Stupid Newbie: Confused about where to copy/store photos

I'm a film shooter, I just got a Rebel.

The card is full, I'm staring at it. So I put the card in the reader, and open them... in what program? They're trying to open in Windows Photo and Fax Viewer.

I shot jpeg, will they lose quality when I move them from the card to the computer?

All will make a stop in Photoshop 7, where I can save them in non-lossy format. Will they lose quality moving the from the original spot to Photoshop?

Help a stupid newbie...I don't get this....

No, copying the files without opening them won't cost you any quality, nor will opening them in PhotoShop and saving in TIFF or Photoshop. It's only when you open and re-save a JPEG that there's additional compression causing loss of quality. Opening them in anything, as long as you don't re-save a JPEG, won't cost you any quality, nor will moving or copying an unopened file.

Simply copying them to your computer will not cause them to loose any quality at all - however, once you start editing them, and re-saving them, thats when the quality can start to fall. It's how you save them that is important.

If you are going to do any cumulative editting, save them as a photoshop .psd file (which is classed as "lossless") and only save them to a .jpg when you have finished, and only then if you need to.

TJ

Thanks so much. I'm happy with my first card, I don't want to screw them up.

Should I save them in My Pictures, or somewhere else? I have Irfanview. Photoshop Album?

Digital is the BOMB, but it's weird being a newbie. I keep petting my new camera. It's so puuurrrrty!

Where you save them's purely a matter of personal preference. However these things do multiply. Mine reside "permanently" on a 300 GB external drive.

I anticipate having a lot to store, also. I have an external drive, so Ill send them there.

So... it doesn't matter which software I choose to save them? Or is this a non-question, and I just don't get it?

You guys are great.

Saving them and indexing them aren't necessarily related. Most digital image management software will let you retrieve the info from whereever you may have the photos stored. But Irfanview, although I use it for a lot, isn't what I'd use for managing a lot of photos.

Hey, BTW how to send directly to different folders.
EG: At the momment, it saves directly to my C drives. But I want to change it to my D drives.
The objective is to be able to receive my pics and save it at automatically yo my D drives.

What are you using?

Windows XP

Just the XP Camera Wizard, or some other application, too?

Penyuijo... it's best to start another thread if you have a specific question, that way yours doesn't get lost inside someone elses. Anyway...

... or are you taking pics with your camera "tethered" to your computer, and are saving the pics "directly" to the computers hard drive?

Sorry to ask the question, but we need to get a better understanding o what you actualy need to know.

TJ