Talker <Talker@thegood.com> wrote:

<snip>
> > Me? cropping is an advanced level of post processing, so the longer I have
> >the chance to see the image the more idea may come to my mind.
> >
> > Cropping is usually not my last step as I work mostly on portrait so I
> >usually have to do few extra steps after cropping. But no way I will crop
> >before other thing *except* if there is bunch of wacky background then I may
> >temperary get rid of some, then do the final crop (if needed) later.
>
> I guess I should have commented that I usually work on scans of
> pictures, and I crop off the over scan...that is, the edges that
> aren't part of the picture. Most of the pictures I work on are photos
> that others have taken, and they've given me to restore. If I had
> taken the picture with my digital camera, then I agree that you never
> crop the picture first. I should have been more specific when I
> posted the first comments.

As I agreed with you on other message that if it's the scanned photo then
it's another story.

> One thing that I always see mentioned....everyone always makes it
> a point to say that you should never work on the original picture.
> Why? I always work on the original picture, then when I'm finished, I
> save it as an altered version of the original. That is, if the

That isn't what they really mean to say. Because everything has to start
with the original, and what they mean that (if the photo is very important)

- Making backup of the original to avoid accient

- If you work on the photo then make a duplicate of the original (LAYER) so
you always have the original to fall back to.

And because I often work with multiple layers and masking, so quite often
I have 2 duped layers of the original. And sometime (not often) I make
several snapshots just incase I need to go back to some point's I like that
History alone just won't cut.

- Yes, I always work with the original, and quite often I would restart with
the original rather than the modified version. Unless it's an unfinished or
prepared for later processing saved as PSD with all layers etc..

Or because I have been doing the same thing for so many years (hundreds of
thousands of photos) so it won't take me more than few minutes. And I only
work with hi-rez images so no repairing

> picture has a file name of Susan 01, I'll save it as Susan 01a.
> What's wrong with that? I still have the original picture...nothing
> was done to it, so why should you never work on the original? I never
> do a "Save", I always do a "Save As" in Photoshop, so what's the harm?

As I mentioned above that you just misunderstand what other tries to say.
Or most of my photos are for the clients, no 2nd chance etc.. so I am not
only have the original saved to 2 CDs, I also have 2 cameras just incase
thing may go wrong during photoshoot.

IOW, people don't talk about individual but general which including both
fun and professional use.