File Versioning Options
The final point we want to reiterate is image flexibility. As noted in Chapter 8, working with layers, masks, alpha channels, and smart objects is key to any compositing workflow. As such, when you’ve finished the job, the worst thing you can do is flatten your image. Rather than one version, you should have several versions of your file when finished to account for multiple output types.
For example, we recommend you not only keep your master edit file (which should have plenty of the goodies noted earlier and be a 16-bit file if at all possible), but you should also back it up on a separate drive. The following are the file types we usually keep on hand for any important compositing project:
16-bit, layered master file ...
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