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Newbie questions about retaining quality of edited image


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yverox

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Questions about retaining quality of JPG image for editing

I have a JPG image that I want to edit with photoshop 7. I know that if I edit directly the JPG image and save again as new JPG image, the quality of the new saved image will be degraded. Experienced user know that because JPG is a lossy format.
I want to retain the quality of the edited image. Then I heard that the TIFF format is a lossless format that support compression.

I usually done this:
A. Let's say I have a JPG image that I want to edit, then I open the image and directly save it as a new TIFF image (with LZW compression).
B. Then I will do editing to the TIFF image.
C. After the editing TIFF image done, I will save it as a new copy of JPG image.
Note: Step C is only performed if I want to publish the image.

The questions:
1. Is the step A a correct step from the view of experienced user? I mean is this a step that I should do if I want to retain the quality of the want-to-edit image.
2. Does the LZW compression in TIFF give a quality loss in the image?
3. If I save a JPG image in TIFF format (with LZW compression), is there any quality loss (i.e., artifacts) in the saved TIFF image?


The next question is about saving the image as JPG in maximum quality for publishing.
Usually I choose these settings in the JPEG options:
* I choose "12" for the quality (the highest number).
* I choose "Baseline optimized" in the Format Options (There are 3 options available: Baseline ("Standard"), Baseline Optimized, and Progressive).

The questions:
- In save as dialog, there is "ICC Profile" checkbox. What is it used for? Does it affect the quality of the image? Should I check this option if I want to gain maximum quality image?
- Am I choose the correct option in the Format Options if I want to gain maximum quality image? What's difference of the three Format Options? What should I choose if I want to gain maximum quality of the JPG image?
- Is there any other factor that I must consider if I want to gain the maximum quality of the JPG image?


Sorry, if my english is very confusing since I'm not english speaker.
Thanks in the advance.
 
Last edited:
What's the DPI of the original image? That will have a lot to do with the quality at which you can save. TIFF's are good but their file size is massive.

How are you looking to use the image after you've saved it? Online, print, etc?
 
What's the DPI of the original image? That will have a lot to do with the quality at which you can save. TIFF's are good but their file size is massive.
Click to expand...
How to find out the DPI? But I don't think my question is related to DPI.
TIFF supports LZW compression. Do you know other lossless format that has better compression than TIFF+LZW?

How are you looking to use the image after you've saved it? Online, print, etc?
Click to expand...
For home use.

I think my first post is too long and complex, I will retry with shorter version:

I got a JPG file (assume it's a photo image and I just got it from Internet), then I decide to edit it (the editing is just a simple editing like do some healing brush, etc).

I used to open the JPG file, edit it, and then save again (as JPG too) after done editing. As you know the problem with this way is: JPG is a lossy and the quality of the new saved image had been degraded (artifacts showed, etc). Even if people said to save the JPG with maximum quality settings, there are informations loss. Not to mention if I want to make a change again to the saved image, but since the saved image has been degraded in the term of quality, this is not acceptable for me, so I can't continue again from the saved image and I must re-edit again from the original JPG file.

Then I found out about lossless format like TIFF, BMP, PNG, etc. I decide to use TIFF since it supports compression. Then my work flow is changed like this:
I open the JPG file, then directly save it as TIFF image first (with LZW compression). Then I will do the editing to the TIFF file. With the TIFF as a lossless format, I can open and save the TIFF image file many times without lossing data informations.
If I want to publish my work to the web, I will export it to JPG, but I will still keep the TIFF as a backup.

Now the question:
"I open the JPG file, then directly save it as TIFF image first".
Is this act would make the saved TIFF image losing quality or information from the original JPG? Just answer with Yes or No.

If the answer is Yes, what's the other method that I should use to achieve my goal?
 
Why don't you save as PSD file?? That's what it's for and that's how every serious professional works!
Click to expand...
Like I said before, TIFF supports compression, PSD doesn't. I have a space issue, so I opt for a compressed format. Btw, they both are lossless format, right?

Could you tell me what's the advantage of PSD over TIFF?
And what's difference between PSD and BMP?
 
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