Image-Processing: Jpeg = Little Image Content; Png & Tiff = Image Content++

[gl556tr]

To have photos for albums, one ideally needs as much image content as possible. This, naturally, is reflected in the much greater storage requirement for PNG & TIFF images. Unfortunately, most relatives have sent me JPEG. As JPEGs suffer from image deterioration every time they are copied/written (so I have been told), I wonder whether one can save all image content currently available by opening such a file and then Saving as... a PNG or TIFF. As the latter suffer no loss when being copied/written, I could then apply this principle by using the converted JPEG->TIFF.
Can anybody verify that this approach to safely processing JPEG images will work.

[Peter Pedant]

erm no
whole books have been written on this
( getting better resolution against storage requirements )

the fact that something requires more space does NOT mean there is better resolution - cue entry to 'error correcting codes' and maintaining the resolution after many reproductions

I am certain others will pile in with their own views

[Old_Geezer]

Copying a file won't change the contents. It is if you open it and resave it that the contents of a compressed picture file can change.

Consequently 'save as' is the last thing you want to try.

If the original is a JPEG you can not add further detail. Detail will have already been slung to make the file smaller. Just copy and send the file as it is.

[Fitzer]

You could save your current JPEGs as TIFF to preserve what you currently have but unless you are saving changed versions of the first picture over and over again then you aren't going to be seeing and degradation anyway.
Your problem here is probably contained in the line 'most relatives have sent me JPEG' if they have emailed the photo's they will have had to send only small versions thus reducing the quality, the originals are of (probably) much higher quality. Ideally what you need to do is get hold of the originals either by mailing them a USB stick and asking them to dump the photos there or visiting them and doing the same.

[Old_Geezer]

Or upload to / download from a hosting site.

[Fitzer]

Your problem there OG is that many of the picture sites will compress the data as well, the OP could organize something like a shared Cloud space in somewhere like Dropbox but that's going to cost to get enough space unless he can organize said relatives to upload in turn after he has cleared down to his computer, plus that of course requires said relatives to have a reasonable upload speed. It's all so much fun eh? :-)

[bhg481]

I think most people set their camera to record jpegs, the alternative for most cameras being "raw". Raw takes up a lot more space on the memory card and it takes a lot longer to write the picture to the card. Whilst it gives "experts" the ability to "improve" a photo, most mortals do not have this skill. On top of that, raw is camera-manufacture dependent, so it can often be a complex process to get a raw photo into a format which can be edited by commonly-available software.

[woofgang]

As I understand it, if you want the most faithful to the original information then if you can, get the RAW data straight off the camera. Jpeg data does degrade slightly every time it is resaved so not the best way to save/alter/save again and once the data is lost it is lost for good from that save/alter/save stream. hence the need to keep digital copies of the original scan or image file. In general, the best way to get and keep the best quality on unimportant things is to ask the sender to send you the highest resolution (biggest file) that they have and to scan in at the highest resolution that you can (no less than 300 dpi) save these as reference copies and whenever you want to do anything with them, duplicate the file and use the duplicate copy. I am not a professional but have been a paintshop and photoshop hobbyist user for many years.

[Old_Geezer]

I had not realised, but in which case you need a hosting site that does not change the owner's original data files. Perhaps a non-picture specific one.