Welcome to the MacNN Forums.

If this is your first visit, be sure to check out the FAQ by clicking the link above. You may have to register before you can post: click the register link above to proceed. To start viewing messages, select the forum that you want to visit from the selection below.

You are here: MacNN Forums > Software - Troubleshooting and Discussion > Applications > iPhoto: Quality lost after "saving changes"

iPhoto: Quality lost after "saving changes"
Thread Tools
emil
Forum Regular
Join Date: Mar 2001
Location: New York, NY
Status: Offline
Reply With Quote
Jun 3, 2005, 03:22 PM
 
Whenever I make any modification to my photos that require that iPhoto "save changes", the quality plummets. The resolution, and contrast are both awful, which is frustrating after spending time tweaking the levels. Is this a bug? Is there a way to fix this?
     
emil  (op)
Forum Regular
Join Date: Mar 2001
Location: New York, NY
Status: Offline
Reply With Quote
Jun 3, 2005, 03:27 PM
 
Here are two screenshots to demonstrate:

Before

After
     
Kristoff
Mac Elite
Join Date: Sep 2000
Location: in front of the keyboard
Status: Offline
Reply With Quote
Jun 3, 2005, 04:11 PM
 
yeah, it's a bug.....

theres a big old thread about it at apple's support forums
signatures are a waste of bandwidth
especially ones with political tripe in them.
     
CatOne
Mac Elite
Join Date: Nov 2001
Status: Offline
Reply With Quote
Jun 3, 2005, 07:00 PM
 
Originally Posted by emil
Whenever I make any modification to my photos that require that iPhoto "save changes", the quality plummets. The resolution, and contrast are both awful, which is frustrating after spending time tweaking the levels. Is this a bug? Is there a way to fix this?
I don't really see what you're getting at with the quality issues.

Recall that iPhoto saves as JPEG. JPEG is lossy compression. So every time you make changes and save, quality will degrade. Unfortunately, that's the way JPEG works. There might be a "highest quality" option somewhere, but the only real solution is to use an application that doesn't actually use JPEG as its save format, like Photoshop.

Unfortunately, that photo is technically awful. The foreground is shaded, and the sky is blown out. The only real way to fix it, is to go back and re-shoot it with flash. And you can't really do that. The foreground is overexposed, so if you push it up, it will be noisy (as it is), which means there's a TON of work necessary to fix things.

This is the problem with little point and shoot cameras, and in most people's knowledge of photography. The camera will "correctly" expose the shot for the overall light level, and having that sky in the background completely freaks it out and screws up the foreground elements -- in this case your faces.

But getting back to your original question -- I don't see anything that I would consider to be a bug in iPhoto. The foreground is underexposed, so pushing it will lead to poor quality. Couple that with repeated saves in JPEG, and you're sorta screwed. If you really want to muck with that photo, you should use Photoshop or Photoshop Elements (the latter is only $100, and well worth it).
     
Kristoff
Mac Elite
Join Date: Sep 2000
Location: in front of the keyboard
Status: Offline
Reply With Quote
Jun 3, 2005, 07:14 PM
 
IT IS A BUG.

See it in action!

Now get off your soap box, Ansel Adams!
signatures are a waste of bandwidth
especially ones with political tripe in them.
     
emil  (op)
Forum Regular
Join Date: Mar 2001
Location: New York, NY
Status: Offline
Reply With Quote
Jun 4, 2005, 12:33 AM
 
Cat - it's not specifically the quality, I guess what I mean is that after I've painstakingly adjusted the levels the way I want, after the "saving..." dialogue is finished, the image contrast and brightness change slightly, which is frustrating. Others have indicated that htis is a bug, which is not surprising to me considering I've not had this problem with some older versions of iPhoto. Still, I do see that JPEG compression might be causing it, as JPEG isnt' perfect at retaining color, from what I understand.

I know that the photo is underexposed, but that is exactly why I am trying to pull the levels, to salvage the image .. at any rate, if you even just crop an image and go to save it, the brightness and contrast are affected as well, not in a good way, which is equally frustrating.

Thanks for the help, all.
     
SwarmyCurve
Grizzled Veteran
Join Date: May 2002
Location: USA
Status: Offline
Reply With Quote
Jun 4, 2005, 04:46 AM
 
Gosh, I can't stand this either! I was running searches today trying to find out of this was happening to other users - it sure has, as we can see.
     
   
Thread Tools
 
Forum Links
Forum Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts
BB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is Off
Top
Privacy Policy
All times are GMT -4. The time now is 09:25 PM.
All contents of these forums © 1995-2017 MacNN. All rights reserved.
Branding + Design: www.gesamtbild.com
vBulletin v.3.8.8 © 2000-2017, Jelsoft Enterprises Ltd.,