TIFF or PSD (External Editing)

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Souwalker

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I m pretty sure this has been covered. I've searched but could not find a definitive answer. Maybe theres none.

I am still indecisive as to what format to use or set when I edit with an external editor.

I've read other forums threads and books but they seem to differ. If I look at a video from Adobe, they suggset PSD and 8 bit. In books, the author selects TIFF. I've not used this option yet but over the last week or so I've been swapping the settings in LR from TIFF 16bit to PSD 8 bit, back and forth it's driving me nuts:cry:

I understand TIFF files is close to 6'mb? Not sure about PSD. I read too in a book that if I select PSD, I have to ensure I select the Max compatibility option is switched on.

I would only Edit in CS4 to make pp that LR cannot do. I don't intend to give the files (TIFF nor PSD) to anyone. I would either send the file to a printer or a cd to friends and family to view or print but that would be in jpeg.

I too mostlly select better pics to upload to smugmug but that's in jpg too.

Can some kind sole please put me out of my indecisive misery? The book says TIFF is more versatile but PSD is better..sigh.....

Thanks
Pat
 
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Ah yes, the eternal question, "which is better, tiff-jpg-psd-16bit-8 bit?" No easy answer. But first you must decide the definition of "better". Good luck. :-)
 
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My theory is to retain as much information as possible at all stages (within reason) so I use 16bit and ProPhoto colour space. If I need to change to 8bit for certain tools in PS then I do, but I try to do all my 'tonal' work first. Then I change back to 16bit so any 'post' tonal work is done in 16bit.
 
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as for TIF sizes.... they will depend on the size of the original RAW file from LR and how many layers etc. you end up with after editing in PS. Lot's of layers will make for a large TIF but allows you to go back and change your edits. Once your really *really* happy with the image you can flatten it and reduce the size of the TIF. Photoshop shows you the size of the file at the bottom of the screen, it gives you 2 sizes the first is what it would be flattened and the 2nd is the size with all the layers / adjustments etc...

example 21MB/87MB
once flattened it will show 21MB/21MB
 
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Everything that can be saved in a PSD can also be save in a layered Tiff-6.' file format...everything, paths, channels, layers, transparency, layer effects...there is nothing that PSD has "special" any longer and when that happened, Bruce and several engineers and I realized that the end of the Photoshop native file format had arrived.

Tiff has better compression (zipped tifs), can save everything that a PSD can save and be as large as 4 gigs in size (I think PSD is still limited to 2 gigs). Tiff is publicly documented where PSD requires a special NDA to access the internals. As a result, tiff is a more "archival" format while losing nothing by being used.

There is, since CS, only one file format that could still be considered Photoshop "native file format" and that is PSB, it's the only file format that you can save an image larger than 3',''' pixels-actually it can go up to 3'',''' pixels, has no actual upward size limit (if you have the scratch disk space)-I'm pretty sure Chris Cox made a layered PSB that was 3''K x 3''K with enough layers that the file was several terabytes in size and took all day long to save.

So, since Photoshop CS, only PSB is a format unique to Photoshop which does not fall under the heading of having to work with the Suite...and when once looks at all the pluses and minus, I think layered TIFF's offer the best file format for pixels today-unless you are talking raw and then it's DNG-which is essentially, a TIFF-EP file, a variant of Tiff-6.

Which was one reason that Mark Hamburg, when Lightroom was first released in beta fought really, really hard AGAINST allowing PSD files into Lightroom. He lost that battle.

So, at best figure that PSD and TIFF are equal but since TIFF is a documented file format and PSD isn't, I lean towards using tiffs whenever possible.
 
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