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kat555lady · May 16, 2008, 05:51 AM

I have several copies of the same pictures on my computer so I plan on deleting all but one of each picture. I read somewhere that each time you copy a ppicture it loses some of it clarity, sharpness etc. and just isn't as good as the original one you put on your computer. I don't know if that's true or not. My question is if I have 4 or 5 of the same picture on my computer do I keep the one with the highest (kb,MB,) or do I keep the one with the lowest kb, MB, etc. I want to keep the best pictures and get rid of the duplicates. Which ones should I keep... higher number or lower numbe?

Thanks so much in advance for your help

Kat.

amricca · May 16, 2008, 06:35 AM

The picture with the largest file size is most likely the best quality one.

jcdill · May 17, 2008, 12:45 PM

The picture with the oldest DATE is your original file - your digital negative. You always want to keep this file, and not "save" over it. All the others are copies, and may or may not have better quality depending on what you did to the file. When you open and edit from your digital negative (your original file) you need to use "save as" so you don't overwrite and lose your original file. For instance, if you need to resize the image for email, you would "save as" with a filename like -small. If you later want to make a print from this same image, the -small file would be too small to make a good print, so you go back to your original (digital negative) and crop it to the size you want to print. Again, use "save as" so you don't overwrite your original!

If you cropped your original to be printed for an 8x10 and saved it (instead of save as), and then later wanted to make a 4x6, you would have to keep cropping - even when the original was the right shape for a 4x6, because you cropped the original and saved it (rather than save as) and lost the edges necessary for a 4x6 print.

You may find it useful to put your save-as pictures in a sub-folder (e.g. Edited Photos). Then you can just periodically delete the unwanted copies from that folder, knowing that all your original image files are in the parent folder.

jc