Raw-TIFF-JPEG

Advice please: I have tinkered with RAW and JPEG and it appears that shooting

in the RAW format provides the largest modicum of flexibility with respect to

image manipulation. The connundrum I have relates to determining what the best

format would be to save the post manipulation image (while saving the original

RAW image for future use). I am starting with off camera images at about 5-6Mb.

 

Today I did some practicing in Photoshop and saved an image in the TIFF format

which gave me a 35mb file which is unyieldly to say the least.

 

Generally I want to save so I can get the maximum future print reproduction

sizes.

 

Many thanks!

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I keep all my origianl raws on portable hard drives. I never delete them as with the price of these things it is not worth it i just buy another when one is full. I then also make two doubles on DVDs which i keep in separate locations, one with me and another with my fanily. A little obsessive but not as bad as the other option and it is my work. I then and only then convert a raw and do the final proccesing when i either need to give the client a tiff or jpeg or wish to make a print. I never leave the tiffs or jpegs on my hard drives i again make double copys on DVD but delete them from my hard drive. Hope that gives you some food for thought. It does not take as long as you would think either.Atleast not for me, maybe i have ogt use to it.

<p>I keep the original RAW, and the TIFF which is the end result of whatever editing I do. I realize that a highest-quality JPEG would be substantially smaller than the TIFF and probably would make indistinguishable prints, but I'd rather save all of the final image, not just a very good approximation of it. I don't keep them on my hard drive forever; that's what optical media (I use CDs but eventually I'll likely switch to DVDs) are for.</p>

Here is my way;

 

In each folder i have 4 files;

 

1_RAW / my original

 

2_PSD with all my layers, 16bit no compression / my work in progress

 

3_TIF flatten 8 bit LZW compression / my final ready to go

 

4_JPEG 8 bit 12 compression sRGB / same size as the original but 72 ppi for approbation, web site, powerpoint, email. Why same size, because graphic designer like it; when they use my image at 72 ppi in there Indesign document they can zoom it reduce it do whatever they want, in the end they just have to replace the lowrez by the hirez without moving anything. fast and easy way to replace your images in a document.

 

All the other RAWs that i didtn use are burn into DVDs and return to my client (it is there responsability to backup them on whatever media they want) i also keep a copy of all the RAW (in case s*** append to my client DVD and the file are erase from my hard drive).

 

I will after give a TIF hirez file to my client on a different DVD, that i will also keep a copy.

 

Many copy, many DVDs, but i prefer to be secure when i leave the office then being sorry the next mornig and had to work on everything again : )

 

If i was a photographer and that was all my image i will probably keep the backup strategy plus maybe a offsite hard drive.

I do the sort of RAW backup that Jordan Banks desribes above. You can never recover a lost original, so I find it essential to be absolutely certain of backup there. However, I spend a lot of time in Photoshop as well, and I am equally adamant about not losing the fruits of my time and efforts in post-processing. So I make multiple copies of my edited files as well. What I do to save space is get rid of the TIFFs, and instead save my my edited files as PSDs (a format which eschews compression and loss of quality just like TIFF). The only danger there is that the PSD format is proprietary to Adobe, unlike TIFF which is more portable. So in theory, I run the risk of Adobe going out of business and me having no way to open my edited files. But let's face it: Adobe is clearly the standard bearer in digital photo editing, and as the dominant market maker it is not going away anytime soon. And if it ever does, I'm willing to bet someone will market a PSD-to-TIFF conversion software! So for me, I save RAWs and PSDs, avoid TIFFs, and generate JPGs only as needed on demand. Hope this is helpful to you, I puzzled over it for months myself awhile back!

Most people are saving there files in different combinations of RAW, Tiff and jpeg files sizes. Using external hard drives or CD, DVD's. It's hard to say how long any of this would last. You can also save your images as prints. It's just up to you to decide how to save your pictures or even if they should be saved. I save a lot of shots of the family as prints and jpeg or tiff. I do not save RAW files because once a picture has made it to print then I have completed the project. If a picture does not warrant going to print I delete it.

Thank you all for your thoughful and directional responses! Bob

Are you folks implying it is better to convert RAW to PSD than it is to convert to TIFF?

 

What would be a file size comparison between the two of the same image?

I do not believe a lot of people use PSD over TIFF but it would be a valid idea if it suited some need that I cannot think of. I believe the file sizes are very similar. I choose to use tiff a long time ago and do not wish to introduce yet another file type.