help with tiff file sizes please...

[ukjesters]

Hi all,
I have a canon 1dmk11n and i am currently shooting some wildlife shots for a local trust.

The problem is that they have asked me to make the file sizes approx 10mb in size. Out of the camera i get about a 48mb file and when transferring to jpeg this goes down to between 3-5mb when saved at the highest settings and so this is too low and i'd rather save the pics as tiffs due to it being the lossless format.

When i change the image to an 8-bit image the file size reduces to approx 20 odd mb and i have tried to compress the image using lzw compression and that does get it down close to the mark (sometimes too low, sometimes a tad high) but i was wondering if, without changing the dimensions of the image, you could tell the program (CS3) that you wanted a 10mb file size and that it would do just that?

Many thanks
Rick

[tim]

Anyone asking for a file with a size specified in MB has no idea what they really want. Educate them and clarify their requirements.

[ukjesters]

Tim, thats exactly part of the problem. The pictures are to be used for various things, ie some for an online gallery, some for prints of differing sizes etc and i think what they are after is a sort of "one size fits all" scenario.

Cheers for your reply anyway.

regards
Rick

[tim]

I optimise everything individually so I wouldn't give them one file for all purposes. Ask what they want to do with them and give them what they need. Charge appropriately for your time and services.

[Bobster]

closest you're going to get with a TIFF @ 10MB uncompressed is 7.5x5.5in @ 300dpi

[ukjesters]

Hi all,
Contacted them and seeing how they are unsure how they are going to use each image we have decided just to drop it down to 8 bit from 16 bit giving a file size of approx 20mb.

Image sizes, enlargements and cropping certainly have me beat as to their relationships with each other ie as mentioned earlier if the image size is approx 7.5" X 5.5" what sort of enlargement could you expect to get from that size? anyone know of any easy readings out there that could help me along the way?


Regards
Rick

[tim]

From a 7.5" 300ppi file you can do great 7.5" prints. In practice you could print up to about 20" and it'd look ok as long as you weren't right up beside the print.

I stand by the advice in my previous post.

[Epix]

Kinda strange. Usually people throw out file sizes on pics they want to specify either a maximum or a minimum size they're willing to accept. Never heard of someone requesting only a specific file size. Sounds like there's been some miscommunication or misinformation somewhere.