Advice for Exporting Post-Processed Photos
Amateur here, and I need some advice on exporting post-processed photos. I shoot family photos with both my Nikon SLR and my iPhone. When shooting with my Nikon, I always shoot Nikon RAW. When shooting with my iPhone I shoot TIFF. The reason I shoot TIFF instead of DNG RAW with the phone is that I have every shot automatically uploaded from my phone to two locations: Google Photos and OneDrive. The reason for Google Photos is that I want a bit of the auto-processing the TIFF gets baked in from the phone to make it to Google Photos, which is my "fun zone" to share and show photos on my phone, not really caring about the compression that Google Photos applies upon upload. They will almost always just be viewed on phones or tablets; again, just for fun. The reason I have them also auto-upload to OneDrive is so I can take advantage of no compression there. I simply download those photos later to my PC, import them into Capture One, cull the really good ones as keepers, and post-process the TIFF file when and where necessary.
After post-processing either the Nikon RAW photos or the phone TIFF photos, I then export them to the Output folder as TIFF files. Once there, I import them into Photoshop Elements Organizer for keywording, captioning, etc.
After reading the myriad of information and opinions on whether the final output should be TIFF or JPEG, I'd like some advice and opinions from this forum: am I buying myself anything by exporting and keeping the final RAW photos and iPhone TIFF as TIFF? Some opinions I've read say that if this is the final time for post-processing a photo, it should be saved as JPEG to save on space; that the TIFF format won't buy me anything quality wise; printing will be fine unless I need to print a poster size, then TIFF will be better (note: I'm never going to print a poster size of my photos, maybe 8x10 at the most). Other opinions say it should be kept as TIFF regardless as the viewing quality on a PC is better, and will be crisper when printing even 8x10 or 5x7.
So needless to say, I've very confused. Can some of you who live and breath this workflow part with some advice on what you've seen in the professional world? I don't mind keeping the final exports as TIFF files, but in the end, I'd like to save disk space too and save to JPEG if TIFF isn't buying me any real results.
Thank you for reading.
Seymour.
After post-processing either the Nikon RAW photos or the phone TIFF photos, I then export them to the Output folder as TIFF files. Once there, I import them into Photoshop Elements Organizer for keywording, captioning, etc.
After reading the myriad of information and opinions on whether the final output should be TIFF or JPEG, I'd like some advice and opinions from this forum: am I buying myself anything by exporting and keeping the final RAW photos and iPhone TIFF as TIFF? Some opinions I've read say that if this is the final time for post-processing a photo, it should be saved as JPEG to save on space; that the TIFF format won't buy me anything quality wise; printing will be fine unless I need to print a poster size, then TIFF will be better (note: I'm never going to print a poster size of my photos, maybe 8x10 at the most). Other opinions say it should be kept as TIFF regardless as the viewing quality on a PC is better, and will be crisper when printing even 8x10 or 5x7.
So needless to say, I've very confused. Can some of you who live and breath this workflow part with some advice on what you've seen in the professional world? I don't mind keeping the final exports as TIFF files, but in the end, I'd like to save disk space too and save to JPEG if TIFF isn't buying me any real results.
Thank you for reading.
Seymour.
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There is no doubt that TIFF is higher quality than JPG, but I don't see a need to export any RAW files to TIFF unless there is a specific reason to do so.
In my workflow RAW files are only converted to TIFF if they are making a trip to photoshop for retouching that I can not or do not want to do in Capture One or Lightroom, or clients are doing the retouching and/or request TIFF. Otherwise RAW files remain RAW files within the Capture One session or Lightroom catalog and are resized and converted on an as needed basis, which is more often than not web use, so JPG. For printing I've always used JPG as well.0 -
cdc wrote:
Otherwise RAW files remain RAW files within the Capture One session or Lightroom catalog and are resized and converted on an as needed basis, which is more often than not web use, so JPG. For printing I've always used JPG as well.
+1 from me. I do the same. I regularly print at 12x18 (a little bigger than A3) form .jpg. I don't think I can upload .tiffs online to my printer - they will take usb images though.0 -
CDC, thank you for the quick response. If I understand correctly, you leave the RAW photos in your Capture One session, for the purpose of going back to them if necessary.
IanL, thank you for chiming in, I don't think I'd ever go bigger than 12x18, so great to know.
As an amateur who caters mostly to family photos, my cataloging needs are a bit different than CDCs. 95% of all my photos, once post-processed, will never be touched again. While I would prefer use Lightroom (which I also own) to catalog post-processed Capture One photos, Lightroom is a tool my wife finds too challenging (although I've tried to teach her several times how to use it). Therefore, I've relented, and now simply use Photoshop Elements (PE) for cataloging final post-processed pics. After 27 years of marriage, I've learned to pick my battles Since PE is geared to amateurs, it is just her speed when she needs to find a photo, view it, share it, or print it. And quite frankly, while not as powerful as Lightroom, its cataloging abilities aren't too bad when just using it for family photos. Again, 95% of all photos that end up cataloged in PE will never ever be post-processed again.
Based on what CDC and IanL state, then I would conclude that, for the 95% of photos that I'll never process again, storing them in JPEG format for final cataloging in PE would be sufficient, no need to use up all that extra space for TIFF. If all we are going to do is view them on a computer, share them on the web, or print them, then we'll likely never notice the difference between a TIFF or JPEG.
Validation of this conclusion is welcomed from all on this forum. Are there drawbacks down the road to this or no? Thanks for helping an amateur, who always needs to come to you guys when I want "real" photos taken.
Thanks again for reading.
Seymour0 -
Seymour Heiney wrote:
As an amateur .... 95% of all my photos, once post-processed, will never be touched again.
Seymour
Mine too! But which are the 5% that will be? I keep them in case!
Ian0 -
Seymour Heiney wrote:
CDC, thank you for the quick response. If I understand correctly, you leave the RAW photos in your Capture One session, for the purpose of going back to them if necessary.
Yes. I'm one of those people who never deletes files, not on purpose anyway. Sometimes I prefer to not have to convert to TIFF because of the size. But like I said earlier if I'm doing more extensive post processing than Capture One or Lightroom can handle I'll end up with a TIFF. So in the end I'll have the 3 versions of the file, the RAW, the full sized retouched TIFF, and the JPG exported to final size based on use. If I don't need to take a photo into photoshop I'll end up with the RAW file and a final exported JPG. If I don't use the photo for anything I'll only have the RAW file.
I keep all of my RAW files not only so I can go back to them if need be, but because hard drives are relatively inexpensive. Converting them all to TIFF will just eat up more hard drive space. The vast majority of my photos will never be touched again either, but they're there in the event myself or a client needs them.Seymour Heiney wrote:
Based on what CDC and IanL state, then I would conclude that, for the 95% of photos that I'll never process again, storing them in JPEG format for final cataloging in PE would be sufficient, no need to use up all that extra space for TIFF. If all we are going to do is view them on a computer, share them on the web, or print them, then we'll likely never notice the difference between a TIFF or JPEG.
Validation of this conclusion is welcomed from all on this forum. Are there drawbacks down the road to this or no? Thanks for helping an amateur, who always needs to come to you guys when I want "real" photos taken.
Yes, I can't see a reason for you to be saving everything as TIFF just for the sake of saving as TIFF, especially if you are hanging on to the raw files, are you saving the RAW files?0 -
Hello,
Nice to know that Iphone output DNG files, for Adobe.
As my experience in C1, saving files as a Tiff is best choice for photo editing,
and JPG for the internet.
Good luck!0
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