TIFF or PSD?

[Marcel]

I have a very structured workflow, I'm just curious.

At the moment I export from Lightroom into a 16 bit TIFF (uncompressed for speed).
I then edit the TIFF, and save it, with layers, again uncompressed, and store it in a "processed" folder.

I never really used PSD, what with TIFF being a more industry standard file format, and PSD being an Adobe specific format.

However, would using PSD give me any advantages perhaps? File size maybe? Speed of opening? I know I'll lose the thumbnail capability in Windows Explorer, but I use Bridge for browsing my shots anyway.

Thoughts?

 

[Garry79]

Good question; don't know the answer. Maybe a bit of experimentation is in order.

 

[Grendel]

Interesting. I always export from ACR into PS and work on the PSD file. I then save the PSD file with layers intact. I then flatten the image, and only at that point do I save as a hi res TIFF (after 1st stage sharpening). I'll have to try your method Bod and see the difference in file size between a "layers intact" TIFF and PSD

 

[RobertP]

Personally I find the whole concept a bit strange

You obviously like editing and I don't. Raws into Lightroom... edit..best jpegs out...job done. Online print places are easier to use with jpegs rather than huge tif files and viewing files across my home network is also easiest with jpegs. Just don't get the whole photoshop thing. well maybe sometimes but not 99%+ of the time.

 

[Slapo]

I wouldn't do that unless you need to keep the layers.
If you don't (which I guess is most of the time), just save the shot as a LZW compressed tiff. GIMP seems to be a bit faster when working with a LZW compressed tiff than with an uncompressed one, which is a bit odd, but it happens frequently and is most noticeable when loading the shot. I don't know how Photoshop handles it, but the difference in working speed shouldn't be big, really.

 

[Marcel]

The thing is, I do want to keep the layers. And I can save layered files in PSD or TIFF.

I did have a look at LZW compress TIFF last night, and the file size drop was great. I'm averaging 50 meg per shot (more if there are layers), dropping to about 20 or so for a compressed file.

However, at the moment I've decided to stif with TIFFs, what with it being the industry standard.
I saved some PSD's last, and the file size was exactly the same as TIFFs, so there's no advantage to be gained there.
I did a little bit of reading last night and the concensus is, for future proofing, stick to uncompressed TIFF.

Im not a huge fan of editing, but I find I've got my workflow 'down'.

Lightroom > Photoshop, edit and save the layered TIFF > run an action to save a websized bordered/tagged/sharpened version, and thats it.
If I need one for print, I can load up the tiff, flatten, sharpen, and save a fullsize JPEG.

 

[Byrhtnoth]

However, at the moment I've decided to stif with TIFFs

I work with TIFF files but save in jpeg for uploading and veiwing.

 

[fletch5]

dl the raw, then convert to tiff, open in psp and save edited as tiff, unless lots of editing or unfinished then i also save a psp(i assume the equivelant to psd)just to preserve the layers and save me having to redo the lot from scratch