sounds like a lot of files but storage is rather cheap these days and it makes life easier to have all the files rather than try to fuss with recreating things.

06/14/2005 12:31:47 AM · #3

how do i save the unflattened psd? is that the photoshop RAW option?

Canon 12x IS USM (S3 IS built-in Lens) -- 36-432mm (35mm EQ)

06/14/2005 12:33:46 AM · #4

TIFF with the LZW option enabled will reduce the file size without compromising image integrity (it's lossless compression). It's not such a good format for printing, but it's good for archiving. Another option would be to put the TIFF files in a folder and compress them with Stuffit or WinZip (or Compressed Folder in WinXP).

I agree that storage is too cheap nowadays to throw files away -- I have pretty much all of them on an external hard drive and CD-R's, with DVD's of those CD's coming up soon. But, if you count up the time it takes to make CD's and DVD's, I think the most viable backup is getting to be a spare hard drive, kept off-site. For example:

for 200 GB:

1 hard drive, about $200

50 DVD-R disks, about $50 plus the time to burn them and space to store/organize them

350 CD-R disks, about $100 plus the time to burn them and space to store/organize them

ergo

06/14/2005 12:34:36 AM · #5

Originally posted by reemas:

how do i save the unflattened psd? is that the photoshop RAW option?

Save it as a psd document.

On a related matter, I'm running out of room on my 80gig drive. Could anyone suggest options for me? Get a second harddrive? Another storage medium? Burning dvds? Thanks.

Canon 12x IS USM (S3 IS built-in Lens) -- 36-432mm (35mm EQ)

06/14/2005 12:35:07 AM · #6

Originally posted by reemas:

how do i save the unflattened psd? is that the photoshop RAW option?

Just save it as a Photoshop file, with a .PSD extension. It should be at the very top of the list of format choices (not in alphabetical order!).

Jason

Canon EOS-1D Mark II

Canon EF 70-200mm f/2.8L IS USM

06/14/2005 12:52:43 AM · #7

Everytime you save a file in photoshop you will loose quality due to compression.

It's best to save the original file and leave it untouched.

You can save the reworked file anyway you want to but in keep mind the above.

Canon EF 70-200mm f/2.8L IS USM

06/14/2005 12:56:16 AM · #8

jason,
arent there any lossless formats, like tiff that wont compress or reduce quality?

Jason

Canon EOS-1D Mark II

06/14/2005 01:00:28 AM · #9

I have not given it that much research in regards to TIFF or PSD formats. I just keep a copy of the original file and I leave it untouched. Everything I work on is a copy of said original.

Even if you are simply rotating an image, depending on the program you are using, you may have data loss.

Canon EF 28-135mm f/3.5-5.6 IS USM

06/14/2005 01:03:42 AM · #10

when u say original, i assume you mean RAW? i save the RAW as well. but if i do any work, like dodging, burning, filters, etc. i'd like to save a copy of that as well. thats the file im wondering how you all save. so i dont have to edit again and again.

Balko

Canon EOS-400D Rebel XTi

06/14/2005 01:11:36 AM · #11

When you go to save, select PSD in files drop down menu.

Message edited by author 2005-06-14 01:11:57.

Canon 12x IS USM (S3 IS built-in Lens) -- 36-432mm (35mm EQ)

06/14/2005 01:29:15 AM · #12

Originally posted by Jason:

Everytime you save a file in photoshop you will loose quality due to compression.

This is only true of JPEG and other lossy compression schemes. The native Photoshop format (.PSD) retains all of the image data; you can (and SHOULD) save frequently, both to avoid losing work and to save scratch-disk space.

TIFF is completely lossless, with or without the LZW compression applied -- you will not lose any data or quality by opening and re-saving a TIFF file.

06/14/2005 01:38:11 AM · #13

generale, just to clarify, BOTH psd and tiff files are lossless?

Canon 12x IS USM (S3 IS built-in Lens) -- 36-432mm (35mm EQ)

06/14/2005 01:55:41 AM · #14

Originally posted by reemas:

generale, just to clarify, BOTH psd and tiff files are lossless?

Correct. PSD uses it's own "proprietary" compression (not much, by the way). TIFF can be either uncompressed or use LZW, which is similar to ZIP compression, and is lossless.

HRoxas

Canon EOS-5D

Canon EF 24-70mm f/2.8L USM

06/14/2005 03:53:57 AM · #15

Originally posted by GeneralE:

TIFF with the LZW option enabled will reduce the file size without compromising image integrity (it's lossless compression). It's not such a good format for printing, but it's good for archiving.

GeneralE: Could you explain why TIFF is not such a good format for printing.

I do all my printing now, my monitor is calibrated using Spyder and I use color profiles for my ink and paper (Epson 2200). My print files are all TIFF files and I'm getting great prints. Should I be using a different file type?

The way I save file is I convert RAW images and save it as TIFF. I do my layers adjustments and save the file in .PSD format. I keep another .PSD file for print size and aspect ratio. This could be more than one .PSD file if I'm printing different sizes. Finally, I flatten the image and apply USM and save it as a TIFF print file. If necessary I interpolate using PhotoZoom S-Spline before I do USM.

I keep all the files together in one folder, my file names start with the date the photo was taken and the image number from the camera....so something like 051405_1114.CR2. There will have many different file types of this file and I keep them together. I have (1) 250GB, (1) 120GB internal drive and a 500GB Lacie External.

brianlh

Canon EOS-450D Rebel XSi

Canon EF 24-70mm f/2.8L USM

06/14/2005 04:10:50 AM · #16

Originally posted by bruchen:

Originally posted by GeneralE:
TIFF with the LZW option enabled will reduce the file size without compromising image integrity (it's lossless compression). It's not such a good format for printing, but it's good for archiving.

GeneralE: Could you explain why TIFF is not such a good format for printing.

I do all my printing now, my monitor is calibrated using Spyder and I use color profiles for my ink and paper (Epson 2200). My print files are all TIFF files and I'm getting great prints. Should I be using a different file type?

I may be mistaken, since I am not well versed on printing - but I believe he was referring to LZW compressed TIFF documents as opposed to JPEG. Possibly converting this to JPEG or whatever format before printing might resolve this, if I am guessing right.. that it has something to do with the interpretation of data from the LZW compression that makes it bad for printing? .. But using LZW compressed TIFF and then later saving to JPEG before printing might be okay? Am I correct, or way off?

SteveJ

Canon EOS-7D

Canon EF-S 18-135mm f/3.5-5.6 IS STM

06/14/2005 04:30:14 AM · #17

Originally posted by rgo:

Originally posted by reemas:
how do i save the unflattened psd? is that the photoshop RAW option?

Save it as a psd document.

On a related matter, I'm running out of room on my 80gig drive. Could anyone suggest options for me? Get a second harddrive? Another storage medium? Burning dvds? Thanks.

Buy an external hard drive, plug it into USB, save photos to it and there you go. You can take it anywhere and just plug into someone else's PC and view your pics.

Steve

coolhar

Canon PowerShot Pro 90 IS

06/14/2005 06:33:44 AM · #18

I'll add a second to what Formerlee said. I bought a 250 gb USB 2 external hard drive for $169. Mates with xp seamlessly and works perfectly. Only problem is that I tend not to delete as many as I used to, and when I look back at them I think I kept way too many, lol.

PaulMdx

Canon EOS-1D

Canon EF 70-200mm f/2.8L USM

06/14/2005 06:47:53 AM · #19

As others have said, I leave my original jpeg files and create edited versions of them (with an 'a' appended). This way I always have the original and my edited version. If I use layers and such I will sometimes save the PSD as well (fairly rare, however). I then burn the images to DVD twice (if I can, overlapping discs by 50%) and also leave important images on my main hard disk as long as I deem them needed.

If at all possible, don't rely on ANY one medium. Redundancy is the name of the backup game.

Canon 12x IS USM (S3 IS built-in Lens) -- 36-432mm (35mm EQ)

06/14/2005 09:17:00 AM · #20

TIFF is fine for printing, although most photo printing services only take JPEG files. The LZW compression option isn't quite so good, because the file has to be decompressed on-the-fly and it takes longer, and there's more chance for error. Here I am more referring to photos placed into a larger page-layout and printed to a laser printer or imagesetter.

Discraft

Sigma 18-50mm f/2.8 EX DC for Canon

06/14/2005 09:33:50 AM · #21

I have a hard time burning the dvd's since they then don't read in any dvd player, or cd player why is this i use nero burning rom?

I make my backups in cds and i do this when i am doing something else rather than working on the pc so i don't have to be waiting for the cds to burn, come back in a few minutes and put another one to burn... so this doesn't seem to much time wasted...
I save them in raw and jpeg all together.. hope this helps.
Don't know if anyone said this in the thread since i didn't read the hole thread.

brianlh

Canon EOS-450D Rebel XSi

Canon EF 24-70mm f/2.8L USM

06/14/2005 03:24:00 PM · #22

Everyone sure does save a lot of RAW or TIFF files. Unless I plan on doing a lot of editing to it at some later point, it gets edited and goes straight to JPEG - I'm fairly confident (but maybe wrong? haven't been so far, though) that I don't need a RAW file of my friends sitting around or of some shots that i just kinda like but am done editing or whatever else..

thatcloudthere

Canon EOS-1D

Canon EF 16-35mm f/2.8L USM

06/14/2005 03:34:15 PM · #23

I always keep my .psd files...if I show someone here my photos and they say "that's nice but still a little dark" I can go back to the psd and fix it and resave without loss.

As for backup, I'm desperately trying to burn to DVD but it takes me almost 2 hours to burn a single DVD (don't have USB 2.0 on my laptop).

theSaj