Am I losing info and quality doing this?

[ronald_moravec1]

When opening a new pic, "save as" and add a suffix to distinguish it from the original. You will never destroy the original and you can go back at some future time and re-edit it.

[ken dennis]

When I do a save as, if the photo is numbered for example DSCF6420, I save it with an extra integer that keeps it associated with but distinguishes it apart like DSCF6420.1, in this way, I can still recognize the image number and now I have the original and a copy!

[bart1963]

Better yet... always, AWAYS make a second copy of all original files and place them under an "ARCHIVE" directory on a separate hard drive. Then, whenever you get enough to fill up a DVD (or CD if you prefer) back them up onto that. I make a second DVD and send them to a relatives house that way if my house (heaven forbid) were to burn down , get hit by a tornado or anything like that... I've got a backup to my backup.

 

I would recommend that people invest in smaller (cheaper) external hard drives and keep their backup on them. Once full stuff them away and do not use them (except once every 6 months or so access them to keep the drive from sitting too long), that way there is much less chance of a crash. I would also recommend that people make a plan to transfer them to a new drive every 5 to 7 years.

 

It's a little extra effort, but it's better than loosing your images.

[andrew_sacco]

I'm somewhat clueless, and hope my workflow is not degrading my images. I have

(had until it died) a 50GB hard drive that held all my photos. I would

transfer photos off my card reader to the C: drive, edit them, rank them...etc

into the "My Pictures" folder. Then I would take that entire folder and right

click, and send it to the external 250GB backup HD. When asked if I wanted to

replace photos I always said "yes to all". Frequently there were edits and

changes to older images as I hopscotched all over the place and printed older

photos. I figured I was just overwriting and appending that way, as there is

no way to "append" that I'm aware of. I'm not opening files and resaving, so I

didn't think that I was losing any data. Now that I'm moving shortly to a new

computer (another post I've put up)I want to make sure I'm doing this

efficiently. Thanks.

[andrew_sacco]

Thanks for your help. So, copy every original, save it to an archive, then append the *save as* files to distinguish them. Jeepers, no wonder we burn through so much hard disc space so quickly.

[patricklavoie]

So basically your questions is " Do i lose quality or info by moving file from hard drive to another?" answer is no.

[r_johnston]

FIRST, daily, I copy all originals from the CF card, to a DVD or CD...

DVD's are getting cheaper, CD'S have been cheap for a decade. We buy them in bulk, 100 at a time, from Internet wholesalers is the cheapest.

 

It is cheaper to store them on this media, and you never lose originals.

 

IF you have your originals on a HD, and copy from one drive to the next, if the copied file has been modified for any reason, and _replace_ all, you lose the original. IF you modify a photo say for the web, it gets changed to a smaller size, and 72 pixels instead of 300... You lose a lot of quality. You cant get a good print, from less than 150 pixels per inch, and you cant get really good prints from less than 50-300 pixels. When I print, I have the printer print at 4800 pixels per inch. Photoshop is set to do that automatically...

 

After saving the originals to DVD's, then I may crop, adjust color, sharpness, etc that I want for my best setting for that image. Than, I burn a CD or DVD with the modified images. Then, burn one for each of my five children. They burn copies for my 17 grandchildren.

 

ONLY then do I change sizes or make any mod's for WEB, etc.

 

IF I make copies for WEB, which I may use later, I burn them to a CD.

Have Notebooks which hold 300 DVD's, organized into categories. Originals, Modified, and WEB, so can find most anything needed.

 

Also have scanned all my negatives and slides for decades, and burned them to DVD's... The time it took to get all my images, 71 years of photos, is much more expensive than it is to protect them......

[andrew_sacco]

Goodness Robert, what a task. I'm still so confused about what workflow works for me. But you're to be commended as you're obviously leaving something behind for your family to cherish for years to come.