It just occurred to me that I may be doing my editing a tad bit backwards. Since switching to RAW awhile back. I have been taking the RAW shots, converting to JPEGS. Then editing. Stupid question, but shouldn't I be editing in RAW first. Then converting? Seems obvious. But just wanted to clear my mind on this.
Bass ackwards??
- Thread starter weebee
- Start date
sonicbuffalo_RIP
Senior Member
Yes...edit in RAW, then convert to jpegs upon exporting. I am assuming you're using Lightroom?
No LR, yet. I'm using View NX2 to view, and now adjust, the RAW images. NX2 doesn't seem to have a lot of features for adjusting RAW images.
Thanks BlackTop for your reply. It was light a bolt of lightning came out of the sky this morning with the message that I was doing this wrong.
I believe I'll be going to take a look at light room. Which version would be good for this?
BackdoorArts
Senior Member
What they said. The reason you edit in RAW is because it contains all the light information - the stuff being used for the current display (which is what you're capturing in JPEG) and the dynamic range of light information available in each pixel that it's not currently using that you can pull out at will. Once you make the JPEG image all you can do is bend that interpretation.
Stay in RAW and produce you JPEGs for posting and printing when you're done with the edits.
Stay in RAW and produce you JPEGs for posting and printing when you're done with the edits.
This looks like a good deal. It also includes a free upgrade to 5.3. Thoughts?
Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 5 Software for Mac and 65215211 B&H
Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 5 Software for Mac and 65215211 B&H
I'd suggest THIS instead. Not only do you get LR and Photoshop, you also get 20 GB storage and a Behance Pro membership. But if that's too much $ then consider getting a Student/teacher version of LR (see HERE). To qualify, you need only a person in school (K through a PhD program) that lives with you, near you, or that you kinda know (in other words, it's not too tough to qualify).
I'd suggest THIS instead. Not only do you get LR and Photoshop, you also get 20 GB storage and a Behance Pro membership. But if that's too much $ then consider getting a Student/teacher version of LR (see HERE). To qualify, you need only a person in school (K through a PhD program) that lives with you, near you, or that you kinda know (in other words, it's not too tough to qualify).
Thanks Dave. I'm going to download the trial and see what I think. If I like it. Then I'll purchase the student version. I know people that have kids in school.
weebee, just make sure your computer meets the minimum requirements of LR. I can't install LR5 on my desktop computer because it doesn't meet all those requirements although it works fine on the laptop I'm now using. I have LR4 on my desktop which works well.
LR is like a drug and Adobe knows it. That's why they'll gladly give you a free "taste" knowing full well that you'll quickly get hooked and will be chasing the dragon from here on out.
Sent from my SCH-I535 using Tapatalk
That's all I need, another addiction!
Steve, I actually edit my RAW images then save them as a high resolution TIFF file in either 16bit or 8bit. If I need a low resolution JPEG for web I make one out of the TIFF file. If I need to print I just print from the TIFF. Most places print from the TIFF file just as well as the JPEG if not better. Photo kiosks will see and print a TIFF file also in case you needed it. My graphics design schooling taught me to always use TIFF for printing a raster image (photograph). TIFF is a lot smaller than RAW in file size and saves a lot more data than JPEG and, if you work in layers with Photoshop, it can preserve your layers as well.
Don Kondra
Senior Member
Uh, not so, size wise. More data, yes.
Just for the heck of it I took a 29 MB raw image and simply converted it to tiff. File size was then 68.6 MB.
If your tiff's are smaller than your raw's you should check your settings
Cheers, Don
Uh, not so, size wise. More data, yes.
Just for the heck of it I took a 29 MB raw image and simply converted it to tiff. File size was then 68.6 MB.
If your tiff's are smaller than your raw's you should check your settings
Cheers, Don
Really?? Hmmm, I just assumed. How could TIFF add information to a file? It is a form of compression. I have noticed many of my TIFF files are 69MB in size but I never checked the size of the RAW file. Maybe I need to start uploading my RAW to Zenfolio instead, now that they support RAW files.
Don Kondra
Senior Member
Short answer - A raw file is actually compressed, a tiff is the uncompressed file.
This can get as complicated as you want but the short version is...
A raw file is just that, it contains all the information without any in camera processing and allows the most latitude (compared to jpeg) for making exposure, white balance, etc. adjustments.
Typically you edit a raw and save as a jpeg.
Now if you want or need to go back to the jpeg to do further processing each edit/save will degrade the image file.
So that is when you save the raw file to tiff. It can be edited/saved many times with no loss of quality.
Cheers, Don