TIFF or DNG?

[Ian D J]

This might come across as a noob-sounding question and I'm sure it may have been asked in the past, but ever since I've become a RAW convert when using my D7000 due to the expanded room for adjustments in Lightroom, which is the best file to save for final editing?
In my case, I've been saving them in the 16 bit TIFF format simply because it's something I've "felt at home with" (I use it for colouring in my black line art doodles) and how it'll open with any possible editing software there is. But, does the DNG format offer any hidden advantages as I'm struggling to see any - but then again, I was like that with RAW over JPEG!

I did go down the Google route but as always the case with doing that kind of thing, I was no more the wiser for it.

 

[muscleflex]

Can't help you there. I've always used tiff.. but lately have started working with DNG files (mainly because that's the raw format of the photos coming from my DJI Inspire) but to be fair, I have not noticed anything different.

 

[boyfalldown]

I'd leave it in RAW for LR editing. If you need to use another editor I'd convert to TIFF

 

[Chappers]

It depends on what you are going to do with the file. If you are using Lightroom then output in the format that suits the final destination. The DNG contains all the original data which you can re- purpose anytime you like. 16 bit TIFF files are fine if you are going to edit in Photoshop ( although that may be overkill for some instances ), but you are editing the original DNG in 16 bit in Lightroom anyway ( plus using an enormous colour space as well) . Don't forget you have the ability to drop images from Lightroom into Photoshop directly and edit them there. You can select what format they are handed off in ( I use 16 bit PSD) and bring them back into Lightroom.

I would suggest that 8 bit JPEG ( low compression) will suffice for the vast majority of applications. If you need 16 bit for any reason then I'd go back to the orriginal DNG file in Lightroom and re export as that.

 

[Ian D J]

Actually, I might need to add a bit more to my original comment. I was thinking in terms of once you're happy with the final adjustment with the RAW file in Lightroom. I then go onto saving the image as a TIFF file so that I could open it in Paint Shop Pro X3 for cloning out unwanted bits, etc. That kind of thing.
I then store two versions of the finalised file, the full size TIFF file for printing purposes and a smaller JPEG file for interweb show.

 

[Ian D J]

Actually, I might need to add a bit more to my original comment. I was thinking in terms of once you're happy with the final adjustment with the RAW file in Lightroom. I then go onto saving the image as a TIFF file so that I could open it in Paint Shop Pro X3 for cloning out unwanted bits, etc. That kind of thing.
I then store two versions of the finalised file, the full size TIFF file for printing purposes and a smaller JPEG file (no bigger than 2500 px width) for interweb show.

Oh dollops, I was meant to edit the last comment and ended up quoting myself. Whoops.

 

[gramps]

If you convert to DNG the RAW file is enveloped in the DNG file, so subsequent processing could change the data in the RAW file, whereas saving as tiff keeps the data intact whichever processor you use.

 

[redhed17]

This might come across as a noob-sounding question and I'm sure it may have been asked in the past, but ever since I've become a RAW convert when using my D7000 due to the expanded room for adjustments in Lightroom, which is the best file to save for final editing?

What extra editing do you plan to do, and what software are you planning to use?

Because I use Photoshop, I open straight into that from Lightroom if I need to do anything that LR can't do. I 'believe' that LR (and ACR) opens a high quality image, possibly 16bit without a colorspace, (or at least a Pro Photo colorspace) for editing in Photoshop.

If I finish editing in LR and save as a Jpeg, I save as an 8bit at full quality. (12 in Adobe products, not 10 btw)

 

[Ian D J]

What extra editing do you plan to do, and what software are you planning to use?

Because I use Photoshop, I open straight into that from Lightroom if I need to do anything that LR can't do. I 'believe' that LR (and ACR) opens a high quality image, possibly 16bit without a colorspace, (or at least a Pro Photo colorspace) for editing in Photoshop.

If I finish editing in LR and save as a Jpeg, I save as an 8bit at full quality. (12 in Adobe products, not 10 btw)

Hi, when I take a photo in the RAW format and then give it that cheeky bit of adjustment in Lightroom to make it "pop" out a bit more. I then save it as a TIFF 16 bit file so that I can open it in Paint Shop Pro X3 for cloning, "pushing" etc and once that's done and I'm happy with the finished result, I save it as that same Tiff format for printing purpose. However, I'm not quite done yet as while I'm still using that paint program, I then go onto resizing it to 2500 px width and sharpen with borders and "initials" added and finally saved as 100% quality JPEG file for internet show as well as sending via emails.

 

[Ian D J]

Actually, I'm starting to forget where I'm going on this now! I think it's where I'm trying to find out which is the best image file.