saving psd and jpeg files in CS4

[crockny]

I'm trying to follow workflow suggestions that say to save your psd file for later edits and do a save as for the JPEG and then sharpen the JPEG after saving ... however when I create the JPEG from the PSD it saves and closes the JPEG and leaves the PSD open. Then I have to open the JPEG to sharpen and save it again -- am I losing anything by opening and editing my JPEG? Is there a setting I can change to have it close the PSD and leave the JPEG open?

[kcoppock]

I'm not really sure what workflow you're reading, but that's just wasting quality. Just save a PSD as your original, then do whatever sharpening/finalizing you need to do, then save as JPEG. Saving a JPEG multiple times, no matter what the quality setting, will degrade the image quality.

EDIT: Also, if you have a pretty standard workflow, you can always record actions for this and assign a shortcut key, that'll save you a lot of time down the road.

[crockny]

I can't remember which book I got it from -- either Scott Kelby's book or a book about printing to Epson printers ... both good books though ...

[kcoppock]

Sharpening should pretty much always be the last step you do, after resizing, cropping, etc. Sharpen just prior to saving out as a JPEG. I would probably just save the PSD unsharpened, in case you decide to further modify it later.

[crockny]

Are you saying I need to save the PSD, sharpen, save as a JPEG, and close the PSD without saving?

[kcoppock]

Basically, yes. That's what I do. I usually keep:

1) The original RAW
2) A PSD if I've done major editing
3) A JPG (Quality 11) sharpened.

[DanielLane]

Or you could just sharpen, save as a jpeg, then step back one place in the history and save the psd.

I never save the jpegs. If I have the RAW and the psd saved, what do i need the jpeg for after it's been used/sent/printed/etc. If I need another jpeg, I just open the psd and save another one.