Saving Your Photos

I was just curious how everyone goes about saving their pictures. The way I do it just seems like it isn't the best way. I save all of my originals in a folder, and within that folder I have many resized(600x400) and edited photos with frames in it. I do not keep a copy of the full sized photo that has been edited before resizing. I feel as if that isn't the best thing to do. Do you save the original, edited/full size, and edited/resized(as photoshop file) as seperate files, or do you simply save the original and the resized image? I think I am going to start saving three seperate files for each photo I edit, in case I need to reference back to it in the future. I was just curious to see what exactly everyone does, as it might help me in my organization.

-Seth

Yes, except I don't save very many resized image files.

RAW files are archived off in one direction. TIF files are the main source for most of everything I do, and they are archived off in a different direction. Few JPEGs. I print directly from the TIF files without any sort of resampling or resizing.

In a few cases when I am after large prints, I do some up-resampling to the TIF, and I keep the same file name base, but with a specific size appended to the filename, e.g. IMAGE0123.TIF and IMAGE0123_13x19.TIF. I only take this step when I know I am going to be printing out a number of that image at that specific print size.

In some cases, the files are going outside, either on CD-R or via Internet. In those cases, they are generally JPEG. JPEG for the web, of course, but that is all small stuff.

---Bob Gross---

I download the files from my camera to an "Originals" directory, and then delete the really bad ones that I would never use. Once this has been done, I then copy the remaining files to my main photo directory and work on these ones. I don't resize at all unless I'm specifically wanting to crop. Any photos that I resize (dimension and size) for posting here are created in a separate temporary directory for uploading. If I'm doing a complex Photoshop photo, then I'll also save a copy of the PSD file, but normally I'll just adjust a photo and save the file with its original name.

As to backups, I take DVD backups of the originals directories, and two rotating backups of my main photo directories. One backup copy is kept at work, and one at home. I also have a removable drive for my PC that I regularly insert and create a drive image of my main drive.

Is there a convenient way to convert the *.jpg files off of my cf card to *.tiff at the same time, without having to open up each one and "save as" in Photoshop?

I've got Photoshop Elements 3 which has a "Process Multiple Files" option that lets you select source and destination options along with an option to convert file types. I would have thought that this sort of batch conversion will be available in Photoshop too.

What menu is it under in Elements?

Its under the File menu about two thirds of the way down.

You are shooting RAW, aren't you?

---Bob Gross---

You would have MUCH better originals (far more detail quality and editing capability) if you save them as RAW in the camera. Convert the RAW files to .TIF or .PSD for editing, then save as .JPG for final output if you wish.

I've been shooting jpg, but tried raw a couple of times and it saved two seperate files to my memory card for each photo. I may start shooting raw and try my hand at editing them.