I use Light room 6 and have done for years now, I don't have photo shop. I was wondering if I create a Tiff file first from my raw file then down size to a jpeg image weather the quality of the image will be better ? Cheers Jack

Hi Jack,

I don't use LR but you have the right idea. Downsize to a 16-bit TIFF and then output sharpen. The final step is to convert the downsized, sharpened image to a JPEG. This avoids the need to output sharpen the JPEG followed by re-saving the JPEG. You should avoid any adjustment to the JPEG as this will then require the JPEG to be saved again causing further undesirable compression. Hope this helps.

Ian

Thanks Ian will give it a try.

Jack

In my view there is no need to export as a TIFF unless you particularly want to keep a TIFF. In the export menu (File / Export or Control Shift E) there is the capacity to export using various formats and dimensions ('Image Sizing', 'Output Sharpening'). You can experiment (including the level of output sharpening) with these until you find one that suits. For example, I keep the original Raw alongside the Lightroom .xmp file, export as (and keep) a high quality JPEG, and if I want to submit the image to the web site, export as an appropriately sized and sharpened JPEG for the website. I stand to be corrected, but I doubt there are significant output quality differences between saving raw-to-TIFF-to-JPEG compared to raw-to-JPEG, particularly at web sizes.

Whether one wants to keep a TIFF depends on one's workflow and archiving preferences. As I understand it, with a 16 bit TIFF you have a 16 bit file with all the changes made in your raw processing saved in it. You can then put the raw file aside and only work with the TIFF in future if you want to do further minor editing. Alternatively you re-work the raw file if you want to do further editing at a later stage and export as a new JPEG alongside or overwriting the previous JPEG. As Ian says, avoid re-editing the JPEG to avoid image degradation. Note that with a TIFF you can't revert the file back to the original camera output as it was imported into the raw program. as the changes are 'baked in' in the TIFF conversion - but then again you are no longer locked into using the original raw software and can work in most image editing programs. In contrast most raw editors (including Lightroom) allow all changes to be reversed within the program, but you often can't transfer those changes if you change to a new program eg Lightroom would not recognise (to my knowledge) any changes made to a raw file in Canon's DPP software. Obviously in a perfect world you could keep all of the raw, a TIFF, and one or more JPEGs but that's between you and your hard drive capacity

Simon

Thanks Simon,
I think what has made a difference is not to sharpen the whole image using the sharpen slider at the bottom, it's way more work but by using the selective tool I think my results are looking better. Thanks to people on this site, I find it so refreshing that there are still people who like to share and help others out ... its the best way to learn. Cheers Jack .