There’s a first time for screwing up everything
In the over 2 years since I’ve owned my digital camera, I’ve never overwritten an original image with a version that I was in the middle of editing. Until now, of course.
I suppose it was only a matter of time, since File->Save and File->Save As… are only a few pixels away on the menu. I need a new workflow plan to prevent this in the future; anyone have any good ideas? How do you photographers out there keep yourselves from making boneheaded errors such as this?
March 23rd, 2005 at 9:26 am
Actually, I have come up with a way that keeps me from overwriting my images. When I pull images off my camera, the first thing I do is create an “Originals” folder where I store a copy of every picture. So, my directory structure looks like: My Pics -> Flagstaff0205 -> Originals. At this time, Flagstaff0205 and Originals have the same pics in them. I then make the Originals folder and everything in it ReadOnly, so that I can’t accidentally overwrite one of my original images. I then edit everything in the Flagstaff0205 and eventually dispose of the copies that I don’t want to keep around. It’s a little work intensive on the front side, but it works for me.
March 23rd, 2005 at 11:50 am
I’ve done that. If you are using photoshop, go to the history bar and hit the minipicture at the top of the column. This reverts it back to how it was when you first opened it. Then do a “save as”. You can always go back to the original image as long as you don’t close the picture. If you are not using photoshop, it might just suck to be you.
My method for when I’m doing edits that I don’t want to write over the original with (8 eyes pictures for example) is to just do a “save as” before I start editing and then you can hit the save button as much as you want without destroying the original.
March 23rd, 2005 at 2:38 pm
Keir: I was using the GIMP, and yes I was able to revert to my original image. But opening and saving a JPG without changing anything still degrades it by a tiny bit.
March 23rd, 2005 at 4:39 pm
if you had a G3 like I do you could take all your shots in raw mode and set aside the originals to never be touched again. since you don’t however the simplest would be just marking all your files read only after you take them off the camera as mentioned by the very first person who replied to you.