How to prevent JPEG degredation?

inlineadam

inlineadam

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Adam
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Hi.

You've probably seen this question everywhere - but i've struggled to find a complete answer...

I'm new to DSLR's and have been shooting JPEG because i was doing motorsport ( needed JEPG for the image capacity ) . Although i am somewhat of a newbie, i do hear that playing about with JPEG's can degrade the quality of them.

WHat most have said is that when you actually SAVE it, ( after editing etc ) then it looses some quality.

IS there any way in which i can prevent image degredation from repeated editing?


The idea i've been floating about is to create a copy of the image ( does this loose quality too? ) and then if i want to go back and change something i can use the original image to prevent quality loss..... What you guys think?

Cheers..
 
If you save any intermediate files as lossless files (e.g. .psd, .tiff etc) then you will only lose the original degradation (camera -> first in camera .jpg) until you do the final save to .jpg.
 
arad85 said:
If you save any intermediate files as lossless files (e.g. .psd, .tiff etc) then you will only lose the original degradation (camera -> first in camera .jpg) until you do the final save to .jpg.
Click to expand...

Sorry i'm a little confused...

So you are saying that i should save them as a losless file when i import them onto my computer?


how would i go about that?

Thanks for the response :)
 
Hmm.... so when i open up the folder on my computer ( of the memory card ) what should be my next step? save to computer then convert to .tiff?

Sorry i'm struggling to understand formats! lol
 
I think what Andy is saying is that once the jpeg is on your PC, load it into your favourite processing software (Photoshop, Elements, whatever), and immediately save it out in a format that doesn't degrade when it's saved. The Photoshop .psd format is a good choice. Do all the editing you need on the .psd and, when you're ready, save the final result as a .jpg.

And, yes, it's always a good idea to work on a copy of the original file. So, if you're working entirely with jpeg, make a copy of the file and work on that so that you can start from scratch if necessary.

If you can afford it, I would recommend Lightroom as a great way to process your photos. It can work with jpegs, .psd files, .tiff files, RAW files, etc, etc. It's quite intuitive and there are loads of tutorials on the web including video tutorials from Adobe themselves.
 
garryknight said:
I think what Andy is saying is that once the jpeg is on your PC, load it into your favourite processing software (Photoshop, Elements, whatever), and immediately save it out in a format that doesn't degrade when it's saved. The Photoshop .psd format is a good choice. Do all the editing you need on the .psd and, when you're ready, save the final result as a .jpg.

And, yes, it's always a good idea to work on a copy of the original file. So, if you're working entirely with jpeg, make a copy of the file and work on that so that you can start from scratch if necessary.

If you can afford it, I would recommend Lightroom as a great way to process your photos. It can work with jpegs, .psd files, .tiff files, RAW files, etc, etc. It's quite intuitive and there are loads of tutorials on the web including video tutorials from Adobe themselves.
Click to expand...

Thanks, i understand that now.

I think what i'll do is save from memory card onto pc as JPEG ( only optioN! ) then convert them to .tiff or another file type before i start working on them.

Only thing is though, because i'm doing rallying, from each card i can easily fill 900 shots..... and 10MB .tiff files quite easily eats up 9GB of my hard-drive lol... though i suppose those 900 will easily be reduced to 200/300...

Cheers
 
Hard drive space is cheap these days.... But yes - a 6Mb jpg may become a 30-70Mbyte tiff/psd file (depending on options etc..). Lightroom is non-destructive with jpgs. You don't need to do any conversions/saves as it takes the original file, converts to lossless and then manipulates...
 
Converting 900 photos to .tiff files is probably pointless, and a waste of time and drive space.

If you are just going to open each photo once, make some tweaks, and save once, then do not bother converting them all, it won't help anything.

Just open the JPEG, edit, and save. If saving as a JPEG, check that compression is not set too high when saving - save options.
 
I think i am going to stick with JPEG.

.... if i make a copy of the original JEPG's then i can use that to work on and so if i want to go back then i still have the original...?
 
WHat i've done is made a folder called.. ".... Original JPEGS not for editing " and another " ...Jpegs for editing ".....

I've read that copying the original file does not degrade quality. Hence, if i leave the original intact, i can copy away and edit them to hell and if i'm still not happy.. i can go back and grab another copy of the original.... sound like a plan?
 
Yes, but a cunning plan contrived by Blackadder's manservant Baldrick! :D

What I'd do is load a jpeg, edit it, then when it's finished save it out with a new name or to a new directory. That way the only ones that get duplicated are the ones you want to keep. Of course, if you want to edit all 900 files, then you could duplicate them all first...
 
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