Digital Art Photography For Dummies®

Chapter 16. Managing and Preparing Files

In This Chapter

• Discovering the purposes of different file formats

• Recognizing interpolation options Photoshop uses to enlarge your image

• Converting multiple high-resolution files for Internet uploading

• Constructing matrix images from multiple files

Paper files occupy space in a file cabinet, and digital files occupy space on a hard drive. Making sure the files don't burst out of their seams means keeping track of how big they are because file size is the very foundation upon which your computer will operate — lots of big files make a computer move like molasses. And keeping track of the space you're working in is largely dependent on your file sizes.

In this chapter, many of the common file types are defined in terms of their size with respect to keeping the image intact — that is, not losing detail in the image as you manipulate and process it along the way to printing.

Files become big in a variety of ways. It happens when you're not even thinking about it. Adding a layer, using a template, and moving documents from Word to Photoshop all require space in your computer and all make your files bigger.

Tip

After you get rolling in digital photography, you'll need more space to keep the large picture files. You can get a 160 gigabyte (GB) external hard drive from LaCie for about $100. It connects through your computer's FireWire port. FireWire is an ...