format advantage?

[ericf]

What's the advantage of converting to TIFF or DNG or any of the other formats. I know RAW produces very large files. I make most, if not all my adjustments here then convert to jpeg format for printing or sending some where for printing. DOes TIFF or the others offer any advantage?

[engstrom]

Eric, PSDs and TIFFs allow you to make all your adjustments on layers so you can tweak them later. Save the PSDs so you don't have to go through all the work. Just resize, sharpen, and save to JPEG for printing/displaying on web. If you want to go back and reprint at a different size you don't have to do all the work again.

[brad]

I'll probably get roasted for saying it.. but if you save it as a high quality JPG once you're happy with your adjustments, that is fine for archiving it (I also keep the original RAW files) and printing it. JPG's limitations only come into play if you reopen that same file, make more changes, and save it again... and again... and again. The nature of JPG, even at maximum quality, is that it loses a little information every time you save it... the first time, its not really noticable.. at higher quality levels, it may even be ok the second and third time... but beyond that, it becomes quickly noticable.

Now.. if you are saving the images for publication (book printing, for instance), TIFF and other "lossless" formats give you more options for color depth and color space... but for regular prints, JPGs are sufficient 99% of the time.

[johnastovall]

I don't use JPEG except for the web and emailing as I don't believe in throwing away data.

I shoot only RAW and when ACR work in the PhotoPro color space at 16bits. I then save to PSD and print from PSD. My archives are of the RAW and PSD file (but maybe be adding DNG to those). By staying with the 16bits (actually 12) I have a greater range for adjusting curves and levels. Once I go to an 8bit JPEG, I lost that flexiablity.

[ericf]

So, plainly stated, any saving after adjustments should be done in TIFF. I'm not sure what PSD is.
JPEG is only for home printing or email sharing.
Once adjustments are made and converted to TIFF, do you still retain the original RAW file?
Hard drives could fill fast if saving everything.

ANyone have any first hand knowledge of the Nikon School here this month? They are offering a course on work flow. Thought I may take advantage of the Sunday. What's your thoughts?

[xseption]

PSD is the file format for Photoshop

[johnastovall]

Originally Posted by ericf

So, plainly stated, any saving after adjustments should be done in TIFF. I'm not sure what PSD is.
JPEG is only for home printing or email sharing.
Once adjustments are made and converted to TIFF, do you still retain the original RAW file?
Hard drives could fill fast if saving everything.

ANyone have any first hand knowledge of the Nikon School here this month? They are offering a course on work flow. Thought I may take advantage of the Sunday. What's your thoughts?

No, I do all adjustments which can not be done in ACR with the RAW in PhotoShop (PSD is the format). I save that and the RAW. Disk drives are cheap. I only create TIFF (16bit) as the final step for submission to Alamy for stock (currently building a QA disk for them). Don't even do my home printing from a JPEG as I want the best I can get out of my Epson R1800 and I have Photoshop doing my color mangement for printing.

From the PSD I can create out to any other format, I want.

[BobbyC]

I always use tiff because invariably there will be that one file you want to tweak something on and if you do it to a jpg your going to throw out data during the save as mentioned. If I have a file with layers, I may keep it in PSD (I know you can save tiffs with layers, I've juist always like to use PSD), but usually just stick with tiff.

I only convert to jpg for web posting.

I would throw out the tiff before I ever got rid of the RAW, that's like the digital negative, if you only keep one file, keep the RAW.

[rwwright]

i dont understand why one would convert to jpg to print. Unless you are having the printing done by someone like ekards or so. All of the professional labs can handle psd files. I use jpg when printing 4x6 prints at one of the local small photo stores, but when doing real prints, I use the psd.
I guess if i did not use photoshop, i might print from the nef or tiff using nikon capture. I am sure canon has a similiar product.
of course I have zero experience with the online printing companies which I understand some of them are quite good.

[jeffkohn]

Most of the consumer-oriented labs, either online or at Costco/Walgreens/etc, will be expecting sRGB JPG's; some of them might be able to handle 8-bit TIFF's but they probably won't be able to handle other color spaces. Most decent pro labs will use a fully color-managed workflow and are capable of accepting other color spaces (Adobe RGB at the least). Most of them will still want 8-bit files, although TIFF is usually OK and some might even except PSD or other formats.

For home printing I print straight from the PSD, which is in ProPhoto RGB color space, to the printer's target ICC profile. There's no point in an intermediate conversion to sRGB or Adobe RGB, especially since current inkjets have gamuts that exceed sRGB and even Adobe RGB for certain colors.