Saving RAW files from the G6 - 8 or 16-bit TIFF files?

I am playing around with RAW files and I see I have a choice as to what type of TIFF file these can be saved at - 8 or 16-bit. The latter yields almost 41 MB in file size, rather whopping, but this should produce the ultimate in image quality. The 8-bit mode creates 20.3 MB, still large, but I could put about 33 or 34 of them on a CD-R.

What is the general rule on this sort of thing? I regularly scan film slides and negs and create large files, so this is nothing new.

This question gets asked a lot.

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For me it depends. I almost always shoot RAW, then:

1.) First I cull through my pics and throw out the trash.
2.) Repeat Step #1.
3.) Snapshots - JPEG only. Everything else gets deleted.
4.) Keepers - RAW and 16 bit finished images.

Yes, I have been studying this out in further detail and it appears I should save in the 16-bit form. I would think shooting winter scences would be especially useful with the RAW mode as exposure is always tricky to get perfect; I still would not trust the automatic exposure settings on any camera, film, to ever outthink me.

These images I took, today, look pretty decent. I guess I should be *very* ruthless with my editing and try to cull them down to a slect few, as 40 MB files fill up a disc pretty fast.

Thanks for the response.

TIFF is pretty much yesterday's news. The only time TIFF is necessary is when you submit the file to a printer or stock photo company that requests it. And then I would only convert to TIFF just before I send it off.

If I have a RAW file I know I'm going to do a quality print of, I do my tweaking in RSP or ACR, then either open it directly in CS2 as a 16 bit or convert to 16 bit .psd. You can't really DO anything to a TIFF file. If you work on it in PS, you have to flatten it before saving.

Maybe I'm missing something. If I am, I'm sure somebody will point it out.

That was true a few years ago, but today a TIF file is every bit as good as a PSD. You can save layers, etc., with a TIF file now.

Something told me I was going to get burned. I didn't realize you could save layers in TIFF. Learn something new every day.

You may want to give the whole thing a re-think. For example, did you know that when you are done processing in a RAW file, it has in no way been changed or modified. (I know what you're thinking!) Those changes that you make seem to be preserved, and they are - but not in the RAW file. All of your changes are saved in plain ASCII text files called sidecar files with a suffix xmp. In addition to that, just in case you find the sidecar files and erase them, the same information is stored in the Adobe database file on your computer.
Therefore, it seems that saving 48 MB TIFFs of your RAW processing would serve little or no purpose, unless you are saving "different" edited versions of the RAW processed products - in which case, you have reason to save those products. However, even then you should use PSD instead of TIF, because with PSD there will automatically be lossless compression applied, making the files much smaller.

Yes, I realize you can get lossless compression in TIF, as well - but you have to think about it. In PSD, it's automatic!

I don't have PhotoShop - I use Paint Shop Pro.

Anyway, I'll shoot RAW for the immediate future and enjoy the creativity of processing them. I have found the G6 processor to bo too heavy on the contrast and shooting RAW actually gives me back the control.

Thanks for all the assistance in this thread.

OK - I made an unjustified assumption. It's easy to assume that everyone uses Photoshop - Hi!

I have RSE but seldom use it. I wonder if you've tried that. I am wondering if the other processors like RSE use the sidecar files just like Photoshop does. Actually, they must do, because the CRW and CR2 files do not get modified in any way by any of these RAW processors so far as I can tell.

Edit:
I just resolved that question. No, RSE does not use sidecar files, but it does maintain a database of RAW files in which it keeps a record of what edits have been accumulated on each RAW file that it has seen - somewhat similar to the database that Photoshop's Adobe Camera RAW maintains.

Leftturn,
Am I missing a way to save from RawShooter to .PSD or open conversions directly into PS without saving to TIFF? Or were you talking about ACR's ability to do that? I'd love to skip the TIFF step.

SBG,
Like some of the other posters, I only retain the original RAW and whatever destination format (usually JPEG), and discard the TIFF. If I want to preserve any of my edits, I keep a psd, but then I'm working in PS, not PSP. However, I assume PSP has an internal, efficient/compressed file format you could use the same way?
My take on 16 bit is that it can be useful if you're going to be heavily editing an image, esp. extensive levels/curves. For moderate editing, I don't think it would be possible to see the difference in the end product since the gamut of any current display or print is smaller than 8 bit x 3channel (okay, unless you have an insanely expensive 10 bit LCD).

I'll follow Lefturn's canny example: am I missing something?