Flattening image?

[Shari]

I have no idea what this means - should I be doing it. Here is what I just tried of our Mini Dachshund who is 12 years old. I was just experimenting and any comment to improve would be appreciated.
Shari
http://www.pixentral.com/show.php?picture=1ZAgAzcED1Iv1mBofCfTJKAVCWbDjh1

[Carbone]

Shari :

Flattening brings all the layers into one, discarding those invisible layers (the ones which have their eyeball at off). The command is under Layers menu.

Ray

[Shari]

Thanks Ray - but why do you flatten and should I be doing it on every image I work on? Thanks.

[Wendy]

Hi Shari ...

No you wouldn't flatten all of your images ... just on the ones that you won't be going back to and using the layers again.

That is a rather nice effect that you have done on your Mini Dachshund it gives a good texture ... how did you do it?

Wendy

[Carbone]

Shari :

No, I don't think you should ever flatten an image. Flattening destroyes the possibility of ever going back to your work to further enhance it. As Jodi's signature says, it's like using Crazy Glue on Legos. You can't dissassociate the blocks afterwards.

Me, I never flatten an image. I don't keep everything on my hard drive, for space consideration. I keep a thumbnail of the files, but burn those huge PSD on a CD every time my temp image folders achieve the 700MB mark.

Ray

[Diana]

If you save your image in .jpg format, it automatically flattens it. If you ever think you may want to change something about your image, especially to a particular layer, you may want to also save it in .psd format with the layers intact. I love what you did with the image of your dog. It's great.:)

Diana

[CarolLHB]

Shari-love your image-he's really cute:)

[Daviskw]

Hi Shari

Once in awhile, at least with me, I get so many layers that they get convoluted and confusing and hard to follow. But rather than flatten I save a new version and flatten it and start work from there. Then I always have the older version if things go wrong... But then again I have a big hard drive. :rolleyes:

Butch

[Shari]

Thanks everyone - I just thought I would ask - it is one of the many many things I don't know about in Elements.

Wendy - I did the sketch tut and what Matt suggested - changed the layer to luminosity and then to fresco. The thing is I haven't tried to fiddle with the sliders nor do I know about the different settings. This look came very quickly and it is similar to a sketch we had done of our Basenji year s ago so I might even end up printing and framing it.

So I really mean it when I am asking for any adjustments that could improve this photo. Thanks.
Shari

[Wendy]

Hi Shari,

The best thing to do is duplicate your image ... then use the same techniques but when you get to the sliders just play around with them. Experiment until you get an effect that you really like :)

Wendy

[kevq]

Shari,
love the woofer.
As Wendy says - make a duplicate and experiment.

Kev

[Wendy]

Regarding if you should flatten images or not ... well its a personal choice and it really does depend on what you want to do.

For example ...

I have many thousands of holiday photos, most of them have had some adjustments done to them and yes I used layers. I have them set up as slide shows of different holidays. My choice (with this type of photo) is to flatten them and save as jpgs ...

My reasons are .... They are simply my holiday photos, I will never make more adjustments to them, I no longer need the layers and I don't want to take up the extra space.

I did a test on one image:

Without flattening and saved as a psd 21.6 mb
Flattened and saved as a best quality jpg 3.72mb

I do save very many images as layered psd's ... but not every one.

It really is personal choice ... and there isn't a right way or a wrong way.

Wendy

[rmartin]

I think of it like sending an e-mail vs saving an e-mail draft. One you have no control over; the other you can edit. Most times I flaten into gif files; some of the programs I use won't allow jpegs. I need to get into the habit of saving a layered file too.