Photomatix and Saving ... Printing Tiffs?

Clawed · Aug 3, 2009

I purchased PhotoMatix yesterday after importing a series of pics to the trial version to see what kind of results I can expect. So, I imported the images, and as soon as the composite was acheived, I saved the image (as an HDR file). I did not do any tone mapping at all. Then, I opened the file in CS4 and was blown away by the results (after a bit of sharpening). When viewing it in CS4, there was no watermark and the file looked NOTHING like the image I saw on screen after the composite process.

The problem? The image was 96 megs (after converting it from an HDR to a TIFF in an effort to make it something I can work with and print), and there was no way to convert it as a JPG. I repeated the process after purchasing PhotoMatix, but this time I hit the tonemapping button, but the resulting image was far inferior to the "auto," un-tonemapped version I mentioned earlier. After I messed around with it for awhile, I achieved a result somewhat like the results I had achieved before (though still very much inferior). Obviously, I was then able to save it as a JPG.

My question then, is two-fold:

1) Was the first image so much more amazing simply because it was saved as an uncompressed TIFF? And is there any way I can convert the original image to a JPG, once I export it from Photomatix?

2) Are there professional labs that actually print from TIFF files? If so, are there size restrictions?

Any help and I am extremely grateful :thumbup:

~Canaan

JerryPH · Aug 3, 2009

Yes there was.

You had to convert the image from a 16-bit to an 8-bit BEFORE saving it as a JPG while in PS. TIFFs are 16-bit... and there is no possibility to save it as a JPG until you drop it to 8-bits. Look under the IMAGE menu.

Also, unless you are printing over 30" poster sizes, there is no visual loss of quality on most down-conversions from TIFF to JPG at a good photo lab. The TIFF and JPGs will be pretty much identical at all but the very biggest of sizes.