Reading TIFFs?

[Guest]

Archived from groups: rec.photo.digital (More info?)

I'm considering buying a Panasonic FZ3 in the New Year. It'll be my
first digital camera, so I have no experience of the image processing
software that goes with it. [I used to have an OM2 + 35-135 f2.8 zoom +
optical doubler + dedicated flash. I have basic photographic knowledge,
and my talents as a photographer are (were) modest, but discernible! ;-)]

I have gathered the impression that TIFFs from different
cameras/manufacturers are different, and I wonder what programs on the
market will be able to understand the output from an FZ3?

I assume that some kind of software will come with the camera. Will it
be any good? Should I budget for Photoshop, or will something like
Paintshop Pro do?

Any other TIFF-related advice?

Thanks!

Pattern-chaser

"Who cares, wins"

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: rec.photo.digital (More info?)

Pattern-chaser wrote:

> I'm considering buying a Panasonic FZ3 in the New Year. It'll be my
> first digital camera, so I have no experience of the image processing
> software that goes with it. [I used to have an OM2 + 35-135 f2.8 zoom +
> optical doubler + dedicated flash. I have basic photographic knowledge,
> and my talents as a photographer are (were) modest, but discernible! ;-)]
>
> I have gathered the impression that TIFFs from different
> cameras/manufacturers are different, and I wonder what programs on the
> market will be able to understand the output from an FZ3?
>
> I assume that some kind of software will come with the camera. Will it
> be any good? Should I budget for Photoshop, or will something like
> Paintshop Pro do?
>
> Any other TIFF-related advice?
>
> Thanks!
>
> Pattern-chaser
>
> "Who cares, wins"

Hi Pattern

A tiff is a tiff is a tiff...

Sometimes losslessly (is that a word?) compressed, most
usually lzw compression. But any good photo editor like
photoshop or paint shop pro will happily read and write
them.

In any case, what comes out of your camera will be
uncompressed.

Take care.

Ken

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: rec.photo.digital (More info?)

>From: Pattern-chaser pattern-chaser@merrick.britishlibrary.net

>I have gathered the impression that TIFFs from different
>cameras/manufacturers are different, and I wonder what programs on the
>market will be able to understand the output from an FZ3?

Your basic vanilla 8 bit/channel tiff will likely be readable by any decent
graphics program and no doubt that's what this camera poops out. 16
bit/channel and compressed tiffs are readable by a subset of programs.

You were probably mixing up tiff with RAW since the RAW files are proprietary
and are the ones that are "different", while tiff is an open format.

>I assume that some kind of software will come with the camera. Will it
>be any good?

Probably pretty basic but you never know ...

>Should I budget for Photoshop, or will something like
>Paintshop Pro do?

Photoshop is probably overkill at this stage, I'd suggest Elements 3 or
Paintshop Pro 9 or similar < $100 program.

>Any other TIFF-related advice?

8 bit/channel tiffs are no problem.

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: rec.photo.digital (More info?)

Pattern-chaser wrote:
[]
> I assume that some kind of software will come with the camera.

Depends in which country you buy it.

> Will it
> be any good? Should I budget for Photoshop, or will something like
> Paintshop Pro do?

Paint Shop Pro would be a good start - it includes noise-reduction and
chromatic aberration reduction features as well as comprehensive editing.
There is also an active and helpful use community available via their
newsgroups for when you need help.

> Any other TIFF-related advice?

TIFF = Thousand Incompatible File Formats

There used to be compatibility issues between different varieties of TIFF,
you will probably be OK with the FZ3 and mainstream software today.

Make a careful comparison between TIFF and the high-quality JPEG -
determine for yourself if you really need the TIFFs.

Cheers,
David

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: rec.photo.digital (More info?)

David J Taylor wrote:
> Pattern-chaser wrote:
8< (snip)
>>Any other TIFF-related advice?
>
>
> TIFF = Thousand Incompatible File Formats
>
> There used to be compatibility issues between different varieties of TIFF,
> you will probably be OK with the FZ3 and mainstream software today.
>
> Make a careful comparison between TIFF and the high-quality JPEG -
> determine for yourself if you really need the TIFFs.

Thanks, David! I had assumed TIFFs would give me better quality than
JPEGs. Is this wrong?

Pattern-chaser

"Who cares, wins"

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: rec.photo.digital (More info?)

Pattern-chaser wrote:
[]
> Thanks, David! I had assumed TIFFs would give me better quality than
> JPEGs. Is this wrong?
>
> Pattern-chaser

Yes, but...

TIFFs are normally lossless, whereas JPEGs are normally lossy. Depending
on the amount of JPEG compression you may, or you may not, be able to see
the difference. If you get JPEG out of the camera, storing it in TIFFs
serves no function.

It's possible that the TIFFs from the camera will give you slightly better
quality, but it really depends on how good the camera's JPEG compression
is. Using TIFFs may allow you slight extra margin when editing the image
if you stretch the contrast a lot. You really to need to take the same
shot both ways and compare.

Cheers,
David

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: rec.photo.digital (More info?)

"David J Taylor" <david-taylor@invalid.com> writes:

> Pattern-chaser wrote:
> []
> > Thanks, David! I had assumed TIFFs would give me better quality than
> > JPEGs. Is this wrong?
> >
> > Pattern-chaser
>
> Yes, but...
>
> TIFFs are normally lossless, whereas JPEGs are normally lossy. Depending
> on the amount of JPEG compression you may, or you may not, be able to see
> the difference. If you get JPEG out of the camera, storing it in TIFFs
> serves no function.

If you are the sort of person that re-edits an image multiple times, I would
imagine using a TIFF or PNG to save the intermediate results, would mean that
you don't suffer any futher loses as you might by re-saving the file as JPEG.
Obviously saving the intermediate file in the photo editors native format (such
as .psd for photoshop IIRC) means you keep the layers, etc. at a cost of more
disk space.

--
Michael Meissner
email: mrmnews@the-meissners.org
http/www.the-meissners.org