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Archive 2013 · Lightroom Export Settings - TIFF or JPEG???

  
 
silentwings
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p.1 #1 · p.1 #1 · Lightroom Export Settings - TIFF or JPEG???


Hi, I recently struggled with the export settings in LR5 and wonder if any of you here can share your experience.

I used to work on raw files directly, but now I learnt and switched to a DNG workflow, i.e., first convert all raw files (.CR2 or .NEF) to lossless DNG files, then work them in LR5.

My questions are,

1.After post work, do you suggest to export these DNG files into high-res JPEGs or TIFF files?
2.If tiff files, do you use ZIP compression or none? 8 bit or 16 bit?
3. Do you use export sharpening for Tiff or JPEG export?

I learnt some people suggested to export large TIF files and then resize and save as JPEG files later in PS, but I just hesitated to export full-size TIF files as they are even larger than raw files.

Wish you would like to share your thoughts. Thanks.



Sep 03, 2013 at 10:20 AM
amonline
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p.1 #2 · p.1 #2 · Lightroom Export Settings - TIFF or JPEG???


1. Nearly all of us export to hi-res JPG.
2. n/a
3. No "re-sharpen" on full size exports.

I used DNG for about a year back around 2006. There was really no benefit. I went back to just using the RAW. I also used to use sidecars, but did away with those as well. I just keep everything in the library. (One per client)



Sep 03, 2013 at 10:28 AM
silentwings
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p.1 #3 · p.1 #3 · Lightroom Export Settings - TIFF or JPEG???


Thank you for sharing your thoughts. I also exported high-res jpegs, but after I processed DNG files, I found the quality degraded, especially later I resized and exported JPEGs in smaller web size. I wonder if TIFF export is a must for DNG exports.

amonline wrote:
1. Nearly all of us export to hi-res JPG.
2. n/a
3. No "re-sharpen" on full size exports.

I used DNG for about a year back around 2006. There was really no benefit. I went back to just using the RAW. I also used to use sidecars, but did away with those as well. I just keep everything in the library. (One per client)




Sep 03, 2013 at 10:34 AM
amonline
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p.1 #4 · p.1 #4 · Lightroom Export Settings - TIFF or JPEG???


I'm talking about exporting the finals to JPG. I keep the RAWs as well. I don't export to JPG for work files; if that's what you mean.

I guess I don't understand what you mean by degraded DNGs. I've never heard of, or noticed, such. Regardless, I wouldn't hog up HDDs with TIFs.

It sounds like it may be your export settings. Show us your JPG export settings.



Sep 03, 2013 at 10:57 AM
silentwings
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p.1 #5 · p.1 #5 · Lightroom Export Settings - TIFF or JPEG???


What I mean is if I export JPEG from DNG in LR5, and later I converted these DNG files in PS to JPEGs, I found the quality is not as good as the ones I exported directly from LR5 before when I worked directly with raw files (CR2 or NEF).

One obvious thing I noticed is that previously I can directly export small jpegs (918x613) in LR without issue, yet now I found the same-size JPEG files exported from DNG files in LR didn't seem to have noise-reduction setting applied, which show really bad image quality. The high-res jpeg files look much better, but still seem not as good as those ones exported from RAW files before.

Anyway, my high-res jpeg export setting used before is:

quality 75
resolution 300



amonline wrote:
I'm talking about exporting the finals to JPG. I keep the RAWs as well. I don't export to JPG for work files; if that's what you mean.

I guess I don't understand what you mean by degraded DNGs. I've never heard of, or noticed, such. Regardless, I wouldn't hog up HDDs with TIFs.

It sounds like it may be your export settings. Show us your JPG export settings.




Sep 03, 2013 at 11:48 AM
amonline
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p.1 #6 · p.1 #6 · Lightroom Export Settings - TIFF or JPEG???


Your quality is too low. You should be around 83.

Your resolution is too high. It should stay unchanged. (usually at 240)

That should fix your issue.



Sep 03, 2013 at 12:11 PM
alohadave
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p.1 #7 · p.1 #7 · Lightroom Export Settings - TIFF or JPEG???


amonline wrote:
Your quality is too low. You should be around 83.

Your resolution is too high. It should stay unchanged. (usually at 240)

That should fix your issue.


Don't even worry about the resolution. It doesn't affect anything unless you are printing, and even then, not very important.



Sep 03, 2013 at 12:30 PM
amonline
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p.1 #8 · p.1 #8 · Lightroom Export Settings - TIFF or JPEG???


The point was, he should uncheck it.


Sep 03, 2013 at 01:38 PM
silentwings
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p.1 #9 · p.1 #9 · Lightroom Export Settings - TIFF or JPEG???


i think I read a few articles before, which actually found >75 no big quality difference is observed. Also this setting is maintained from Tony Hoffer and Spencer Boreup's workflow DVD if I remember correctly. Never had an issue with raw files export before, that's the major confusion now.

amonline wrote:
Your quality is too low. You should be around 83.

Your resolution is too high. It should stay unchanged. (usually at 240)

That should fix your issue.




Sep 03, 2013 at 02:28 PM
BigIronCruiser
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p.1 #10 · p.1 #10 · Lightroom Export Settings - TIFF or JPEG???


Read Jeffrey Friedl's analysis on LR export settings. Best I've seen.




Sep 03, 2013 at 03:04 PM
amonline
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p.1 #11 · p.1 #11 · Lightroom Export Settings - TIFF or JPEG???


silentwings wrote:
i think I read a few articles before, which actually found >75 no big quality difference is observed. Also this setting is maintained from Tony Hoffer and Spencer Boreup's workflow DVD if I remember correctly. Never had an issue with raw files export before, that's the major confusion now.


There's another thread here where, after a lot of testing, most members agreed 83 was about the best point to get great results of exported JPGs with the smallest file size. I agreed with that thread.

I used to use 85, but dropped to 83 when I saw the benefit in file size with zero trade off in quality. (could not see a difference) I tried some around 80 and below; and as you did, saw degradation in quality. Thus, the reason I suggested to bump up to around 83.

That said, the resampling/resizing was also a factor. You should turn that off.



Sep 03, 2013 at 03:16 PM
silentwings
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p.1 #12 · p.1 #12 · Lightroom Export Settings - TIFF or JPEG???


Thanks very much for your detailed input. I'll give it a try!

amonline wrote:
There's another thread here where, after a lot of testing, most members agreed 83 was about the best point to get great results of exported JPGs with the smallest file size. I agreed with that thread.

I used to use 85, but dropped to 83 when I saw the benefit in file size with zero trade off in quality. (could not see a difference) I tried some around 80 and below; and as you did, saw degradation in quality. Thus, the reason I suggested to bump up to around 83.

That said, the resampling/resizing was also a factor. You should turn
...Show more



Sep 03, 2013 at 04:11 PM
Ziffl3
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p.1 #13 · p.1 #13 · Lightroom Export Settings - TIFF or JPEG???


amonline wrote:
There's another thread here where, after a lot of testing, most members agreed 83 was about the best point to get great results of exported JPGs with the smallest file size. I agreed with that thread.

I used to use 85, but dropped to 83 when I saw the benefit in file size with zero trade off in quality. (could not see a difference) I tried some around 80 and below; and as you did, saw degradation in quality. Thus, the reason I suggested to bump up to around 83.

That said, the resampling/resizing was also a factor. You should turn
...Show more


There are step functions in output settings as described in the link mentioned earlier.
so there is no difference in size from 77-84 quality setting in LR.
85-92 is the next step.





Sep 04, 2013 at 01:29 AM
deepbluejh
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p.1 #14 · p.1 #14 · Lightroom Export Settings - TIFF or JPEG???


I can't even imagine delivering TIFF files to a wedding clients.

The file size is far too unwieldy for most people to really do anything with. This, and you get almost no image quality benefit over a high quality jpegs.



Sep 04, 2013 at 10:21 AM
amonline
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p.1 #15 · p.1 #15 · Lightroom Export Settings - TIFF or JPEG???


Ziffl3 wrote:
There are step functions in output settings as described in the link mentioned earlier.
so there is no difference in size from 77-84 quality setting in LR.
85-92 is the next step.



Funny, because I definitely saw a difference from 79/80 to 83 when I ran tests on various conditions. However, the difference from 100 to 83 was minimal. Will they be noticed on print? Probably not, but 83 was where I was comfortable. This was also demonstrated on another site somewhere, but I can't find it at the moment. I'll keep looking and share when I find it again.



Sep 04, 2013 at 10:21 AM
D. Diggler
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p.1 #16 · p.1 #16 · Lightroom Export Settings - TIFF or JPEG???


deepbluejh wrote:
I can't even imagine delivering TIFF files to a wedding clients.


+1. Why would you.



Sep 04, 2013 at 04:34 PM
sboerup
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p.1 #17 · p.1 #17 · Lightroom Export Settings - TIFF or JPEG???


Print a TIFF file at 20x30, then a JPG at 85 quality. You won't see a difference.


Sep 05, 2013 at 12:50 AM
silentwings
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p.1 #18 · p.1 #18 · Lightroom Export Settings - TIFF or JPEG???


I don't ever plan to deliver a single TIFF file. I exported TIFF file, then convert them to various sizes of JPEG files (high-res, low-res, fb, blog, etc.) in photoshop by using Image Processor or more simply by using Marcus Bell quickflow tool! Very fast and convenient, just set the size and click it right away, jpegs of different sizes are converted simultaneously!

The good thing about TIFF to jpeg is that the quality is maintained pretty well among various sizes of jpegs, while those jpegs of different sizes exported directly out of LR is not quite consistent in quality side by side.

I even didn't plan to keep those exported non-compressed TIFF files. They are more like an intermediate "source" file format. Once everything is delivered and the job is done, I can delete them and move the rest of the contents to my backup hard drive.

deepbluejh wrote:
I can't even imagine delivering TIFF files to a wedding clients.

The file size is far too unwieldy for most people to really do anything with. This, and you get almost no image quality benefit over a high quality jpegs.




Sep 05, 2013 at 12:45 PM
silentwings
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p.1 #19 · p.1 #19 · Lightroom Export Settings - TIFF or JPEG???


B.T.W., the reason I recently moved to process DNG files is that I adopted the method introduced by sidecar post in Creativelive last month, who used the swap trick of proxy DNG (less than 1MB per dng file) and master DNG (full-size DNG file) in LR.

Basically, you just import and process the proxy DNG first, and then swap them with master DNG. The superior advantage of this method is that even your process these files on your 5-year old PC or Mac laptop with only 4GB memory, 2.0GHz CPU with 1:1 preview rendering in LR, it's still blazing fast from image to image. No hesitation, no stupid lagging time for the histogram loading in LR. I processed with my latest Motibodo keyboard, and my processing time doubles or triples tremendously! Around ~900-1,000 images/hr for 1st turn-round processing (without any specific PS works on some special images) compared to my former ~350-400 images/hr with raw format.

So DNG files, though not quite favor of the advantage on future compatibility, they are quite pleasing by using the "swap" processing techniques which RAW format will never have.



Sep 05, 2013 at 12:53 PM
Scott Mosher
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p.1 #20 · p.1 #20 · Lightroom Export Settings - TIFF or JPEG???


silentwings wrote:
B.T.W., the reason I recently moved to process DNG files is that I adopted the method introduced by sidecar post in Creativelive last month, who used the swap trick of proxy DNG (less than 1MB per dng file) and master DNG (full-size DNG file) in LR.

Basically, you just import and process the proxy DNG first, and then swap them with master DNG. The superior advantage of this method is that even your process these files on your 5-year old PC or Mac laptop with only 4GB memory, 2.0GHz CPU with 1:1 preview rendering in LR, it's still blazing fast
...Show more

Do you have a link? That sounds awesome!



Sep 05, 2013 at 12:59 PM
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