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Howdy,
Having started to shoot in RAW what's the best format to convert to?
I guess it depends on what you want to do with the final image. One of the many advantages of shooting RAW is that you don't have to decide as you shoot. With a non-destructive RAW processing package, such as Adobe Lightroom, you can have as many changes as you want and then output in whatever format you require, as the situation demands it.
If you are outputting to the web then JPEG is the most likely format. You could also use TIFF, or DNG, or many more formats as your needs change. The quality is there though which ever one you choose, as it will be generated as a new copy from the RAW file.
Welcome to RAW... you'll love it!
Quote: Cant see the value of converting to Tiff. You always have the RAW file to go back to, for me I always convert to highest quality Jpg and, go back to the RAW file if needs be.
The problem is if you need to reopen the jpeg and then resave it you lose quality every time.
I convert from raw to tif, then open in PS and save as PSD, then delete the tif. If I could convert straight to PSD from Capture 1 I would do so. I keep the raw original forever and only create a jpeg when I need to send it somewhere (including web).
Ian
Quote: Cant see the value of converting to Tiff
TIFF allows you to save as 16 bit rather than the 8 bit of JPEG, that way it here's any tweaking to do in PS, you'll have a better tonal range to do it with. You can then always save this down as an 8 bit JPEG later if needs be.
I convert RAW to TIFF, as it will be the file I work in PS and save as layers.
If I do not save it as layers, and need to tweak the editing in PS, I would never get it back from RAW stage.
And I can't save layers in JPEG.
Don't really care what the pros do, as it is my workflow not theirs.
Quote: Yes fair points but the file size of Tiffs are sometimes huge and, can the naked eye see the tonal range difference between Jpg and Tiff?
Tif or psd is the way to go if you want the best image quality.
The files can indeed be large, especially if you save them complete with adjustment layers, but the price for storage isn't particularly expensive nowadays. A 1TB hard drive costing £60 or thereabouts will keep even the most prolific shooters going for a good while.
Quote: If I do not save it as layers, and need to tweak the editing in PS, I would never be able to get back to what I have done before.
Don't do so much editing then 
Fair point too Adam, but personally I'd sooner have that flexibility and the file size doesn't really bother me that much ... you can use LZW [lossless] compression on TIFFs though to reduce the final size if storage is a problem for you.
Quote: Coleslaw. Would it not be better to save as a Psd file?
Adam
Psd is a proprietary format that Adobe muck about with between versions. Tiff is much more of a standard and supported by many more applications.
Quote: but the file size of Tiffs are sometimes huge
You only need to convert files you actually want to print or use on the web, disk space is pretty cheap & I have never noticed the impact of a few tiffs compared to my archive of raws.
Quote:
Tom Ang among other Pro's only shoot and work in Jpg.
Never really understood why people would bother with shooting in jpg, seems a lot of hassle to me.
I tend to leave everything as the original RAW image, these RAW files are all then organised and keyworded for when I need them.
Luckily the way I shoot theres normally very little editing to do from RAW to print so can quickly do a levels and sharpen and maybe remove a couple of dust spots before converting to jpeg when I need to. These Jpegs are then saved to a different print folder by year and project name to keep them ready for if I need the same images again in the future.
If you need to work on your images convert and save as TIFF, these will then be your core images for your to convert from to jpeg for web and print. If there is a shot that i've got completely wrong in the camera and need to rescue I then save my edited version as a TIFF image and file in the same original directories along with all the RAWs.
For things like sports I just shoot jpegs. There are many reasons for pros to shoot in jpeg, speed and flexibility to name a few.
You can get very bogged down with RAW files converting them and having many versions of the same image as different file types, I try to spend as little time infront of thte computer as possible!
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