How do I save edited photo without reducing file size (res)

[Ffirecracker]

I have to edit photos taken by my photographer at my wedding but I don't want to reduce file size or lose any quality / resolution, what is the best way to go about this? I'm very green.

tks

Rachel

[sjj1805]

When you edit a JPG photograph it will lose quality because JPG is a lossy format. To reduce this problem I normally make a copy of the entire photo album to another hard drive folder. This is good practice anyway because if you mess up the photograph you still have the original intact.
In fact CD/DVD discs are so cheap now that you can make a back up copy of those originals onto a disc BEFORE you edit them.

Now do your editing with the copies rather than the originals.
Firstly convert all of these pictures to your image editors native file format. The file size will be larger than JPG but you are then using a lossless format and so you should not lose quality after saving (you only lose the quality after actually closing the image not merely by saving it).
PhotoImpact = UFO
Paint Shop Pro = PSP
Photoshop = PSD
Alternatively you can use BMP - provided there are no layers involved
or TIFF where there are layers.

Perform all of your editing and save the edited image.
When you are happy that the task is completed you can save it back to JPG format but choose the lowest compression (Highest Quality) setting available.

[Ffirecracker]

Many many thanks, your help is very appreciated and precious to me. I usually open a pic and save it right away as a copy, so that the original is not affected. I also have them on CD.

The reason I want them to be still in high quality after editing is for printing purposes. I want to edit the pics before I send them in for printing, but after doing editing on a few pics I realized the file size was drastically reduced. Which wasn't good.

I will follow your advice, very kind of you, thanks again .

Rachel

[Xyzzy2]

When you edit a JPG photograph it will lose quality because JPG is a lossy format.

No, you lose quality when you save in a lossy format.

The file size will be larger than JPG but you are then using a lossless format and so you should not lose quality after saving (you only lose the quality after actually closing the image not merely by saving it).

What do you mean by "closing image"? Close in PI just closes image in workspace, prompting to save changes befrorehand. If you save in a lossless format, you don't lose quality.