Mouse Over

Hold your mouse cursor over the image to see a comparison between the image before and after adjustment.

Save the adjusted image as uncompressed TIFF file. Give it a new file name and do not overwrite the original.

In this case, the file naming convention uses an abbreviated letter for each of the processing steps that the image has undergone. Also, a numerical prefix is added so the images are listed in order of processing. This makes it a little easier to keep track of what has been done to the working images.

I usually save a 16-bit uncompressed TIFF image file of each of the processing steps. This way, if I want to go back and try a different processing procedure, I can start at any step. An alternative is to save the file as a Photoshop format file (.psd) with the adjustments, such as levels, or curves, saved as adjustment layers.

In this particular example here is the file name used: E04_M33_ML_C_S_A_E_FINAL.TIF.

Here are what the abbreviations in the file name stand for:

• E04 - Example number 04
• M33 - The celestial object's name
• ML - Master Light
• C - Calibrated
• S - Stacked
• A - Adjusted
• E - Enhanced
• FINAL - the final version
• .TIF - the file format

Of course, you can name the file whatever you want. The particular naming conventions used for this file are probably getting a little difficult to decipher at this point, so use your own judgment. If you archive each image as you step through your image processing, you can just increment the number at the beginning, knowing that each subsequent image will contain all of the same processing steps as the previous ones.

You can also store details about your image processing in the metadata for the file by using File > File Info in Photoshop.

Photoshop's Save As dialog box.

If TIFF is selected, chose None for Image Compression, Interleaved for Pixel Order, and IBM PC for Byte Order. Do not check on Save Image Pyramid.

TIFF image options dialog box.