I'm not sure why, but someone recommended my current photo for disqualification, whereupon I received a message requesting the original file I used and the steps I used to create the final image. This was fairly easy to comply with ... this time. The edits I had done to my current submission were minor -- it's practically straight out of the camera, with some resizing, of course. Sometimes though, I do quite a bit of altering -- all within legal bounds, but by the time I get done, I don't remember exactly how I got to where I am -- I just know I like where I ended up.
How do you keep track of each edit step, just in case your work comes into question?
I'm not sure why, but someone recommended my current photo for disqualification, whereupon I received a message requesting the original file I used and the steps I used to create the final image. This was fairly easy to comply with ... this time. The edits I had done to my current submission were minor -- it's practically straight out of the camera, with some resizing, of course. Sometimes though, I do quite a bit of altering -- all within legal bounds, but by the time I get done, I don't remember exactly how I got to where I am -- I just know I like where I ended up.
How do you keep track of each edit step, just in case your work comes into question?
It's a pretty good idea to take a little memo pad or notebook with you on a log. Sometimes it's good to jot down some info about where you shot, etc. You may want to right down details that you can't get from EXIF.
Use the same notebook to rightdown any editing details you may have. Or use any word processing program you may have.
I use adjustment layers whenever I can. Not only does it record the steps, but it's easy to toggle an adjustment on or off to compare the image with and without it. For allowed filters (like Unsharp Mask), I copy the layer containing the image, apply the filter to it, and store the filter and parameters used as the name of the layer (e.g., "Unsharp 95, 1.1, 2"). This is technically not legal, but I'm sure to keep the new layer in Normal mode with 100% opacity so the layers below don't show through; they are only to show the history of changes. Reconstructing the image using the same steps but without layers would give the same result. The only steps not recorded this way are cropping and resizing.
Correct me if I am wrong, but when you save a file in the .psd Photoshop format does it not save the complete history and all actions used? It did for me.
One thing I didn't mention was, I don't have PhotoShop (oh, the shame!). I use Ulead PhotoImpact for photo editing. I wouldn't mind having PhotoShop, but the $500 price tag always scares me off, especially when I can't see what I can do with it that I can't do with PhotoImpact. OK -- the remembered step thing... :)
It does have undo and I can set the number of undo levels up to 99. I can look at the list in the "Undo before" pull-down, but it doesn't have details. For example, is says "Undo before -> Hue & Saturation" but it doesn't list specifically what hue & saturation changes were made. I'm sure somewhere it knows internally, but I can't figure out where that information is saved where I can read it.
ursula. Paint shop has adjustable undo. Just look in edit, command history. If you are working a really large file, the history could be shortened by the program to conserve memory. If you save, you could also lose the history.
Also, like someone else mentioned, it just tells you what action was performed, not what was changed within the action.
