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Donna L. Jones
 

Changing Multiple Photos to TIFFs


I have two questions:
1. How many times can you open and adjust a JPEG file without degrading the image?
2. Is there a quick way in PS CS4 or Lightroom 2 to change a group of images from JPEG to TIFF?


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July 05, 2010

 
- Gregory LaGrange

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  It's impossible to give a number because it also depends on the quality of the file when it was taken. And just that would include exposure concerns, lighting contrast, etc. Also, you would have to consider what you do to the file when you make adjustments.


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July 05, 2010

 

Donna L. Jones
  Thanks Gregory...is there a quick way to convert them to TIFF to protect them? Then I'd just save as JPEG to send to lab...


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July 05, 2010

 
- Gregory LaGrange

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  I'm not familiar with those two programs. Recent versions of photoshop should be able to handle that with batch processing, but somebody with those particular versions will probably come in soon.


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July 05, 2010

 

Pamela Njemanze
  I've used this to batch process in CS4.
File - Scripts - Image Processor - then in # 1 you want to select a folder or if you have all images open Use Open Images,
# 2
Select a folder you want to send them to, then
# 3 Select Save as Tiff for file size, then check the options if you want it resized (if you want it 800 pixels on the long side you could put 800 in both the W and H boxes and check the resize to fit box). Click Run and then all images you selected in step one are resized / saved as indicated in step 2's folder.
I use this to batch RAW files to JPEGS all the time and it works well.
You can also make an action, but I haven't done this yet and cannot offer any advise there.
Pam :)


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July 05, 2010

 

Donna L. Jones
  Thanks so much Pam! I'll give it a try!!
Donna


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July 05, 2010

 

Pamela Njemanze
  You're welcome!


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July 05, 2010

 

John Villinski
  Donna, Every time that you make a change in PS or another image editing software and then save the file as a jpg, you are going to degrade the image somewhat. And like Gregory says, it is hard to tell exactly how many times before you see the degradation yourself. If you start off with a jpg of quality 12 or 100%, then you may be ok for a while...

And if you are worried about quality, then I would not decrease the size of the image when you save as a tiff. When you save as a tiff, if your image is in 8-bit color, then you can compress it using LZW compression which is lossless so you can save is smaller w/o losing any quality.

Also understand that even with a tiff file, you can lose some quality when you make adjustments - you just have to watch your histograms to determine if you are, unless you are making your changes in layers (which you can do with tiff, but not jpg.

Good luck,
john


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July 20, 2010

 

Donna L. Jones
  Thank you John...I'm learning! You helped!
Donna


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July 20, 2010

 
- Greg McCroskery

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  Donna,

The real issue with Jpeg files is to make sure you never alter the original file. Whenever you do any adjusting to the original file, make sure you use the "Save As" command and save under a different file name -- that way your original file is not altered and remains your 'negative'.

I hardly ever shoot RAW, and I do this professionally -- I don't have any problems shooting Jpeg, but I always backup my original files, and they never get overwritten.

God Bless,
Greg


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July 20, 2010

 

Donna L. Jones
  Thank you Greg, that's what I've been doing, especially with clients files, so I'm glad to have the confirmation that it's a good way to do it!! God Bless you too! Donna


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July 20, 2010

 
- Kenneth De Pree

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  The first time you save the photo, click on the "save as" button, scroll down the list of alternatives, and click on .tiff. On Photoshop Elements 7 it is down near the bottom of the list. From then on, as you work on the photo more, every time you save the photo save as .tiff. Do not switch to .jpeg until the very end when you want to upload the photo.

As someone else mentioned, every time you save a photo as .jpeg it is going to degrade.

Try this and you will see for yourself. Load a photo and save it as .tiff. Then load the original photo and save it as .jpeg.

When you look at both of these photos in your image viewer, you will see that the the .jpeg image has less MB than the .tiff image. The .tiff image will be much closer to the original size than the .tiff. The difference is lost quality in the .jpeg image.


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July 20, 2010

 

Donna L. Jones
  Thank you Ken...great information! I appreciate the help! Donna


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July 20, 2010

 

Abigail Klinton
  Hello
For your second question:a quick way in PS CS4 or Lightroom 2 to change a group of images from JPEG to TIFF.I have some suggestion.You can convert jpeg to tiff files using a tiff convertor.That would make your work easy.
http://www.rasteredge.com/how-to/csharp-imaging/tiff-convert-jpeg/


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September 11, 2013

 

Richard Lynch
 
 
  The Image Processor Screen
The Image Processor Screen
A nifty little dialog built for batch conversions of files...

Richard Lynch

 
 
1. How many times can you open and adjust a JPEG file without degrading the image?

You should not open a file repeatedly as a JPEG and resave. As several have already mentioned, EVERY save will degrade the file -- it may not be obvious that the degradation includes the initial save on the camera. The choice for Quality when saving out of image processing will slow the degradation, but it will still happen. You might want to consider shooting in RAW. It is a better means of initial storage because you retain all the image information. If you find that inconvenient, there may be an option to shoot RAW & JPEG... But as Ken said, JPEG format should be your final save before uploading. JPEG also has the disadvantage of not saving layered corrections – which to me are essential to working with images – and dropping images to 8-bits... If you have a camera that shoots 10, 12, 14 bits, you are only coming out with 8 of those, and immediately that is a degradation in original image quality by 50% for EVERY BIT you lose. That is somewhat over-dramatic as a strict mathematical calculation... but you pay a lot for a nice camera to capture high quality, so it doesn't make sense to throw out detail that might come in handy later by throwing out 2 or 4 or 6 bits of information.

2. Is there a quick way in PS CS4 or Lightroom 2 to change a group of images from JPEG to TIFF?

The Image Processor, Batch processing and Actions would all be a way to do this. I don't know that I would bother getting additional software if you already have Photoshop (though Abigail's suggestion makes sense). Image Processor would be the easiest of these. Find it under File > Scripts > Image Processing. I'll try and upload a screen of the dialog here... It is perfect for converting a folder full of files to TIFF or PSD (or JPEG for that matter).

Batch, which would require recording an action, would be a little more difficult to apply if you don't already know about creating a simple action. However, knowing how to use Actions can be a valuable skill, and its worth learning. You can read up on creating Actions in Photoshop Help. I hope to have a course up in the coming months that includes a primer on working with actions.

I hope that helps!

Richard Lynch


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September 24, 2013

 
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