Friday 29 May 2009

Concentrate...

I've just had an AAARRRGGGHHH/GRRRR moment...

I have been up since 5:30 this morning to go and shoot some images for a client. It was a magnificent morning and the sunrise was brilliant...

I shot the images, came home, started processing the images and all was going well.

What the client wants is a collage of images of the buildings that they design and build. I have made up a template of sorts and spend a bit of time processing the images then creating the collage for each building. All of this is fine and I pretty much just get into the zone and go through the process.

I normally work with layers within Photoshop so that if an image needs to be changed I can just delete the layer and replace it rather than doing the whole thing again. The last layer I create is a text layer with a copyright notice.

If you have no idea what I'm talking about that's ok. Just think that the copyright notice is written on a clear layer over the top of the images and it can then be removed when I want to send the image to the lab for printing. Works perfectly........ When you concentrate...

The next step is to create a small version (megabyte wise) by flattening all of the layers and resizing the image for the web. I then send that copy to the client for approval and the original, full size version is ready for printing or fixing as necessary.

The problem arises if you don't concentrate and close the flattened file as is and tell Photoshop to save changes as it closes the file... That's the AAARRRGGGHHH/GRRRR moment right there... As soon as I did it I realised that if I would have to redo two of the collages because once the file is flattened and saved you can't get rid of the copyright notice!

Just so that you know the correct way... Before you save your images as a flattened file go back one step in the history to an unflattened file and save the image as a TIFF or PSD file.

It's a good idea to learn from mistakes. Very wise people learn from the mistakes others make...

No comments: