Processing/Compression mode questions

[Zebra mussel]

Hello....New member here!..I have a couple basic questions I could use some advice on. 1) After my pics are saved in my computer as JPEG,am I correct in assuming that I should save them as a TIFF file before I do any Photoshop processing on them? 2)If this assumption is valid, can I change them to a Bit Map instead of a TIFF?...Does it matter? 3) Is the loss of quality done to a JPEG by manipulating it, really significant...can you really tell the differance or is it hypothetical? 4) I know this question is somewhat camera specific,but...How many fewer pics will I get by shooting RAW vs. the highest quality JPEG? (Lets use the Oly c 5050 as an example). If I can get 50 highest quality JPEGs,how many RAW pics can I get? 5) What additional features do I get for shelling out obscene amounts of money for a full seat Photoshop vs Photoshop elements? Thanks for any help you can give me!

 

[d33ps1x]

In my opinion there is no point in converting your camera's jpg photos to tiff BEFORE opening them in photoshop for editing.

However resaving them to jpg from photoshop repeatedly after edits will degrade the photo noticably.

I personally store all my untouched photos in their original jpg format and any edited ones I keep a copy in Photoshop format and always duplicate the first layer and store it under the others to go back to an unedited state.

 

[Gilligan]

My 2 cents:
1.Never mess with the original photos. Make copies immediately after downloading them from the camera and do all your adjustments on them.
2. Tiff is a memory hog and there is no need to use it except when you want to get a print made by outsourcing it to a shop or printing it yourself. For example, if I want some 4X6 prints made I prepare them in Photoshop from the originals, resize them to 4X6 at 300 dpi (if the camera is a high enough MP to allow that), then burn them onto a CD ROM so Costco or elsewhere doesn't have to mess with them.
3. JPEG's are a compression format, never a true 100% representation like a TIFF. JPEG's are great saved at "High" at 640X480 pixels or 600X450 pixels at 72dpi in Photoshop for the web. "Medium" is okay for small thumbnails, especially if there are many on a page.
4. Photoshop Elements should do fine for most editing, especially at the price difference compared to Photoshop 7.0.

 

[ssra30]

On Oly C5050, lowest compression JPEG (SHQ) file is a little over 2mb while RAW is a little over 7mb. I have a 1 GB card so I get about 130 pictures shooting in RAW while a bit over 400 in SHQ. Frankly, at least on computer screen, I have not noticed significant differences between SHQ and RAW (although I have not really sit down and try to do critical comparison between the two) but I like RAW mainly because I can bypass a lot of the camera automatic adjustment and do everything myself in photoshop (if I want too). It seems that frequently, Oly setting wants to brighten up the whole pictures a bit too much especially when you try to get black background so RAW is much easier to process those pictures.

 

[TedJ]

Gilligan,
Did you get the ICC profile for the Noritsu or Fuji printer at the Maui Costco from Dry Creek? If not, check it out.
TEdJ

 

[Gilligan]

I'll check it out Ted.
Thanks