Advice needed

[Eve]

My Kodak software saves my photos as jpegs. I burn most of them to cd in that format. I know Tiff files take up heaps more space but I am wondering if it is better to convert and save 'good' originals in this format as I seem to remember reading somewhere that jpegs deteriorate somewhat each time you open and alter them.

[Just Rachel]

Jpegs do deteriorate when they are compressed repeatedly. I don't believe tiffs do, but I'm not certain!

[mfarley]

By definition any image format that gets compressed and saved is of lesser 'quality'*. SO if you compress an already compressed file it will be even less quality be it .png, .gif, .jpg, and so on.

*The reason I quote quality here is because one can actually sharpen the image and give it less file size if one knows what their doing. I always keep a master dvd of tiff files and a copy of the master cd and a clone of the drive containing the images in case all hell breaks loose. =) These are my memories --my life so I will certainly go to great lengths to keep them intact.

Jpeg is a loss format and tiff is a loss-less format. Sure they are huge files but it's worth it.

That's just my opinion. :)

[Eve]

:)Thanks both of you. Guess I will start 'tiffing'. I have definately noticed that some of my older pics which have been looked at repeatedly are not as good as they originally were. I suppose there is not much point in converting those I already have as the damage has been done. I guess it would prevent any further loss though.Decisions Decisions!
When printing, do you get a better result printing from a tiff file?

[johng]

Eve,
If you save the images direct from your camera to say a cd then that is all you need to do, no need to convert to tif. Then when you want to work on an image you just open up your cd and make a copy of the original image and work on that. Do all the editing and just save it once and you should not notice any loss in quality, but keep the image convert quality at 100% if going back to jpg.
By the way just looking at the images should not deteriorate the quality at all, it is only the saving action that does that. Its the repeated compressions that cause removal of data.
I first convert the images I want to work on to the psp lossless format, and then only when I am satisfied do a one and only Save.
John

[Eve]

Thanks John, I will have to have a look but I dont think I can save the images direct to cd. My camera has the Easyshare dock thing and I just press the button and it shows them in the photo software where I can adjust each one or print from there. At the same time it automatically saves them in the Kodak Pictures folder.

[Muzz]

Eve, I do all of my work in bitmap form then save the final production. There is an option in PSP that corrects some jpeg compression loss, I haven't used it much. Anyone else?