Adobe Photoshop Elements 11 Saving Your Images

Hi, everybody--Mike Brown here again; welcome back again to Educator.com's Adobe Photoshop Elements course!0000

In the two previous lessons, we have discussed preparing your images for output by image size, canvas size, adjusting the resolution, taking the images down and reducing them for Web, or getting them in the right resolution and sizing for going out to print--the two different ones.0007

In the last lesson, we looked at the file formats available for saving, and in this lesson, the final part of the trio is actually saving your images.0028

We're going to talk about Save, Save as, and Save for Web--the three ways of saving.0038

Under the File menu: Save; Command/Control on a PC, the letter s; Save as; or Save for Web.0044

When you first open an image (and this one has only been opened and untouched), notice, at the end of the title, there is nothing there.0051

But, this one has an asterisk, and so does this one; whenever you see an asterisk, that means something has been done to the file.0062

As simple as highlighting a different layer--something--anything you do that is different will cause this to have an asterisk to remind you that something has been done and you should save the file--just in case you forget.0075

Now, if you don't do anything to your file, or the very first time you save it after you do something to the file (we'll change this, and let me make an adjustment change...do a little levels, just for fun...and turn it off)--now, we've made a change; if we want to do the traditional what-you-think-would-be-the-right-way-to-save, Command/Control+s, notice it saved, without asking me--it just saved the image.0089

Now, if I had done something drastic to that image, like flattening it, let's say, or changing the image size down for the Web to 72 at, let's say 900, 1.5 megabytes--now we have a very small file with no layers; it's just for the Web only.0134

If I were to (and I'm not going to do it) do Save or Command+s, it's going to save over that original file.0165

It's going to wipe out the big file that you worked on; for example, here is one here: look at all the layers in this--there are hours of work to get this particular image worked the way it is; if I turned it into the small jpeg, and just did Command/Control+s, I would overwrite that other image.0175

You have to be terribly careful when you do that.0197

So, instead of using Command+s or Control+s, ever--I don't even use it at all; I always go to File, Save as, and this is what will happen.0201

Up comes a dialogue box, and notice, it automatically put a little bit extra at the end of it that is different from the original one (2497...where is that?...there it is); notice, the name is 2497HDR Blend 1; it added this part; and then, if I did it again, it would be adding in 2.0215

So, by using the Save as dialogue box, it prevents you from saving over.0240

Sometimes, it may actually come in with the same name the first time you would do it, and even though it doesn't change the name, you are reminded, by the fact that this box is here, "Oh, yes, I worked on that image, and I don't want to save it over itself, so maybe I'll call it 1A instead, and then I can save it."0248

We'll go back to the Open box, and we go to the Desktop, and there is our original image (oops, this was the wrong one--2497); there is the 86-megabyte file; and there is that little tiny file; two different images.0275

You want to make a habit of being careful about saving over your images, especially if you're sizing them down for the Web.0296

One other thing that can happen: Photoshop Elements can crash.0304

It has been known to happen; it has happened to me--it happened this morning, when I was preparing this lesson.0311

If I had been working on an image like this for two or three hours and never saved my work one time, and it crashed, or I sized it down and saved it over the original image accidentally, I have wiped out all of the work that I have done.0315

So, make a habit of periodically saving your file as a slightly different version (let me see--here is one here--let's see what we have in here).0333

There is one; we'll take a look here--here is an image; there is the raw file; there is my work in Photoshop--I opened it up into Photoshop, and I worked it as a raw file.0347

Then, I worked a little bit further, and I saved it as a blend, so that if--worst-case scenario--I lost this, at least I had that one.0360

I would have saved more normally; then, I saved it as a jpeg, and I was very, very careful when I made the jpeg--I'll show you this in a little while.0371

The whole idea here is to...0381

Let's see if we have any more--here you go--here are a whole bunch of them; there is the raw file; there is the first version; there is the second version, with a different name change; there is a second version of that--notice, I just added a 1 over it; and then I filtered it.0384

Then, I did another one, so I have 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 different versions of that image saved into the same place in sequential order; so, if something bad had happened on the last one--that was 11:51--less than 7 minutes before, I saved another version, and I didn't lose all of my work.0398

It's a very good work habit to make to frequently save your file; don't save it over the file; save it as a different version as you move along.0420

It takes up extra space--I realize that--but it will save you from having to go all the way back to the beginning and start again.0432

What we have done here is talk about...I really don't use, very often, the save; I just don't use it.0439

I use and recommend using the Save as dialogue box, all the time; do File, Save as, and it reminds you, "Oh, yes, OK, it has changed the title; that is good."0447

I can see up here that it's WebTitle.psd; it changed it; OK; and it's going to put it there, and this is the format that I want; that is what the Save as does.0457

You can also open new folders; you can save as a copy; you can save layers, include it in the Organizer, save right in with the original in the Organizer (that is what the "version set" is), and embed a color profile.0468

All of these options you have for name, place, format, and various options for saving your file, and it prompts you to remember that you don't want to save over something--a very good habit; just use File, Save as, all the time.0481

Now, let's talk about the third one, which is Save for Web.0501

I'm going to go ahead with this shot right here; we have a file that has a whole lot of layers in it; it's 35.5 megabytes, but it's HDR Blend 1A.0505

I think that is 2497...that would be Saturday...I just want to show you this...2497...maybe Sunday...2497...how could it be 2497?...I have the wrong one here...oh, 9868!--I was looking at the wrong one; I'm sorry.0520

9868; and I saved it on the Desktop--that's good; so there is 9868, right there.0547

That file is 220 megabytes; that is what I wanted to show you; it's a huge file.0556

Even though the base file is 36, there are 1, 2, 3, 4...at least 4 layers at 40, plus all of these other layers, make it a 220-megabyte file.0563

We're going to save this out to put up on the Web.0574

So, what we're going to do first is flatten the image; it gets rid of all the layers and compresses it down.0578

Then, we do Image, Resize, Image Size, and it's now 35; we're going to do what we did--remember the image size for the Web?--we're going to resample the image, constrain the proportions, scale the styles, change it to 72 dpi, and in this case, probably 900 pixels height would be just fine.0585

It has now gone from 35 megabytes to less than 2; I click OK, and it is sized.0605

All right, so it's good for that; now, I'm going to go to a new one for you, and show you how to save for the Web.0612

File, Save for Web; and up comes a dialogue box (it's calculating), and we have a 2-up: original and the jpeg after.0620

Now, you notice that I sized this image down first and then opened it up; if you try to take a huge file and open it up directly into Save for Web and do your sizing over here, it's either going to crash the program or take hours, because it's so huge.0634

This Save for Web can only handle the smaller files.0651

So, when you're doing Save for Web, make your image size-down reduction first; then, open it into the Save for Web dialogue box.0654

Let's zoom up, and let's get down here where we can look at the image.0663

The original image was 1.8, and it's going to come down to...let's go to 100% quality...it's going to come down to 461K; 1.8:461 is about a 4:1; that is a standard jpeg, at 100% quality.0671

But, you have all sorts of options here--you have the Hand tool, Zoom tool (you notice the Hand tool automatically...Zoom tool--we can zoom it here)...0690

What we're going to do is look at our Options; there are presets, first; now, remember the .gif; the .gif is only 256 colors; we can come down to 32 colors, and notice that the image (I'm going to zoom it up even one more time)--notice how horribly the image degraded.0698

It's only 32 colors; that is why this is good for graphics of solid colors only.0722

We could even take it all the way down to 4 colors, and look: it just get awful; even at 256 colors, it's (if you can see--let's go into the fingers) degraded; so you don't want to save a photograph out as a .gif of any kind.0727

You can go to a jpeg high, low, or medium, or a .png; we'll go ahead with a PNG24, which is the same as the jpeg, and notice: the quality level is identical; the only difference is...notice the compression; remember, the jpeg was at 469, and the PNG 24 is at 992; remember, I told you in the last lesson that a .png saves out a little bit larger, but it supports transparency, and it does an equally good job.0749

But, for the Web, we're going to go to jpeg.0782

Instead of using a preset, we're just going to make jpeg maximum; don't go with the progressive, the one that scales over and scrolls several times; go to Optimized.0785

You can embed the color profile if you want; that is fine.0795

You can adjust your quality level, and this is where it's very cool; let's come up another bit right here.0800

Notice, the jpeg size is 469; that's a standard compression; as we come down in quality...let's go all the way down--go down about 25 or 15; notice how horrible the image is looking--it's all black.0807

It has these squares in it (let's go way low)--just squares, very distorted; we have lost all sorts of detail in this image.0821

So, we'll begin to come up, and as we move forward, it's getting better; it's still degraded--you can see it in the fingers--but we're up to 46.0830

But, once you get close to 60, if you compare these images side-by-side, very difficult--there is a little bit in the finger that you can see, right here--just a little pixelation, but if I get up to around 68, they are almost identical, and that is at a huge magnification.0839

If we get down to 100%, it's perfect; you can't tell the difference; so I usually will save my images for the Web at a quality level of somewhere between 60 and 70, and look what it did--it took that 465 KB file and took it all the way down to 130.0857

So, instead of a 4 times compression, it's down to about a 16 times compression, and it still looks great, and it loads quickly; this is the way you save for the Web.0879

It tells you the image size--you can change it here--but change it before you get in here; that is the way I do it.0893

You don't want to do your image sizing in here; it's better to do it with Elements, on the outside, and bring it in.0898

Now, one thing else that I want to tell you about this is that, when you save this out as the jpeg at this quality level, it's good for viewing on the Web, but it has also compressed it, as you see, at least 3 to 4 times further than a normal jpeg; it's only good for viewing.0905

They will not be--if somebody tried to steal your image here, it could not be printed any bigger than about the size of a postage stamp.0927

So, it's also a good way to protect your images; once you get that all filled up, save.0934

We're going to have the lesson; it's the same one we know up here; see, there it says .psd; now it's .jpg; we're going to save it, and it's saved.0940

Now comes the final danger that I want to alert you to in your saving process.0950

Remember, we have taken this very large, layered image--I can still recover it through the History, because there it is; I can go back to the Open; but we're at a very small, flat image, and inherently, we forget what we're doing.0956

We say, "OK, I'm done with this image; I'm going to close it, Command/Control (or File), Close, Command/Control+w, and up comes this box that says "Save changes to the document?"; "Oh, yes, I made some changes; save them"; that is the first thing that you instinctively think, and you press this Save or Return button.0973

What is going to happen: it will save over that wonderfully huge layered file that you worked for hours on, with this tiny, jpeg, flat image, and you won't be able to recover it.0994

Once you close this image, you cannot recover the original if you saved over it.1010

So, you must be very careful; when you Save for Web, close the window; "Save Changes?"--you don't want to save the changes to this document.1017

We'll click Don't, which means, out on the Desktop, we still have our 220-megabyte file original, and we also have our nice, tiny little 136K jpeg for use on the Web.1028

There was a fairly long, detailed explanation as to how to use Save for Web, and also caution about closing.1049

This is why I always recommend: always use Save as to save your self; and when you use the Save for Web and close the window, think: when the little box comes up and asks you if you want to save the changes, you don't, because you just took a monster layered file and made a tiny little jpeg out of it, and you'll destroy it.1062

So, there is how to use Save, Save as, and Save for Web to get your files saved out properly, and a couple of cautions: use Save as, and watch it when you close your files after doing a Save for Web.1086

I'll see you back in the next lesson; we'll get working on our images in the Expert mode in Adobe Photoshop Elements 11.1101