Non-destructive photo editing?

Moderator: jsachs

Post Reply
doug
Posts: 111
Joined: April 24th, 2009, 10:06 am
What is the make/model of your primary camera?: Nikon D-500
Location: Toledo, Ohio USA

Non-destructive photo editing?

Post by doug »

When I visit some online forums that discuss photo editing software, I occasionally read about the wonders of software that exhibits "non-destructive' editing -- as opposed to, I presume, "destructive" editing.
As a user of PWP only, I have a little trouble wrapping my head around what this means. I have tried to think about how editing in PWP might behave under a "destructive editing" regime. Sort of an "it would be as if ....." exercise.
One thought that crossed my mind is that "it would be as if when applying a PWP transformation to a jpeg, once you hit Apply or OK, the edit is applied and only the adjusted image remains. The unedited jpeg is "history" -- gone forever."
Is this close to how software that does NOT benefit from non-destructive editing would behave?
jsachs
Posts: 4203
Joined: January 22nd, 2009, 11:03 pm

Re: Non-destructive photo editing?

Post by jsachs »

PWP is mostly non-destructive - at least until you close a temporary image window or delete a file. This is due to the fact that transformations as a rule leave the original image intact and produce a new output image. Exceptions to this are the application of freehand retouching tools such as cloning or painting. A lot of other image editing packages including Photoshop use the so-called document model where an image is something like a word processing document and changes you make are applied over the original image. The user is protected somewhat from losing data by being able to undo changes or use the history brush. In addition, Photoshop layers are popular in that you can modify certain operations after the fact until the image is "flattened" (i.e.until all the layers are combined into a single image.
Jonathan Sachs
Digital Light & Color
ksinkel
Posts: 594
Joined: April 2nd, 2009, 11:58 am
Contact:

Re: Non-destructive photo editing?

Post by ksinkel »

As Jon says, most operations in Picture Window are non-destructive. They result in a new image which does not overwrite your old image.

Here are some other points that are worth noting:

You can close intermediate windows -- they are generally cached in your temp folder when you close them. If you need to open them again, you can do so by clicking on them in the History window.

Also, you can redo most transformations. This feature is also available from the History window. To redo a transformation, right-click on the image's entry in the history window and select Redo. The image is opened in its original transformation letting you change your original settings. When you click OK, you will have the option to create a new image or to replace the old image and apply the changes through all further images. Note that while transformation settings are mostly remembered, freehand tools operations are not. so this will not work if you have retouched your image with any of the brush or clone tools.

Kiril
Kiril Sinkel
Digital Light & Color
doug
Posts: 111
Joined: April 24th, 2009, 10:06 am
What is the make/model of your primary camera?: Nikon D-500
Location: Toledo, Ohio USA

Re: Non-destructive photo editing?

Post by doug »

Thanks, Jonathan .....
I realize that PWP's "freehand retouching tools" do alter the image being worked on in a non-reversible manner. That's why I have learned to make a copy of the previous stage in my editing process before undertaking such work so if I don't like the results of my "freehand" work, I don't have to go further back in history and re-do the most recent transformation. I just never thought about that in the context of "destructive". I also never contemplated the problem one would encounter if you execute an undesirable freehand operation on an original jpeg. I guess the only solution would be to close out everything and re-open the original jpeg.

So, I guess you are suggesting that software that is NOT characterized as non-destructive operates similar to PWP's freehand functions with respect to ALL post processing adjustments.

I always got a kick out of the reference to "flattening" in PhotoShop. In photography, we are putting a 3-D world onto a two dimensional media and one of the challenges is to give the appearance of more "depth". So it seems curious that a software developer would elect to use a word for one of its processes that sounds like it is making the result even more two dimensional -- i.e. "flattening the image". Perhaps it is simply that their vocabulary and writing skills are not on a par with their technical skills. Certainly there must be a different way to characterize the process of mashing several layers together.
Post Reply