At what file size/format/resolution do you STORE your images?

[alvanylander]

Hi

I'm having trouble deciding how large certain images i store on my computer should be. Mostly I just store them at their best quality BUT as jpg:s or sometimes png:s. I'm only teenager now but i'm getting really serious about graphic design. I've already had a few gigs but i'm still only self taught so i'm applying to art schools with visual communication programs for fall, i'm currently taking a graphic design class full time at the university in my hometown but it's very, very basic and i already know everything they've gone through from sitting at home and watching youtube tutorials and experimenting in the different adobe programs.

Anyways, I've done a lot of photography and I don't know if i'm doing what i should be doing when I'm storing all the images cause I do not save the CR2 files. I usually edit them than save jpg:s with the least amount of quality loss i can. I can often in my current work, fin use for my old photography. This can often mean more editing on the old images though so should i be saving the CR2 files or is that unneccerasy? I don't that the images suffer that much but i am working on a small macbook pro and have rarely made actual prints. I've been trying to find an answer to which resolution i should save my images in but i only read about what you should be saving them at if you have a specific purpose, which I don't. I just know that I might end up using the images in future art and/or work. 

Another question i have is more specific and is about a scanned image i currently have that has 1000 pixels per inch and is about 8500 px x 11500 px is which is crazy and i do not need it to be that large. It's for a poster assignment to an application portfolio for a highly considered art school. It has fine details in it like fingerprints and dirt that i don't want to loose though and it's a very cool picture I might want to use in something else in the future, so i still want it to have really high resolution. I'm wondering if there's any use saving it in more than 300 ppi, it seems lika a standard resolution. In what scenarios could you want it to be more than that?

What do you do when you store images you might want to use in the future for work and/or art?

[c.pfaffenbichler]

I recommend you store the RAW files and save the layered images at full resolution as psd (or if necessary psb).

jpg employs lossy compression, so even if you do not want to save the layers saving tif with a non-lossy compression like LZW or ZIP would seem preferable.

In what scenarios could you want it to be more than that?

An image’s resolution is barely meaningful in itself from a prepress perspective, its effective resolution is what counts – photographers often can have no idea what part of an image the graphic designers/customers will ultimately use and at what sizes, so shooting images at higher resolution can have a pay off in the long run.

And if one prepares files for large format prints one may create them at a scale of 1:10 for example and depending on the process the images should have a resolution of considerably higher than 300ppi at that scale.

[D Fosse]

I do not save the CR2 files. I usually edit them than save jpg:s with the least amount of quality loss i can

Whoa. Stop right there...

Never delete raw files (aside from out-of-focus and other unusable mistakes). A big chunk of data is lost in the conversion into a rendered RGB file, which can never be recovered later. A raw file is the full set of data recorded by the sensor at exposure time, no less. It's your negative, from which you produce copies as needed.

Never use jpeg as your working/archive format. Use PSD or TIFF. Jpeg is a highly compressed, lossy and destructive file format, and information is irretrievably lost every time you resave the file. The destruction is cumulative and with time the file turns to mush. The purpose of jpeg is as a one-off final delivery format, to save bandwidth where that's a consideration.

Always archive files at maximum resolution. Save out copies at lower resolution as appropriate. 8500 x 11500 is a big file, but there's nothing "crazy" about it. You never know what you need in the future.

[Trevor.Dennis]

D Fosse wrote:

I do not save the CR2 files. I usually edit them than save jpg:s with the least amount of quality loss i can

Whoa. Stop right there...

I remember when PV2012 was released, and I revisted some very old RAW files from my 30D, and was getting way more out of them.  It is almost hard to believe thinking back to the horrendous Shadow/Highlight feature that is making me cringe as I type this just thinking about it.  Since then we have had the ability to work on 32bit  HDR files directly in ACR which was a real game changer — I have not even looked at Photomatix since!

It is probably a big ask to expect such dramatic leaps in image quality going forward, but one thing is for sure, if you don't still have the RAW files, you'll not be able to take advantage.  If you are too stingy to expand your storage capabilities, then go through and delete the dross.  If you only ever show people your best 1%, then they are going to think you only take great pictures.

[alvanylander]

Thank you for your answer! yeah i kinda figured about the raw file, i just thought i'd ask since i barely see a difference on my laptop and i know images get destroyed everytime you save as jpg. What i've been doing now though is not resaving and resaving, if i find a use of the jpg image i have stored somewhere on my computer or external hard drive, i save it as a psd. But i get that it's not the ideal way of doing things.

I do save some of my work as psd:s from the start but it's only my best stuff. If I have a bunch of images, say a hundred, with no specific purpose, that's when i've been saving them as jpgs or pngs after they've been edited in camera raw to my liking (though furter editing if i find a purpose for the image is often needed:/). I will in the future just save all of it, gotta start getting more serious about this. I've been fine up til now but it's got to come back and bite me someday.

[alvanylander]

about the 8400 x 11500 px psd with 1000 ppi (which btw also have a 16-bit color depth); it weighs 1,51 GB. Is that unreasonable or should i be storing it like that, it's bigger than most movies you download. Are there other factors that are making it that big, i know stuff like previews in finder etc. can increase file size. What measurements should i take to decrease the file size if i don't want it to loose it's quality.

[D Fosse]

I'd just keep it. You cannot increase resolution later if needed.

However:

Film scans are a special case - if they come from a flatbed (desktop) scanner. This is because flatbed scanners, unlike camera sensors, never deliver the advertised optical resolution. You get the number of pixels, but not the actual detail. Professional drum scanners or dedicated film scanners are a different story.

Another regular forum member, Per Berntsen, did some tests on this with a high-end Epson (V700 or 750). He'll probably come in with the actual results, but bottom line is that effective resolution is around 3500 pixels long edge from a 35mm frame - a very long way from the advertised resolution.

[davescm]

Hi

Always store your Raw files - as others have said conversions get better as time moves on and Raw convertors improve. Raw files are usually 12 bit or 14 bit so even without taking into account jpeg compression, using the 8 bits of jpeg you throw away a lot of information.

For images where I have done some pixel editing, I store a 16 bit PSD copy with layers but without a resolution change (up or down) and without final sharpening. That way I can scale up or down in the future then sharpen for output, whatever that might be.

Dave