Photo Quality Loss

[Guest]

Hullo. I'm wondering if someone can give me the final word on the
degradation of quality in photo's as they are moved and/or copied from place
to place on a hard drive and/or across various media. I understand that the
best way to shoot is as high in quality as the situation will allow, which is
generally what I do. I don't remember what compelled me to always use jpegs,
but I do. So while I realize I probably should be shooting in TIFF, I always
shoot in jpeg at as high a resolution as possible, and I'm told I shoot
higher than neccesary even in jpeg (I have an 8mp camera). I intend at some
point, to print, mat and frame, and with any luck at all market some of what
I have done. So my questions are along the lines of how best to preseve what
I have and be able to work with them without loseing their photo quality. So
I constantly end up asking myself and worrying about:
1. How much is lost when 'copying' to somewhere on the same computer?
2. How much is lost when 'moving' to somewhere on the same computer?
3. How much is lost when copying to a CD?
4. How much is lost when moving or copying to somewhere on a different
computer?
Please understand that I'm not asking for exact numbers in any of this.
What I would like to do is this:
I would like to keep the highest quality possible hard copies of what I
have to keep safe OFF of two computers. These will go in a safe or something.
I would like to keep the highest quality possible of what I have ON the
hard drives of two computers.
So I guess what I'm asking for is this:
What is the best way to move and/or copy and preserve photos without quality
loss?
Thanks much for your attention. I apologize if I went on bit much. I blame
coffee. Sincerely,
Chris Pierre

 

[John Inzer]

Final word? Can there really be a final word
when computers are involved?

It's true that the pros generally save their
archival image files in the TIFF or possibly
PNG formats.

However...copying is not when the loss
occurs when using the JPEG format. The
loss occurs when you open / edit and resave.

Have a look at the following article:

JPEG Myths and Facts
http://graphicssoft.about.com/od/formatsjpeg/a/jpegmythsfacts.htm

--

John Inzer
MS Picture It! MVP
How to ask a newsgroup question:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/555375

 

[Yves Alarie]

Answers to your questions.
Absolutely NOTHING is loss (degradation) when you:
1. Copy the file to any other folder on your computer
2. Move the file anywhere on your computer
3. Copy a file to a CD
4. Move or copy a file to a different computer

With jpegs, degradation will occur when you edit the file and you "Save as"
and give the file another name to save your changes, or you "Save" and
overwrite the original file with the changes you made.
However, with an 8 MP camera and saving jpg at the highest resolution
possible, the idea that you will see degradation on a print as large as 8 x
10 by "Save as" three or four times is simply nonsense. If you want to print
much larger, then use a different software to edit your photos.
You can use something like Adobe Photoshop Elements 3 or Microsoft Digital
Image Suite 2006. Both will let you open a jpg file, edit the file as many
times as you want and each time you save it you save it as an "intermediate
file" (psd or png) and when you finish you save the file as jpg and then
print.

The other way around is to open the jpg file in the editing software you
have and Save as and select TIFF for the file format. This is not going to
improve your jpg file. However you can now edit the TIFF file and Save as,
as many times as you want with no danger of degradation.

Shooting in TIFF with your camera is a high price to pay. Large files and
SLOW to save the file to your memory card. At 8 MP, there would be no
visible difference on a print as large as 16 x 20, and after this it would
really depend on the quality of the printer you have and the software you
use to print.

If you are new into this, a very good site to consult would be:
http://www.luminous-landscape.com/
There is a lot more to "quality" prints than shooting in jpg or TIFF or RAW.
But your questions are fine and I hope I answered them and the number I gave
you is exact: absolute zero degradation.