Photomatix Export Settings

[TehYoyo]

Does it matter in terms of image quality if I export from Photomatix as JPG or Tiff? JPGs are a lot smaller (which I realize means compression), but how much am I really losing? Tiffs take a long time.

 

[KmH]

What file type was input into Photomatix? JPEGs only have an 8-bit color depth
If the input files were a series of JPEGs, outputting a TIFF would be pretty much be useless.

If the input files were Raw files (12-bit or 14-bit color depth) you're losing a lot of color nuances if you output an 8-bit file.

However, at some point the bit depth has to be reduced to 8-bits for either electronic display or printing.

I don't know how you make a HDR, but I always used Raw files for input, and output from Photomatix to Photoshop as a 16-bit TIFF to apply the finishing touches to the HDR and to save it as a master TIFF file.
I made duplicates from the TIFF master file for destination output. The file stayed as a 16-bit TIFF for commercial usage, and for non-commercial use I converted the TIFF to a JPEG having the appropriate color space for the use.

 

[TehYoyo]

What file type was input into Photomatix? JPEGs only have an 8-bit color depth
If the input files were a series of JPEGs, outputting a TIFF would be pretty much be useless.

If the input files were Raw files (12-bit or 14-bit color depth) you're losing a lot of color nuances if you output an 8-bit file.

However, at some point the bit depth has to be reduced to 8-bits for either electronic display or printing.

I don't know how you make a HDR, but I always used Raw files for input, and output from Photomatix to Photoshop as a 16-bit TIFF to apply the finishing touches to the HDR and to save it as a master TIFF file.
I made duplicates from the TIFF master file for destination output. The file stayed as a 16-bit TIFF for commercial usage, and for non-commercial use I converted the TIFF to a JPEG having the appropriate color space for the use.

I'm importing RAW files.

But I don't do any commercial work, so the extra depth of the TIFF shouldn't do anything for me, right?

 

[KmH]

A 16-bit TIFF will if you do any more editing outside Photomatix.

As I mentioned, I save all my HDRs as a 16-bit TIFF master file.

If I need a JPEG, I make a duplicate of the master TIFF file, and change the file type of that duplicate to JPEG.