Digital BW, The Print

Surely the answer to any dilemma here over what to save is to archive 
two versions of any image.  One being the 'final' version which 
represents your current best digital interpretation of your captured 
image (digital or film) - or indeed several different 'final' versions; 
and the second being the 16 bit unadjusted image as captured digitally 
or scanned.  Then you can go back to square one as many times as you 
want in future and start all over again!

That's what I do - and for me it represents my 'best practice'.  It's 
simply like have the original negative on file to reprint (after 
PhotoShopping).  Any other approach is the equivalent of binning the 
negative after you've made one print!  Now who'd ever do that I wonder?

If my files were smaller so I could save all of my layers then I'd save 
it as a 16 bit file which I could always start again from scratch as 
often as I wanted - as my initial layer is always there; so I wouldn't 
need a separate unadjusted file.  But as a 16bit flattened file for me 
is 190MB and I often work through many many layers, file sizes become 
totally unmanageable with current hardware and software limitations - 
hence my two file archive strategy; the 'before' file and the 'after' file.

Steve Gledhill ----- http://www.virtuallygrey.co.uk/


Edward Wiseman wrote:

> I'd like to "jump-in" if I may..
> If one chooses that sometime in the future when he/she has MORE 
> knowledge of
> editing an image via PHOTOSHOP or whatever, they stand MORE of a chance of
> getting a better PRINT IMHO, if their "new-found" knowledge is applied 
> to a
> 16 bit  image..As for printing out this "final" image file, the printer
> itself cares not whether the image is 16 or 8 bits, but will express the
> information  much BETTER in the form of a print that has been EDITED in 16
> bit..
>
>
> Just my 2cents..
>
> Eddie Wiseman 


		
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