saving files for customers

I have some photos that I need to send to a customer so they can choose which ones they want me to edit. My dilemma is, I read that apparently every time you resave a photo as a .jpg it supposedly loses more quality. So if I do some general fixes (red eye, watermark etc) for the customer, do I save as a jpg for them and keep the original in another format eg. tiff? If so, what format do I keep them in for re-editing without losing quality?

Thank you for your help!

No RAW files? Keep an original Jpeg, and edit, and save as another file name. Try to always keep an "original". If you do that, you can always edit the original, vs editing the edited picture.

No RAW files. So when I edit the photo, I should do everything to it that I want to do before I ever save it?

Can you tell me what dpi I should be saving it as so the customer can print themselves? And dimensions of the photo? These are wedding photos I took for a friend, and they will be printing themselves.

dimensions of a photo vary, and they will have to pay the price for it. a 4x6 is different than an 8x 10. I would keep all photos the same orientation, and let them choose when printing how they would like to change it.

I leave DPI at 300 (when converting from raw) on my 7D Depends on the cameras resolution.

Here is what I am talking about.
I got a photo "img_1000". Its unedited. I do some editing for presentation (I "save as" "img_1000wed"). Your client/friend chooses that same photo as part of the package, but they want selective coloring, so I would load the original "img_1000" and edit it accordingly, and save as another file name, into a separate folder that I will be giving them.

That's just how I work, and you will find your own method in time. But hoepfully this will give you an idea.

Ok, that helps a lot. It's a 12.1 mp SLR XSI. They were taken at highest quality pictures that are NOT Raw. Would you still say 300 dpi? Why not 600? Also, when I change the dpi to 300, the picture size changes to around 11 x 14, whereas with 600 it's around 5 x 7

So NOW, lol, they decide which pics they want, and when I'm sending them the final pic, should it be jpg or tiff? If they go to print the picture, and it's not exactly 5 x 7, will they lose some of the photo in the printing?

I'm a videographer by trade, so this is all very foreign to me! Thank you again for your help!

Why 600DPI? You can if you want. But I'm telling you what I do. The DPI isn't going keep them from printing larger prints. If you set it up for 600dpi, your not adding any new information that wasn;'t already there at say 300 dpi. Your essentially just digitally enlarging it.

Sending final pic, most peopel don't even know what TIF is. TIF is a "RAW" version of jpg, They don't need it, not to mention the size is incredible (filespace wise).

And yes, they will lose portions of the picture depending on the scaling they choose to prnt with.

AND no problem. Hope this is helping.

Why 600 dpi? I have no idea, it just sounds better.

So the settings for photo size should just be kept at what they are when I download the camera? Not change them to 5x7 or anything else?

Thank you AGAIN so much for your help.

If you change to a different aspect ratio, you will have to crop your image. the reason I recommend against that, it will create a back and forth issue between you and the client. "I want this in 11x14, and this by 5x7, and this 3x5" It's more work for you in the long run.

And they will still be able to print to any size if I leave it this way? That's my main concern.

fallenangelmc666 wrote in post #10446724
Why 600 dpi? I have no idea, it just sounds better.

ppi info in the file doesn't matter one bit.

ppi = pixels per inch = number of pixels / size in inches.

a file that is 5x7" at 600 ppi has the exact same pixels as a 10x14" at 300ppi.

You can print both equally big. (about 10x14" at good quality, any size you like if you have realistic expectations quality wise. I'd say a 20x28 would come out quite decent)

Thank you for the information. Sometimes I overthink details when it's not necessary.

Karen