Help please - huge files!

[Shireen]

I'm new to this game so please bear with me. I'm using Elements 2.0, have followed all the instructions to remove red-eye from some photos. So far so good, but when I try to save the changes, I end up with a file that's over 40MB in size. (My originals, from a Casio EX Z750 are just over 4MB each.)

I know I can elect to save them as JPEG to get a smaller file but all the advice is to keep a copy in the original PSD format, so no detail is lost. Also, I want to get prints from these, so I need best quality - but not 40MB each.

Where am I going wrong?

[Carbone]

If you save your files as a copy inthe TIFF format, they'll probably be much smaller in MB and will preserve the quality.

What you could do is to archive the PSD (they're like your negatives, after the work you've done on them) and save a TIFF version, flatten, ready to be sent to the printer (if it uses TIFF, some will only take JPEGs).

Ray

[Wendy]

Hi Shireen ...

... and welcome to the forum :)

For my special photographs I do save them as either .psd or .tif but for my holiday snaps ... well once I have finished working on them I just save them as jpgs ...

Wendy

[MikeH]

Hi Shireen,

Welcome to the forums :)

For all of my images, I keep a layered psd file, unsized and unsharpened. These files will be 50, 60Mb maybe more.

When I want to print, I sharpen the image, resize and save. If I'm using a online or High Street store, then I use jpeg. But if I'm printing myself them I still save it as a psd.

Mike

[Shireen]

Thanks, everyone for your advice - but I still don't understand why the file has to be so big. All I did was get rid of the red-eye - and the file became 10 times bigger - from 4Mb to 40.

Does it have to be this way, just because I've gone through Photoshop to do the red-eye thing? Are all Photoshop files this big? If so, I guess I'll just have to get used to storing them on CDs rather than my hard disk.

Another problem is that I'm using an online printing service and (even with a Broadband Internet connection) it takes an age to upload these huge files.

If I save the changed version as JPEG, will it affect the print quality?

(I told you I was new to this, and a bit dumb about it all, so thanks for your patience!)

[Jodi Frye]

Hi, actually, 40mb is kind of average...I'm working on an image now that is 505mb so far. I do save my files to disc once a year to clear up room on my system. As far as online printing goes I'm pretty sure most only accept jpegs while some will accept jpegs and tiffs. After you are done editing your image you can choose to save as a jpeg if you wish. Alot of us prefer to keep the layered psd file in case we ever want to go back and fix something...the more you work with this program the better you get..so, it's entirely your call.