BetterPhoto Q&A
Category: Digital Files and Formats

Photography Question 

Timothy S. Bell
 

TIFF or JPEG?


Should I save my images in a TIFF or JPEG file? I do a lot of printing, and some of the photos I prints just don't look like the original print. I scan the negatives first at 250ppi. Should they be saved in Adobe Photoshop too? Thanks, Tim


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July 31, 2004

 

Vince Broesch
  TIFF will give you the best quality. JPEG is a "lossy" format. While compressing, some data is thrown away in the Jpeg. Additional edits/saves throw away even more data. So you should use JPEG only where small file size is important and quality is less demanding (like for Web graphics).

Vince
www.PhotoAgo.com


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July 31, 2004

 

Jerome Boyer
  If your camera supports RAW format, you should choose it for best results. Once the JPEG has been created (in the camera) you have lost data that cannot be recovered saving it as TIFF. If RAW is not available, use the camera settings that provide with minimal compression to retain as much info as possible.
Your printing problem may have something to do with the 'color space' of your printer.


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August 03, 2004

 

Timothy S. Bell
  I forgot to say that I still use film but i'm using a cano 5000F scanner and adobe 6 photoshop


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August 03, 2004

 

Jerome Boyer
  ah! In that case TIFF is your best bet. Do all your scans and image correction in TIFF and, if needed do a final save into JPEG. I do not have PS 6, but be carefull as you may use Adobe color space and JPEG uses a different color. Make sure your TIFF to JPG do not introduce color 'cropping'.


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August 03, 2004

 

Timothy S. Bell
  Thanks Jerome B I'll keep that in mind hopefully my prints will look better(I'm using canonF9000 printer)with Kodak ultima picture paper


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August 03, 2004

 

Michael Kaplan
  The other thing is to make sure your scanner/monitor/printer have been adjusted so what you see will be what you get. I personally use Monaco EZColor 2 which came with my Epson 3200 Photo Pro. It is not 100% accurate because I am not using a spyder type device to color correct my monitor but still, it does wonders.

Colow Management is important to keep things in line.
Michael Kaplan
Canon EOS-10D
http://www.pbase.com/mkaplan


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August 13, 2004

 

Timothy S. Bell
  Hi Michael,The only color management I use is RGB which is set to my moniter hope this is ok cause thats all I got to work with.... Tim @http://www.studio259.com


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August 13, 2004

 

Michael Kaplan
  The idea of color correction is to make sure that the scanner can read the image it is scanning correctly, and that the monitor you use to display the picture knows how your scanner saw it and your printer prints it so if you would compare the original with the monitor with the printout, they would all look the same. Of course there will be differences due to different medias, finishes like glossy or matte etc but they should look close. If what you are scanning and what you are seeing on the screen and what you are printing don't all look the same then color management is what you need. If you don't have it and don't want or can not afford to buy something them there are some slight monitor adjustments available free on some websites to help adjust the contrast & gamma of your monitor. Also reading and learning about color can help you a bit as well.


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August 13, 2004

 
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