2GB TIFF photos normal??

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2GB TIFF photos normal??

I've read a lot about the differences between 8 bit and 16 bit TIFF files and have chosen to export to external editor with 16 bit TIFFs after seeing a tutorial illustrating the differences very clearly (especially because I do a lot of pixel maniulation). Once in photoshop I may add as many 30-50 adjustment layers and may have a camera RAW image masked above to expose for windows. Now I know the file size of 16 bit TIFFs is larger than 8 bit files but does it make any sense that most of these images are above 2GB and hence cannot display correctly in Aperture? Additionally, I cannot even export these images from aperture as JPEGs. I have to re-export back into Photoshop in order to do that.

I shoot with a Canon 60D which has much smaller file sizes than more professional cameras and I layer no more than two images in the exported to Photoshop file. Does this make any sense that a pro application like Aperture cannot display these images??

I appreciate any feedback I can get.Even if it's in regards to 8 or 16 bit file recommendations.

I'm running Aperture 3.3.2 and Photoshop CS6

Thanks!

(you can view the thumbnails of one of these files attached as a screenshot)

iMac, Mac OS X (10.7.4)

Posted on Dec 5, 2012 8:48 PM

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Answer 1

léonie

Level 10

194,871 points

Dec 6, 2012 4:53 AM in response to LongIslandCity

Some notes:

Raw vs 16 bit tiffs:

I do not have your nice camera; but converting to "raw-16 bits" blows up the size of the raw files considerably, usually by a factor 6. So my 10MB raws will be converted to 60MB tiffs. Adding one layer in Photoshop will double the size again - 120 MB. It is easy to see that Photoshop will blow up your 60MB raw with one added layer to over 700 MB, when exported as 16bit tiff.

I rarely use Photoshop with Aperture, only if it is unavoidable, because I need to do graphics composition - manipulation of the image that require the composition of two images into one. For all other adjustments I prefer to use the (hidden) layers provided by Aperture's brushes. This way I can profit from the lossless workflow in Aperture and do not need to blow up the file size.

If you look at the supported file types in the Aperture user manual, you see, that Aperture only promises to be able to store images with alpha channels (layers), but makes no promise to be able to display them correctly or to be able to adjust these images. Alpha channels are only required for compositing graphics, not for adjusting photos; and Aperture focusses on developing and adjusting photos, not general graphics.

Regards

Léonie

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