Does copying photos degrade them

[nee]

I know of course that if you make a copy of a copy etc, that the 10th copy will not be as good as the first. But what about the original copy, will that stay the same however much you make copies from it ?

 

[dr_zero]

I know of course that if you make a copy of a copy etc, that the 10th copy will not be as good as the first. But what about the original copy, will that stay the same however much you make copies from it ?

Digital photos or print photos?

Digital should be ok.

Prints made from a negative should be ok also.

A negative made by taking a picture of a print, and then printing it from that would not look as good.

 

[MICKEY88]

more details on what you are doing would help with an answer

if you are talking about placing an actual photo on a scanner, then making prints from the digital file, the prints will lose some detail from the original photo, but you could make 1000 from the digital file and they should all be the same.... your original photo will not be harmed or lose detail....

if you are talking placing a photo on a copier, all the copies should be the same, but will show some loss in quality from the original... the newest top of the line copiers, do an amazing job...

then there is the question, is this a picture you took, or one taken by someone else, there is the copyright violation if copying someone elses photo without a copyright release..

 

[DVC Jen]

I have always been under the impression that a jpg is a lossy file format and eventually some data in the file will be lost. The more you alter a jpg the more data is lost and the sooner it will become corrupt.

Bryan Peterson even addresses this in his book Understanding Exposure.

I am sure it takes a LONG time for a jpg to become corrupt or even to lose enough data to no longer get a good print from - but exactly how long..

 

[nee]

Oh right, I mean a jpeg photo on the computer and making copies from one.

thanks

 

[MICKEY88]

I have always been under the impression that a jpg is a lossy file format and eventually some data in the file will be lost. The more you alter a jpg the more data is lost and the sooner it will become corrupt.

Bryan Peterson even addresses this in his book Understanding Exposure.

I am sure it takes a LONG time for a jpg to become corrupt or even to lose enough data to no longer get a good print from - but exactly how long..

I believe that is why it's safest to shoot raw, and open a copy to work on, leaving the original raw untouched...

or even if you shoot jpeg, open a copy, rather than editing the original..

with paint shop pro I can open a file edit as much as I want and with the settings I chose, the original is saved untouched...

I can also save the edited file as a paint shop file, which then saves the original file and the edits, so when you open it again it then applies the edits, so your original never really changed..

 

[extreme8]

Oh right, I mean a jpeg photo on the computer and making copies from one.

thanks

A jpg is a digital file.
If you were to open it, edit it, then resave it you will lose image quality each time due to the jpg compression.
You can make as many copies (or copies of copies) as you wish with no degradation, assuming of course the file is never corrupted along that path.

 

[DVC Jen]

I believe that is why it's safest to shoot raw, and open a copy to work on, leaving the original raw untouched...

or even if you shoot jpeg, open a copy, rather than editing the original..

with paint shop pro I can open a file edit as much as I want and with the settings I chose, the original is saved untouched...

I can also save the edited file as a paint shop file, which then saves the original file and the edits, so when you open it again it then applies the edits, so your original never really changed..

Yuppers! that is what I do.