Convert RAW to ? for print.

[Mole]

What's the best file format to convert RAW to for printing? I want to lose as little quality as possiable. File size is not a problem but when I convert my RAW files now to 16 bit Tiff it makes the file about 8x's larger then the RAW file. Is they're is a better file type to convert my files too?

 

[Peanuts]

Tiff is the best. That is what most labs will take in addition to JPEG of course. You may want to just convert to 8 bit for printing. Do all of your colour management and such in 16 bit but convert to 8 bit for printing.

 

[darich]

RAW images capture the image as seen without processing it. You then do the post processing as you see fit and save it as a TIFF so you don't have a lossy format (jpg is lossy). If you then want to print your images you can either save them as jpg on a cd and take them to the lab or shop for printing or email them to an online lab.

Keep the TIFF image as your processed image and the RAW is the onprocessed original. For getting more images on your CD for taking to the store or emailing JPG is fine since the processing has been done and if the image is only going to be printed, it won't be opened and saved numerous times resulting in data loss.

i only ever get jpgs printed and more often than not shoot in highest jpg quality.
Mainly because when i go on a shoot i shoot hundreds and don't want to be lumbered with hours of post processing on RAW images. I have shot RAW a few times though and to be honest i haven't noticed a difference between them and my jpgs.

 

[Mole]

Tiff is the best. That is what most labs will take in addition to JPEG of course. You may want to just convert to 8 bit for printing. Do all of your colour management and such in 16 bit but convert to 8 bit for printing.

Thanks, thats what I thought. Why is the Tiff image so much larger than the RAW though?

 

[Alex_B]

RAW, depending on the exact RAW format, might have some lossless compression

and RAW images are usually 12 bits, whereas JPG has 16 bits

 

[markc]

If you are using Photoshop, you have some compression options for TIFFs also, which will help reduce their size. Just don't use the JPG compression option. I personally use ZIP compression for both my TIFFs and their layer information. It might add a little bit of time when opening/saving, but it can add up to a lot of disk space.

If you are going to save as a JPG for printing, I would suggesting putting the quality bar as high as it can go (low compression).

 

[Mole]

I pretty much don't use jpg anymore except for posting on the web. I guess I'll be buying a few external drives for storage sooner then I thought for Tiff files. I just wanted to make sure im keeping the best image quality for printing and not just saving large files for no reason. Thanks for the help everyone.

 

[ksmattfish]

If you are taking your photos to a lab for printing, and they aren't using an inkjet printer, then they want 8 bit, sRGB, jpegs. If you deliver files in anything but this, they will may do the conversion themselves, but most of the pro labs I work with will return files unprinted if they open them and find Adobe RGB or 16 bit files, unless I specifically ask them to do the conversion.