RAW/TIFF/JPEG questions!xx

[jemmy]

Hi all. After reading quite a bit about RAW i decided to give it a shot yesterday. i got a girlfriend back in her wedding dress for a few bridal practice shots :mrgreen: and was REALLY happy with the pics... out of the 150 that i shot i REALLY liked 100 which is a record for me xx Anyway, here are my questions....
#1. What is the difference between RAW & RAW L...and which should i be using?
#2. I processed the RAW images with the software that came with my canon 350D and loved it:lmao: but.... after processing, unsure about the saving stuff... i saved them into a new folder "Melissa Bridal" and they were saved as TIFF images? So does this mean that all original images pre-processed RAWs are gone? Sorry, probably a very dumb question, but i am a bit confused:blushing:
#3.. when i went to burn to disc, there were no thumbnails of the TIFFs?.. anyway, rang my local processing shop and they said they only process JPEGs... is that the norm? or will the quality be not as good... sorry again no idea!!!!:blushing: anyway, then i went back and saved them all (individually!!!!!!!!!!!!) as jpeg into a new folder "jpeg melissa bridal" and burnt to disc. is there a way to save the whole folder of TIFFs to
JPEGs to save my poor wrist???? xx

Sorry to ramble but trying hard to learn all this stuff. Any pro :hail: help would be appreciated HEAPS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! xx:heart:

 

[darin3200]

#3. When you convert RAW to TIFF the files are huge, like 20mb sometimes. Your computer might just not try to make thumbnails for images that large.

Try seeing if you can change the software output filetype to JPG. Then make sure its set on the highest possible quality. Though I'm suprised your shop doesn't do TIFF.

 

[whardman]

#2. The original images should still be in the folder that you opened them from. Unless you specifically overwrite the images they should still be there.

#3. I don't know the specifics of the canon software (as I have a Nikon), but there might be a batch function that will allow you to process all of the images in a specific folder the same way and save those images.

 

[kmb]

I assume you have a Canon DSLR (20D?), and based on that assumption I'll try and answer the first question (not sure if I understood it):

If you shoot raw & "L" (meaning large JPG) what the camera does is the following:
1. Camera's built-in raw-converter is used convert the RAW-data to JPEG, which is then saved to the memory card
2. The RAW-data is saved as a RAW-file to the memory card.

If you shoot "RAW" only, there won't be a JPEG saved with the card. I'd consider the JPEG useless if you shoot RAW since it is very easy to do better in the "real" raw converter.

 

[darin3200]

Oh, and did you camera come with photoshop elements. Under the File menu there is a batch convert option which I think you can use to convert all the TIFFs in a folder to JPEGS

 

[Digital Matt]

Save the converted raw files as tiffs, because they use lossless compression. The raw files will still be there.

Convert to jpg for printing. You can use a program like irfanview to batch convert.

 

[Big Mike]

It's a good idea to develop and use some sort of filing system...especially when shooting RAW.

Here is one suggestion....
Save/copy your RAW files from the camera/card and put them in a folder. When you open a RAW file you can make your adjustments and then the data is made into an image file of some type (JPEG, TIFF, PDS). Now when you save that file, you should use a loss-less format (TIFF or PDS)...this is your working copy of the image...put it into a sub folder. When you want to print, open your working copy and make any adjustments for printing (image size, aspect ratio etc)...then save as JPEG in a "print" folder. If you want to display the image on the web, reduce the image size and save a copy. Reduce the quality (increase the compression) to get the file size down. Save this file in a "web" folder.

In the end, you may end up with four (maybe more) copies of your image.

 

[markc]

The only time I convert to JPG is for the web or if a service needs it that way for some reason. If I'm printing myself, I print from the TIFF so that I'm getting it from the best quality.

 

[Don Simon]

when i went to burn to disc, there were no thumbnails of the TIFFs?

I save scanned negatives as large tiff files and they don't have thumbnails either. If I set folder view to 'filmstrip' (in Windows XP) it does preview the file, but it takes a loooong time. My solution is to make very small Jpeg copies of each tiff for reference - it's not the most practical solution, but it's ok for reminding me what each tiff file contains.