copy or save - which is best?

  • Thread starter Thread starter LisaB
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LisaB

What is the best way to edit pics?

Copy
Copy As
Save

I have my pics sorted by date taken. I want them to stay in that order and
sometimes when I edit them they go to the bottom of the list.

Thanks
LisaB
 
LisaB said:
What is the best way to edit pics?

Copy
Copy As
Save

I have my pics sorted by date taken. I want them to stay in that order and
sometimes when I edit them they go to the bottom of the list.
Click to expand...

"Save as..." creates a new file, with a new creation date and time.

"Copy" creates a copy of a file having the same creation date and
time as the original.

When you edit photos, you should never "save" them over the original,
since that would make it impossible to correct any editing error. The
only exception to this rule is doing a "lossless rotation" of a photo,
since that operation is reversable.

Don't worry about disk storage, since it is growing faster than anyone
could take photos!

For all uses besides simple directory displays, only the "by name"
sort will result in a stable ordering.

If your files are already in date-time order when they are viewed
in "name" order (as is the case for most camera naming conventions),
you can preserve the date-time order of the names by *suffixing*
any modification to the file name to the original name--not prefixing,
which will put the "name" order out of correspondence with the date-
time order.

There are many programs which will *prefix* photo file names with
the EXIF or file date and time, to force "name" order to correspond
to date-time order. One I often use is EXIFER, but there are many
others.

-michael

"The wastebasket is our most important design
tool--and it's seriously underused."
 
Best way is to never edit an original pic.
Right click on the pick and click on Copy.
Hold the Ctrl key down and press the letter V.
This will make a copy of your pic in the folder. The name of the file will
be the same, with the words "Copy of" in front. This will keep the original
"date picture taken" with the file. Now open the file in your photo editor
and when finished just Save or Save as if you want to change the file name.
If you want your pics sorted by date taken, just click on the column header
"date picture taken" after you open a folder and the sort order by file name
will change to the sort order by date picture taken.

Many do not like to make a copy first but they edit the original. It does
not matter if you use Copy, Copy As, Save, Save As. They all keep the date
picture taken data. So after you edit, just click on the header "date
picture taken" to change your folder sorting by file name to sorting by date
picture taken.

If you want much more control on how to sort (or list) pictures in a variety
of ways you can go to this site. A little practice is all you need to get
what you want.

http://www.papajohn.org/MM2-OrganizePictures.html
 
LisaB said:
What is the best way to edit pics?

Copy
Copy As
Save

I have my pics sorted by date taken. I want them to stay in that order and
sometimes when I edit them they go to the bottom of the list.

Thanks
LisaB
Click to expand...

Hi,

I suggest that you try working with the free Google software = Picasa2.
It has the supreme advantage of gathering all your hard drive pics into
Picasa2, and retaining all your originals intact. No matter what editing
you do in Picasa2, your originals are still intact in their original
folders.

The point is never to edit original pix, for when the inevitable errors
are made, you really want to have an intact original.

Good luck.

Morton
 
Hi ok on this thread I'm getting conflicting info. One person says it won't
matter if I save, copyr or save as and the other says it will change the
properties (ie date taken stamp).

For the most part I have no problems saving pics; once in a while a pic gets
edited and then saved and it moves it down to the bottom of my folder (which
are sorted by date taken) and when I look thru the properties....they are
removed and no date taken info. Why does this happen?

(I know some say don't edit orginals. I'm not looking for that solution)

Thanks
LisaB
 
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