digital pictures in PM 7.0

[angler2229]

I am changing my yearbook over to all digital this year. I have a Sony Mavica CD250. I have been checking resolution as it affects file size and discovered that pictures saved as TIFF's are 5MB in size! A JPG is only 120KB. Both drop right into PM 7.0 using the File> Place command and print well. Am I going to have problems when I send the file to the service bureau for printing?

The TIFF's take about 30 seconds to save to the camera disk where the JPG's save almost instantly to the camera disk. As you can see, it would be much simpler to take all my pics as JPG's and place in the PM document as JPG's.

Is there a need to import the pics to PhotoShop first? I can see no reason for it as the pictures come right in from my camera via my picture folder.

BTW, our photographer has been taking our student mugshots in JPG's (18KB) and I have been using those for three years with no problem, unless of course, my yearbook company is changing their format before placing them into the files.

What's is your experience and your advice?

Daniel

 

[BionicJohn]

Hi, Daniel,

I've nothing much to add to the replies you got in AdobeForums.

Personally, I use TIFFs whenever possible.

Is the Sony Mavica DC the one which takes a floppy disk in it? Is that format whihc slows things down? Images from my DC (an old Epson) appear in seconds in Photoshop via the USB port, ready for editing, cropping and saving in the format of my choice.

Iechyd da! John
21:53 15/09/2003 BST

 

[angler2229]

John,

It is the camera taking its sweet time saving the TIFF to the CD. This camera is normally awesome. In the JPG mode I can take a three picture burst of any sports scene, then use the one pic that looks the best. I have never used the TIFF mode because of the time it takes processing the image. The camera is hooked up to my computer via USB and downloads using Sony's own USB Mode PTP to my folder on the server.

The camera takes the TIFF, then a progress bar appears and takes anywhere from 30 to 45 seconds for the file to be saved to the CD. That is just too long for me to stand in a classroom and disturb teaching. I usually duck in a classroom, take three or four quick shots with a film camera and go on to the next room.

I have never used JPG's before in PM (except when the studio photgraphers place them on CD's), just because I knew that TIFF's were the files of choice. But when I made the decision to go all digital, I started experimenting and found that JPG's placed as well as the TIFF's. The clarity was also as good. Of course, the TIFF displays clear across the double page spread onto the clip board area of PM, but the picture can be resized easily enough. There enters my graphic arts guy from the high school who says you should never resize or crop in PM. Do all that work in PhotoShop.

Now I am thinking of an entirely different approach. You tell me what you think of it. I put a lot of stock in what you say in these forums.

I may do this: do all my work in PhotoShop Elements, that is, open my TIFF's and create my mosaic layouts using layers, then flatten the whole shebang and place that into PM as a single photo. Does that make sense to you? I figure the file size will reduce when I flatten the layers and there whould be no loss of image in the process.

Just so you know what I have been doing, I also do other yearbooks as a part-time job. I have about thirty accounts from elementary schools, middle, senior highs and even one university. Most of these are camera ready books where I just do the layout in black blocks and text. The publisher takes the photos and my layout to create the book. About two years ago, I started doing digital books for most of the elementary schools. I get a CD with 18KB JPG's mug shots and Place them into a grid from specifications set by service bureau. This has worked well as I get a copy of all the books I do, and the digital books look as good as the ones done by my publisher. This is what prompted me to go all digital. I just thought that JPG's might work well in my book because they looked so good in the others.

So, tell me what you think might make a good work flow!

Thanks,

Daniel

 

[Eggles]

I have just finished reading the whole thread over at the Adobe forums. My only comment would be to take the pics as JPGs, but before using them, open them in Photoshop and save them as TIFs.

I cannot recall if you said how these were being printed, but have you considered the RGB/CMYK issue if they are being offset printed? Are the original JPGs RGB? They usually do get saved in that mode by digital cameras so you would need to open them in Photoshop anyway to convert them to CMYK. Just also save them as TIFs and you've got the best of both worlds - fast photo saves with the JPGs but CMYK TIFs for printing (and keeping PM happy).

 

[angler2229]

Lyn,

This is a B&W book. Does CMYK still make a difference?

Daniel

 

[angler2229]

Does a PhotoShop Elements file converted from JPG to TIFF automatically become CYMK? All my files say they are RGB.

Daniel

 

[Ron2000]

PS Elements doesn't provide the CYMK color space. The full PhotoShop does. But that point is moot since you are publishing with only black ink. If using the best image quality from the start is an important goal, I'd suggest your camera save as TIFF's to avoid compression degradation from the JPEG algorithm (presuming your patient enough). If you absolutely need to save time... JPEG it is. However, after you download the pictures to your hard drive, then open in PS Elements and resave them as TIFFs. Edit all your photos in their RGB color space and then convert them to Gray Scale. Check your gray scale images for any futher tweeking, create a different file name and save them as TIFFs for importing in your layout. Everyone should be happy.

 

[angler2229]

Thanks, Ron.

That sounds like what I have planned.

Daniel

 

[Eggles]

Daniel

Wot Ron said.

I assume you are aware that, if you have created the highest quality JPGs when you take the photos, when you open them in PSE, they often will come in at quite a large size (length x width) but low resolution (usually 72dpi). As there is an inverse relationship between dimensions and resolution, if you reduce the dimensions of your photo, the resolution will increase. Just make sure you leave the 'resample image' box unchecked in the Image>Image Size dialog box when you enter the new dimension. Altering one will change the other dimension in proportion.

The sequence of steps should be: open the JPG and immediately name it and save as a TIF. Then do any editing and cropping, then resize it to the required dimensions and watch to see the resolution chage as well. As long as you are making the photo smaller, the resolution will go up (which is good for printing purposes). Then convert to greyscale (under Image>Mode), save and that's it.

 

[angler2229]

Lyn,

I tried that yesterday and it worked really well. It does take me some time to go through all my photos that way, but I have developed a work flow that may be OK for me.

Thanks for all the great suggestions you have given me. The CYMK had me guessing, but since I am saving all the files with grayscale, it works out just fine!

Going digital will eliminate a lot of work for me: waiting for the photos coming back from the lab, tagging and numbering photos, stuffing envelopes with photos and all my layouts, and shipping it via FedEx. Now it goes on a Zip or CD to the publisher.

Daniel