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Does using "save as" reduce original pic image quality?

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angela37564

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This is probably a dumb question but after touching up my original in PS6 I usually hit "save as" then rename the picture. Does this change the image quality of my original picture in any way? If it does change my original what would be a way to work off the original & not have picture image quality affected.
 
angela said:
This is probably a dumb question but after touching up my original
in PS6 I usually hit "save as" then rename the picture. Does this
change the image quality of my original picture in any way? If it
does change my original what would be a way to work off the
original & not have picture image quality affected.
Click to expand...
That won't change the original, but I would recommend making a copy of the original first & working on the copy. It is far too easy to hit the "save" by accident when you meant to hit "save as"(I know, its happened to me)
 
angela said:
This is probably a dumb question but after touching up my original
in PS6 I usually hit "save as" then rename the picture. Does this
change the image quality of my original picture in any way? If it
does change my original what would be a way to work off the
original & not have picture image quality affected.
Click to expand...
Your original is not affected as the "save as" creates another file and writes to it. No writing is done to your original; it's used only once, at the beginning to read data into your workspace.

Usually the first thing I do when editing a file is "save as" immediately after opening it - later on, if I absent-mindedly use regular "save", the original is protected from being written over.
 
Not a dumb question at all. Previous posts give you good answers. I would suggest going a step (or two) farther.

Make sure you have a 'system' that preserves your originals.

For example place them in an 'Unburned' folder until you have enough to burn to CDs (store a CD far from your computer - theft/fire/etc.).

Set the properties of your unburned images to 'write protected'. Then you won't be able to modify them accidently.
 
I want to thank all of you for answering my question and for the words of wisdom, I will definitely put the originals on cd :-)
BobTrips said:
Not a dumb question at all. Previous posts give you good answers.
I would suggest going a step (or two) farther.

Make sure you have a 'system' that preserves your originals.

For example place them in an 'Unburned' folder until you have
enough to burn to CDs (store a CD far from your computer -
theft/fire/etc.).

Set the properties of your unburned images to 'write protected'.
Then you won't be able to modify them accidently.
Click to expand...
 
One more pedantic point that must be said.

After choosing "save as" you must type in a different file name, NOT the original name, and thus create a new file, as the others assumed.

However if you "save as" and then type in the original file name you will overwrite (and thus change) the original file.

-bruce
angela said:
BobTrips said:
Not a dumb question at all. Previous posts give you good answers.
I would suggest going a step (or two) farther.

Make sure you have a 'system' that preserves your originals.

For example place them in an 'Unburned' folder until you have
enough to burn to CDs (store a CD far from your computer -
theft/fire/etc.).

Set the properties of your unburned images to 'write protected'.
Then you won't be able to modify them accidently.
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
 
Yes, I do change the name of it, great point though.
bruce komusin said:
After choosing "save as" you must type in a different file name,
NOT the original name, and thus create a new file, as the others
assumed.

However if you "save as" and then type in the original file name
you will overwrite (and thus change) the original file.

-bruce
angela said:
BobTrips said:
Not a dumb question at all. Previous posts give you good answers.
I would suggest going a step (or two) farther.

Make sure you have a 'system' that preserves your originals.

For example place them in an 'Unburned' folder until you have
enough to burn to CDs (store a CD far from your computer -
theft/fire/etc.).

Set the properties of your unburned images to 'write protected'.
Then you won't be able to modify them accidently.
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
 
I forgot: I actually use "save a copy" - which adds "copy" to the end of the filename, making it a little safer than "save as".
angela said:
bruce komusin said:
One more pedantic point that must be said.

After choosing "save as" you must type in a different file name,
NOT the original name, and thus create a new file, as the others
assumed.

However if you "save as" and then type in the original file name
you will overwrite (and thus change) the original file.

-bruce
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
 
inless its in another folder then you may have the same name

Eli
bruce komusin said:
After choosing "save as" you must type in a different file name,
NOT the original name, and thus create a new file, as the others
assumed.

However if you "save as" and then type in the original file name
you will overwrite (and thus change) the original file.

-bruce
angela said:
BobTrips said:
Not a dumb question at all. Previous posts give you good answers.
I would suggest going a step (or two) farther.

Make sure you have a 'system' that preserves your originals.

For example place them in an 'Unburned' folder until you have
enough to burn to CDs (store a CD far from your computer -
theft/fire/etc.).

Set the properties of your unburned images to 'write protected'.
Then you won't be able to modify them accidently.
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
 
Great points - thanks to all - in Paint Shop Pro, I removed the "save" button from my toolbar and replaced it with a "save as" button - just one more precaution as sometimes the mouse is faster than the mind.
Cheers - Eugene
angela said:
WH Yi said:
I forgot: I actually use "save a copy" - which adds "copy" to the
end of the filename, making it a little safer than "save as".
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
 
angela said:
This is probably a dumb question but after touching up my original
in PS6 I usually hit "save as" then rename the picture. Does this
change the image quality of my original picture in any way? If it
does change my original what would be a way to work off the
original & not have picture image quality affected.
Click to expand...
Well blow me down, all those people saying it doesn't affect the quality.

If you are working on a JPEG (or anything else for that matter) and 'save as' JPEG then depending on your program settings you might find your quality dramatically reduced. If your JPEG losses are set to zero, all will be well. But not all programs have automatic zero loss settings.
Chris Beney
 
BobTrips said:
Member said:
Member said:
Does this
change the image quality of my original picture in any way? If it
does change my original what would be a way to work off the
original & not have picture image quality affected.
Click to expand...
Well blow me down, all those people saying it doesn't affect the
quality.
Click to expand...
then you will note the word 'original' in the question. :)
Click to expand...
I assumed he meant "does it affect the quality compared with the original quality?". I accept that grammatically the effect on the actual original file could have been meant, but can't see how anyone might think that would be altered by saving as another file name.
But then who knows?
Chris Beney
 
I also may need new glasses. I read the question at first as asking whether there was any difference in quality between an image "saved as" and one simply "saved." I would suppose not, right?

Lance
Chris Beney said:
BobTrips said:
Chris Beney said:
Chris Beney said:
Does this
change the image quality of my original picture in any way? If it
does change my original what would be a way to work off the
original & not have picture image quality affected.
Click to expand...
Well blow me down, all those people saying it doesn't affect the
quality.
Click to expand...
then you will note the word 'original' in the question. :)
Click to expand...
I assumed he meant "does it affect the quality compared with the
original quality?". I accept that grammatically the effect on the
actual original file could have been meant, but can't see how
anyone might think that would be altered by saving as another file
name.
But then who knows?
Chris Beney
Click to expand...
 
Where do you check to see what your JPEG losses are set to?
Chris Beney said:
angela said:
This is probably a dumb question but after touching up my original
in PS6 I usually hit "save as" then rename the picture. Does this
change the image quality of my original picture in any way? If it
does change my original what would be a way to work off the
original & not have picture image quality affected.
Click to expand...
Well blow me down, all those people saying it doesn't affect the
quality.
If you are working on a JPEG (or anything else for that matter) and
'save as' JPEG then depending on your program settings you might
find your quality dramatically reduced. If your JPEG losses are set
to zero, all will be well. But not all programs have automatic zero
loss settings.
Chris Beney
Click to expand...
 
angela said:
Chris Beney said:
If you are working on a JPEG (or anything else for that matter) and
'save as' JPEG then depending on your program settings you might
find your quality dramatically reduced. If your JPEG losses are set
to zero, all will be well. But not all programs have automatic zero
loss settings.
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
Good question. You can check whether it changes by looking in Windows Explorer at the sizes of the two files. But to find what the settings are is more variable. It very much depends on the software you are using.

I mostly use Corel PhotoPaint (9 or 10) and, when you do 'save as', it asks you the question or more precisely it opens a little screen where you can set the percentage and at the same time see a preview of the effect of that particular compression level (a super feature). The only danger is that it seems to remember the last setting so you can't just press 'enter' when 'saving as', you have to check it is at zero compression.

I tried Microsoft Image Composer just now on a file and it didn't seem to give any option for setting the compression. The file size went from 2Mbyte to 760KByte: about one third the size, clearly compressed to the lossy stage (the original was from the G1, which is of course already somewhat compressed).

I then tried ZoomBrowser. The file size went from the original 2Mbyte to 62K: 30 times smaller! There were some options presented on the way, I took the defaults which were 7 by 5 inches 72 dots per inch 'quality' 80. Quality went from 0 to 100 so was probably some sort of compression measure. 7 by 5 by 72 dpi sounds like an e-mail picture default setting. Resampling to such a size loses quality independently of the JPG compression, though in a different way.

I don't have Photoshop, but from the threads on this site people get quite confused about file size and quality; I expect Corel users and others do too. Your thread was interesting in that it addressed the question of losses that may arise when you are taking a copy under a different name for safety.

The final answer has to be get to understand how your software deals with saving JPEG files, and if it doesn't give you control then change the software. The ZoomBrowser album program PhotoRecord allows you to say which photoeditor you want to use from within it so.
Chris Beney
 
My last message, instead of the final word 'so' should have read "..so you keep the seamless editing features of Zoombrowser/Photorecord intact."
cb
 
Thanks alot Chris, I appreciate the help.

I'm totally paranoid about this kind of thing because I was using Microsoft Picture It about a year ago & after touching up a bunch of photos I found out that its auto compression setting was very lossy and to change it you would have to remember to do it every time which was a total hassle & not very easy because it was in a totally seperate screen that you had to bring up. These were my true beginner days too where I copied over my originals (duh). I really do not understand why these programs have these awful automatic settings, who would ever want it set that way, it totally ruins the picture.
Chris Beney said:
My last message, instead of the final word 'so' should have read
"..so you keep the seamless editing features of
Zoombrowser/Photorecord intact."
cb
Click to expand...
 
Photoshop 5.5 and 6.0 shows a window where JPEG degrees of compression can be set. For a (practically) lossless compression, choose 10-Maximum
Chris Beney said:
angela said:
Chris Beney said:
If you are working on a JPEG (or anything else for that matter) and
'save as' JPEG then depending on your program settings you might
find your quality dramatically reduced. If your JPEG losses are set
to zero, all will be well. But not all programs have automatic zero
loss settings.
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
Good question. You can check whether it changes by looking in
Windows Explorer at the sizes of the two files. But to find what
the settings are is more variable. It very much depends on the
software you are using.
I mostly use Corel PhotoPaint (9 or 10) and, when you do 'save as',
it asks you the question or more precisely it opens a little screen
where you can set the percentage and at the same time see a preview
of the effect of that particular compression level (a super
feature). The only danger is that it seems to remember the last
setting so you can't just press 'enter' when 'saving as', you have
to check it is at zero compression.
I tried Microsoft Image Composer just now on a file and it didn't
seem to give any option for setting the compression. The file size
went from 2Mbyte to 760KByte: about one third the size, clearly
compressed to the lossy stage (the original was from the G1, which
is of course already somewhat compressed).
I then tried ZoomBrowser. The file size went from the original
2Mbyte to 62K: 30 times smaller! There were some options presented
on the way, I took the defaults which were 7 by 5 inches 72 dots
per inch 'quality' 80. Quality went from 0 to 100 so was probably
some sort of compression measure. 7 by 5 by 72 dpi sounds like an
e-mail picture default setting. Resampling to such a size loses
quality independently of the JPG compression, though in a different
way.
I don't have Photoshop, but from the threads on this site people
get quite confused about file size and quality; I expect Corel
users and others do too. Your thread was interesting in that it
addressed the question of losses that may arise when you are taking
a copy under a different name for safety.
The final answer has to be get to understand how your software
deals with saving JPEG files, and if it doesn't give you control
then change the software. The ZoomBrowser album program PhotoRecord
allows you to say which photoeditor you want to use from within it
so.
Chris Beney
Click to expand...
 
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