More colors in 8 bit JPG than in 8 or 16 bit TIF with Digita

[The Photo Tuell]

With the G2/G3 when I converted RAWS I would do them all to 8 bit JPG then ones I wanted to print to 16 bit TIF. The 16 bit TIFs always had more colors in them, usually double.

One example from the G3 has 75,271 colors in the 8 bit JPG, and 188,642 colors in the 16 bit TIF.

Today I was getting some shots from the Digital Rebel ready to print and found a surprise. The 8 bit JPGs have more colors than the 16 bit TIFs!

One shot from the Digital Rebel has 461,202 colors in the 8 bit JPG, but only 444,152 in the 16 bit TIF.

Another has 16,162 colors in the 8 bit JPG, and only 12,434 in the 16 bit TIF.

Anyone else noticed this? Am I going crazy? I liked it better when the TIF was undoubtedly better, now I don't know whether I should use the JPG or the TIF, heh.

[dtrayers]

Is the camera in the Adobe RGB color space? What are you using to convert from RAW?

[The Photo Tuell]

dtrayers wrote:
Is the camera in the Adobe RGB color space? What are you using to convert from RAW?

sRGB (Parameter 2) and Canon FVU. It's what I used with the G2/G3. Slow but it works.

[The Photo Tuell]

Hmmm, unchecking the 'False Color Filter' option changes the amount of colors. On some shots now TIF has more colors, but not all. Weird.

[marcel wouters]

The Photo Tuell wrote:
With the G2/G3 when I converted RAWS I would do them all to 8 bit JPG then ones I wanted to print to 16 bit TIF. The 16 bit TIFs always had more colors in them, usually double.

One example from the G3 has 75,271 colors in the 8 bit JPG, and 188,642 colors in the 16 bit TIF.

Today I was getting some shots from the Digital Rebel ready to print and found a surprise. The 8 bit JPGs have more colors than the 16 bit TIFs!

One shot from the Digital Rebel has 461,202 colors in the 8 bit JPG, but only 444,152 in the 16 bit TIF.

Another has 16,162 colors in the 8 bit JPG, and only 12,434 in the 16 bit TIF.

Anyone else noticed this? Am I going crazy? I liked it better when the TIF was undoubtedly better, now I don't know whether I should use the JPG or the TIF, heh.

???
How did you measure that?
Jpeg generate artifacts that's maybe the explanation!

[Roger_Cavanagh]

If you want the most colours, you should use Adobe RGB, but I can't explain why you are getting such wildly different counts.

Regards,

[marcel wouters]

Roger_Cavanagh wrote:
If you want the most colours, you should use Adobe RGB, but I can't explain why you are getting such wildly different counts.

Regards,

Roger,
The adobe RGB gamut is greater than th sRGB gamut, that's a fact!
But there is no relation with the number of colors??
If i have a full black and full white pic (2 levels) i have only two colors in any working space! The same is true for a target containing only a definite number of well know colored patchs (wide gamut and only few colors).
So i just ask how the number of colors are be determined? From this we could maybe give an explanation! Usually noisy pics contains a lot of level!

[Roger_Cavanagh]

marcel wouters wrote:
Roger_Cavanagh wrote:
If you want the most colours, you should use Adobe RGB, but I can't explain why you are getting such wildly different counts.

Regards,

Roger,
The adobe RGB gamut is greater than th sRGB gamut, that's a fact!
But there is no relation with the number of colors??
If i have a full black and full white pic (2 levels) i have only two colors in any working space! The same is true for a target containing only a definite number of well know colored patchs (wide gamut and only few colors).
So i just ask how the number of colors are be determined? From this we could maybe give an explanation! Usually noisy pics contains a lot of level!

True, I should have said "more colour".

My bad.

[Guillermo Freige]

Tuell:
I think this is normal, because during compression, the JPEG artifacts tend to "create" colors not present in the original picture. It's only color noise added. Do a test. Create a two strong colors (say red and blue) image, with no 100% vertical or horizontal lines (curved or diagonal ones are the best) and then save as TIFF and JPEG and then count the colors. The JPEG will have more colors, because the noise added during compression in the color borders between blue and red.