Photographers, what colour space and resolution do you save at?

[NStocks]

I have being looking through Lightroom at all the different saving types. I want to know what most people save their edited Photo's as. At the moment I import as DNG ( RAW ), then edit and export as a uncompressed TIFF file, Adobe 1998 color space, and if I bother with the DPI, then its at 320 I think.

I just wanted ot make sure then I;m not saving the files in the 'wrong', was or resolution, to get the bes possible image for printing/displaying.

Could you tell me the settings you use to export you're Photo's.

Thank You

NStocks

P.S I'm not trying to start a TIFF vs PSD vs JPEG thread

 

[ChrisA]

Using Aperture I avoid this issue. I think with Lightroom you can too.

What I store and archive is the raw file (.nef for nikon) and a short text file that describes my edits. Raw files are not in any color space and have no DPI.

If ever I need to export an image out of the Aperture library then I can chose a resolution, file type, color space and image size that is suited to the use of the image. If I'm exporting to Photoshop I export a PSD file in Adobe RGB. If I'm exporting to the web I use something much different. But either way the archive format is Nikon's NEF file format.

 

[NStocks]

OK, so saving the final edited file as a RAW file, is just as good if not better then saving it as a TIFF file? Does the Program automatically know what the settings are ( basically no limitations if it's a RAW file ). For some reason i got the impression that if its saved or exported as a RAW file then it's not being finished or developed, but I understand that this isn't the case, its just exporting or saving to no limits?

And what about printing, can you print it directly to your'e printer as a RAW file after edits.

The main reason I export after edits, is so that it does'nt clutter up my Lightroom libary, and if the edited Photo's are in a completley different location ( Desktop ) to the the un-edited Photo's I can see wha's being edited and what has'nt. I will be getting a iMac in a month or so, so at this point I could try the Aperture trial.

NStocks

 

[GT41]

I tend to save my files to JPEGs and toss out the RAW files I will no longer be interested in working with. I don't mind having JPEGs as long as I know they aren't going to be touched or modified any further.

Otherwise I have often wondered how people store their photos and how often people go back afterwards to change a photo after their initial shoot.

 

[LaJaca]

I leave the original NEF, convert to PSD in ProPhoto colorspace. Before you ask if I have 2x number of files, I only convert those I plan on modifying in LR or CS3. I save the NEF in case I decide later I overprocessed the PSD or whatever.
I eventually export out of LR as a JPEG at 280 (or is it 240??). It certainly helps that I have a 750GB drive with lots of space - might be a factor for some....

A humble suggestion: be careful deleting your original file. If all you have is a JPEG, that's all you'll ever have, and you may be in a hole if you decide to go back and tweak it.

 

[ChrisA]

OK, so saving the final edited file as a RAW file, is just as good if not better then saving it as a TIFF file? Does the Program automatically know what the settings are

There is no edited file. The RAW file is never changed. If I were to crop the file what is saved is a little note about where the crop line is. Same with (say) a contrast slider. All that is saved is the position of the slider. Whenever you look at the image all these setting and adjustments are re-done to the RAW image file. If I were to make two versins of the file, one normal and the other a tight crop then only one copy of the RAW file is kept but the system will keep two sets of notes.

How do I keep track of which files are edited? Aperture has little symbols that it put over the thumbnails that tell you what the image is.

If I print from within Aperture (as opposed to exporting a JPG and then printing that) then I don't know what steps are taken internally but I do know that on the Mac everything gets converted to Postscript before it is sent to be printed. The print system includes a Postscript interpreter although this is largely hidden from the user.

A lot of people coming from a Windows PC get very confused ith Aperture. They are used to managing files by keeping them inside folders and using file name conventions. Aperture hides all this from you. You don't see the files and don't have to know where on the disk they are.

 

[NStocks]

There is no edited file. The RAW file is never changed. If I were to crop the file what is saved is a little note about where the crop line is. Same with (say) a contrast slider. All that is saved is the position of the slider. Whenever you look at the image all these setting and adjustments are re-done to the RAW image file. If I were to make two versins of the file, one normal and the other a tight crop then only one copy of the RAW file is kept but the system will keep two sets of notes.

How do I keep track of which files are edited? Aperture has little symbols that it put over the thumbnails that tell you what the image is.

If I print from within Aperture (as opposed to exporting a JPG and then printing that) then I don't know what steps are taken internally but I do know that on the Mac everything gets converted to Postscript before it is sent to be printed. The print system includes a Postscript interpreter although this is largely hidden from the user.

A lot of people coming from a Windows PC get very confused ith Aperture. They are used to managing files by keeping them inside folders and using file name conventions. Aperture hides all this from you. You don't see the files and don't have to know where on the disk they are.

So could I store all raw photos on a folder then make a duplicate if that, and import this into Aperture to make the changes,
Leaving this version within aperture in a folder if I wish to display and print from ? And if I wanted to go back to that photo then I could, and re adjust the crop ( lightoom also gas this feature in which the crop is always editable).

Is it easy to export entire folders if needed too, and can you display photos like you can in iphoto were you scroll the mouse pointer across a collection ( event) to see it's content.

Does time machine also back up the aperture as it would with any other program/document.

NStocks

 

[waj]

My method ( a very belt and braces approach ! )
When returning from a location/shoot I create a named folder on the HD and all relevant files are included.
No image files are discarded at this time, a preliminary look at the images in Bridge allows any very obvious ' no hoper's ' to be sent to the trash.
I open the raw files in ACR at a resolution of 300 and then into CS3 proper for the various adjustments etc. the colour space being Adobe 1998 and the finished files are saved as uncompressed 16 bit TIFF files in a separate ' finished ' folder.
If an image is to be posted online I open the TIFF file and resize as required, convert to 8 bit to allow a jpeg file to be made and convert the colour space to sRGB, this version is then saved in the ' finished ' folder.
I now have three versions of the same image , it might be considered lazy but I do not want to have to go back and make the image adjustments again , unless in the future I decide to treat the original in a totally different way when I will return to the original raw file.
All three versions are backed up onto two external hard disks and eventually a DVD is written just in case !
I never discard my raw files, I treat them with as much care and respect as I do with my negatives from years gone by.

 

[termina3]

NStocks, you're making this much more complicated than it needs to be.

In Aperture:

Import photos (RAW, JPEG, whatever)
Edit photos (in Aperture)
Store photos, referenced or managed, in Aperture. Don't touch them.

Aperture remembers what edits are applied to which photos, leaving the originals intact (hence the term "non-destructive editing").

IF you need to export to photoshop, use the "External Editor" tool:

Setup by going to preferences (Aperture -> Preferences -> Export) and identify photoshop.

Use by selecting image(s) and Image -> Edit With -> Photoshop

Aperture will auto-export an image, making a duplicate in it's library. When you save your edits in photoshop, the duplicate will reflect them.

When you want to put the photo on the web, print it, whatever, export it. You'll still have your master original intact.

It's very simple in practice. There's no need to touch the finder!