I have a couple of stupid questions

[outsider]

:o I'm trying to do my first lo and it says to save often...What extention do I use when I save and where do I save it too? I use PSP 8. I'm new at this and my skill level is 0....lol Thanks, Jody

[luvmymutt]

to answer your question.. just save as Paint Shop Pro image,
I created a folder just for my projects, then each project has it's own folder
I also save a really small jpeg with the same name of the PSP file so I know exactly what the PSP file contains without opening it. Hope that helped.. hope I didn't confrustrate* you more :)


here is the link that will answer more!

Quick Classes (http://www.digitalscrapbookplace.com/university/quickclasses/paintshop.shtml)


*to confuse and frustrate at same time LOL new word of the day

[outsider]

I don't think I can get much more confrustrated than I already am :D . Do I still need to save my photos in TIF?

[Emma]

No, not dumb questions because we all had to figure it out too! You're smart to ask what works for others before you muddle through alone.

1. Do NOT save over your photographs! They come out of the camera as jpg, just LEAVE them alone! They're your negatives. Just crop and copy and paste them onto your layout, and do NOT save any of the changes you make to them.

2. Save the layout as a .psp extension (or pspimage, but that makes the filename too large :rolleyes: yes, I'm anal)

3. Save a small layout for the web as a jpg, usign the JPEG optimizer as discussed at the end of Lesson 2.

So you'll have your original jpg photos, a psp layout, and a small jpg layout for the web. I give the psp file and the jpg file the same name, onle the extension is different

Have fun!

[Lauren]

Pretty much exactly as Emma has suggested is how I organise myself
I have a folder for all my photos ( each day of photographs in a separate folder within that - just like a packet of real photos within a box)

I have a folder called original layouts - these are layouts all in their native format ( photoshop for me - paintshop pro for you).

Once I have completed my layouts - I save a small jpg version of the layout for uploading to websites ( like DSP)
I also save a large version in jpg for printing

so I have 3 sub folders in my layouts folder - originals, webversion, and printversion .

I never alter my original photos - I do all my alterations within my layout.
( that way if something dreadful happened and I mucked up badly I can still go back to my original photo and start again).

Hope this helps you out some.

[luvmymutt]

I also have a folder of original untouched pictures, yeah, like negatives.
Guess it kind of sounded wrong.. sorry, just trying to help.
And great, it sounds like I am organizing just like the pros, yeah!

[Emma]

Sounds like we've all settled on a variation of the same system!

Actually, you can save your jpg files if you use an album software that uses "huffman coefficients" to save them so that there's no loss of quality. Saving jpg is like making a copy of a copy, so each time they lose quality.

I know ACDC uses that HC system, but not sure which others do. In ACDC I batch rename the photos by date and event, then rotate them if needed. I could also do any of the other editing features ACDC has like crop or red-eye, but I choose not to, and just do that on the layout itself.

If you're taking photos in RAW, then you don't have to worry about the quality loss, but you need a special program to view RAW files, each camera brand uses a different format. But still keep the original like a negative.

Lauren, I'm curious about your print-version jpg: when I print (which isn't often) I just print straight from my software (PS or whatever), without flattening or saving. Since you have more printing experience than I have, what are the reasons for saving another copy of it?

Thanks! Have fun organizing those photos!

[outsider]

Thank you everyone for your help :). I've tried to read the tutorials but can't make sense out of them :confused: I even bought the book Scrapbooking The Digital Way by Michelle Shefveland (that is where I got the saving as TIF). With a little help from you fine folks, I'm sure that I will eventually get it all figured out, or drive you all crazy asking.lol :eek: Thanks again..

[Lauren]

Lauren, I'm curious about your print-version jpg: when I print (which isn't often) I just print straight from my software (PS or whatever), without flattening or saving. Since you have more printing experience than I have, what are the reasons for saving another copy of it?

Thanks! Have fun organizing those photos!


I get all my layouts printed professionally and the lab only takes jpgs - that the simple reason but even if they took psd files I would never attempt to upload my 100+mb layouts to them - that would be a bit silly!!!!