For software development one often needs images. But when I start working on an image I very fast end up with dozens of versions, like so

  • Start with a nice large scale image, let's say a photo from my camera(x.nef)
  • I do some adjustments on exposure correction and white balance, convert it to a x.jpg
  • start to add some little stuff by copying in various pieces from two other images. (a.jpg, b.jpg resulting in a layered image x.pdn
  • now I scale it to the required size and save it as x_small.jpg

By now I have 6 different image files floating around, and nobody but me knows the process behind them.

So the question is: How do you handle images in the development process?

Edit: Thx for all the great input. I combined various questions to my own personal best answer. But I accepted jiinx0r's answer because it really contained the missing idea for me to apply a naming convention for the kind of changes done.

image build-process
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