Poll: What format are your master files and why?

[Kari Post]

I'm curious, in what format do you keep and archive your master files? By this I mean your tweaked and edited files that you use as the basis for creating files for web display and print, not just your library of files that you have on hand to pull from for stock. If you have time, please also post why you use the format you have chosen in the thread.

[Larry Rosier]

90% of my work is done in LR. When I need to do PS editing I move the file from LR to PS and then bring it back to LR after PS editing is completed.

[Jia Liu]

I voted PSD, since I am not aware of any other format which can save information such as layers, masks, etc.

[djhanson]

Kari, I use TIFF as my intermediate, tweaked, format. Prior to this, I save all my pix on the camera as RAW (NEF). Because I haven't yet learned how to use a delete key, I think I must go thru about 1 TB in hard-drive space every year (good thing it ain't film ).

Anyways, in Capture NX, the save option only allows NEF, TIFF or JPEG. So TIFF is a natural intermediate format for me, since it can be read in by various other programs, say if one wants to watermark as I do. I let my batch watermarking prog, Faststone, do the final JPEG conversion for the Net using the 8-bit TIFF. So in summary, Capture NX (NEF=>TIFF), Faststone (TIFF=>JPEG w/ watermark). I would love a program that did it all, but haven't found one yet so the Capture NX/Fastone combo thing is my answer. ..dj

[DavidSutton]

Kari, in LR I tried converting to DNG but it proved too much messing around, so my raw files are .CR2. My edits are Tiffs which is a file format in the public domain and so will still be around if Adobe falls over or decides not to support it. Tiffs support layers masks etc like .PSD (except for one obscure thing which I've forgotten).
David

[James Stephens]

In relation to Tiff vs PSD and the obscure thing (see last post):

http://www.teddillard.com/2009/03/tiff- ... inous.html

[c.w. moynihan]

I voted PSD, since I am not aware of any other format which can save information such as layers, masks, etc.

Hi Jia,

My masters are saved as Tiff and that includes the layers and masks. I really see no advantage for a proprietary format like psd.

[Kari Post]

Thanks for that link James - it was just what I was looking for.

I'm in the habit of keeping all of my raw files as native camera RAW (basically the ones stored on my HD for future possible stock needs) and then creating TIFFs of my immediately publishable images.

[Buonomo]

Canon RAW original file always kept (I have gone back a reworked 10D images as tools have evolved) but TIFF as the final processed version. Both in LR stacked, if I make a print, submit it to a contest or something like that it I also put it in a collection.

Lou

[john660]

I use a little of both RAW and tif. Tif are my final, final processed version, ready for output to anything, but I do all of my jpgs straight from RAW in Canon's DPP with a quick action run in PS, too. And of course I keep all of my RAWs (the edited ones, that is).

[Tim Grams]

Of course I always keep the RAW file. My worked images are saved as 8 bit Tiffs since that is what the publishers that I have been dealing with want. I always create a small Jpeg (100-200 k) also of any file that I have worked since some publishers request thmbnails. The small jpegs is also nice to have for attaching to emails.

[Ken Kovak]

Kari,

I also do ~90% of my post work in LightRoom so all that work is saved in the LR catalog for those RAW files. For the other 10% I also save TIFFs for when I go into Photoshop for "special" processing, e.g.: creative sharpening, masking for removal of distracting components, etc. But even for those I never get rid of the RAW file. Both the RAW and the TIFF are managed in LR together.

I voted PSD, since I am not aware of any other format which can save information such as layers, masks, etc.

Jia,
You can save all the layers in a TIFF format as well as in the PSD format. PSD will save a small amount on file size, but storage is so cheap I don't worry about that anymore.

Ken

[Paul Skoczylas]

I'm not sure why you include RAW if you're asking for how we store edited files, since you can't store an edited file that way. (Makes me wonder about the 57% of people who have selected that option so far! )

I selected TIFF due to its overall portability and losslessness. In 16 bit mode I don't try to compress it, but my older 8 bit files are compressed. I still have a whole bunch of PSD files kicking around, too. I haven't bothered converting the files I worked on before I switched to TIFF.

My backed up TIFFs are uncropped and do not have output sharpening applied. Cropping and sharpening are done only for output, and I don't always keep those files, since it's usually easy and fast to recrop and resharpen if I need to--and if I was printing at a different size (or making a different size web image) it might be at a different size anyway.

But make no mistake, all my original RAW files are backed up just as rigorously as my edited TIFFs. And I keep virtually all my RAW files, not just the best ones. The file size is so small compared to the worked files, I see no reason to throw them out. And there's been more than one time where being able to go back and look at the context--the other shots taken around the time--of one of my keepers has helped me remember more details about it. And sometimes I've decided to process shots that I didn't originally consider a keeper.

-Paul

[Tim Zurowski]

Ditto what Paul said . . . you cannot save a file as RAW or NEF once you have worked it. So my answer is also TIFF. I do however save the original RAW files as well.

[E.J. Peiker]

Kari, the poll question really can't be properly answered the way you asked it.

A master file is the RAW file. A worked file is not a master file. And you can't save a worked file back into a RAW format. So the question can't be answered since you defined a master file as the worked file. I suspect for most people shooting RAW, the master file will be either the camera manufacturer's RAW format such as NEF or CR2 and the worked file will pe an archival file format like TIF or PSD.

But since you have redefined master file as a worked file in this poll, the answer Camera RAW (NEF/CR2) is an impossible answer and that whole selection, which most people answered, does not make sense and can't be an answer unless you include an XMP file as part of that answer.

[Royce Howland]

Well, while I also wonder that so many people voted for RAW formats, in fact you can save edits based on RAW files. I believe this is done with Nikon NEF files edited in CaptureNX; the edits are non-destructive, saved back into the NEF. It's also done with non-destructive edits of any RAW file in Lightroom or certain other apps like LightZone. People who don't use layers, blends and other more complicated features of Photoshop may in fact be fine using RAW files as their edited masters.

Personally, I use 16-bit TIFF as my edited masters, and of course I permanently archive the original RAWs...

[Kerry]

Well, while I also wonder that so many people voted for RAW formats, in fact you can save edits based on RAW files. I believe this is done with Nikon NEF files edited in CaptureNX; the edits are non-destructive, saved back into the NEF.

That's correct--you can save edited NEF files, retaining the NEF format, with Capture NX2. I don't do it myself since I use NX2 as a RAW converter, not a full-fledged image editing program, but it absolutely can be done.

[Hoppy]

The quick answer is PSD, mainly because I believe TIFF's are larger and also because I can look at the extension and know it is a master file and not a converted file for output as some of these are Tiff's and some jpg.

I also have RAW images that have some corrections stored in its xmp file. Not all files that I have done inital processing on make it to a master file state.

Hope all that makes sense.

[Martin 095]

Kari,

Once I download my images, I do a some quick processing (ie, batch) in Bridge (I am still on CS3) and then store my files as .dng. While I don't really worry too much about losing the ability to read proprietary formats such as .NEF files, saving as .dng saves me about 33% in file size (Nikon's RAW files are very bloated for reasons that escape me). However, once I process an image for printing that master is stored as a .psd. Hope this helps.

[E.J. Peiker]

The reason Nikon RAW files are bloated is because on cameras before the D3/D300/D700 generation, Nikon provided uncompressed NEF, lossy compression NEF, TIFF and JPEG. Since people don't want to lose data, many select the uncompressed NEF version which does not compress the leading zeros since these cameras are just 12 bit cameras - so there are 4 bits our of every 16 bit data word that are always zero that could easily be compressed resulting in 25% smaller file size. In addition, due to this non-compression method, adjacent bits that have exactly the same value are stored as multiple data words rather once and a descriptor of how many times the identical data word repeats. Newer Nikon cameras provide another NEF option and that is lossless compression. If you have one of those cameras, use this setting. This will shrink your file size around 33% without losing any data whatsoever.