Converting layered Tiff to flattened Tiff

[jakubn70054137]

Hi guys I've got a question. Is there a way to export files as flattened Tiff in Lightroom so that after conversion LR/ACR will still see snapshots made in Lightroom. I'll try to elaborate...

1) When I choose export as Original, LR snapshots stays in place, but files are big (most of my files are layered Tiff files)

2) When I export files as Tiff, I get flattened files (much smaller files) but I loose LR snapshots (even though files that I'm exporting are Tiffs, just layered)

3) When I export files as DNG, all snapshots stay in place

Option 1) is not conveniet for me - I want to get flattened Tiff (smaller files for my backup drives)

Option 2) would be great (files are much smaller ~200Mb, not like 1,5Gb), but I lose all LR snapshots. So is there a way to do it so that LR/ACR would see all snapshots after conversion?

Option 3) works fine for me, but do I lose anything when converting 16-bit, ProPhoto RGB Tiff to DNG? And if yes, what do I lose?

Thanks for your help in advance 🙂

[Ian Lyons]

Have you tried exporting a Tiff file that’s always been flat? If not, then worth try. If it retains Snapshots then this would suggest a bug in flatting process. If it also drops the snapshots then feature request might be in order.

[jakubn70054137]

So i did some experiments.

Exporting flattened Tiff with snapshots to Tiff:(via Export window in Lightroom)

- when importing and opening these new files in LR, snapshots are gone

- opening these new tiff in Camera Raw through Bridge gives the same result - no snapshots

So is there any way to retain snapshots after export/conversion to tiff? (so that they would stil be available in LR and/or Bridge)

If not... I can convert Tiff to DNG. And then both LR and Bridge retain snapshots made in LR (it works both with layered and flattened Tiff). But the question remains: DO I LOSE ANYTHING (DATA? QUALITY?) WHEN CONVERTING 16-bit, ProPhoto RGD Tiff to DNG? If not, I'm OK with converting files (Tiff) to DNG.

Maybe I will clarify why I'm asking such a strange question. I have like few thousands layered Tiff files and they take a lot of space on my hard drives. I know that I will not be needing layered files in the future and I know that flattening them will make them much smaller. But I don't want to open layered Tiff from LR to Photoshop, flattening them in PS and closing them one by one. It would take forever. So I want to export all my layered Tiff to new files (flattened Tiff or DNG), I want to be sure that all snapshots are included in these new files and I want to delete all layered Tiff in the end. Does it make sense?

[Ian Lyons]

jakubn70054137  wrote

So i did some experiments.

Exporting flattened Tiff with snapshots to Tiff:(via Export window in Lightroom)

- when importing and opening these new files in LR, snapshots are gone

- opening these new tiff in Camera Raw through Bridge gives the same result - no snapshots

That's unfortunate, and would suggest that stripping the snapshots  from flattened TIFF files is intentional. Since I don't recall this being raised before it could be raising it as Feature Request might get it onto the Development Team's radar. You can do so at Lightroom Classic CC | Photoshop Family Customer Community  HoweverRemember to search that forum for any previous posts on same subject first. If you find any then add your request there.

So is there any way to retain snapshots after export/conversion to tiff? (so that they would stil be available in LR and/or Bridge)

It would seem there isn't.

If not... I can convert Tiff to DNG. And then both LR and Bridge retain snapshots made in LR (it works both with layered and flattened Tiff). But the question remains: DO I LOSE ANYTHING (DATA? QUALITY?) WHEN CONVERTING 16-bit, ProPhoto RGD Tiff to DNG? If not, I'm OK with converting files (Tiff) to DNG.

Maybe I will clarify why I'm asking such a strange question. I have like few thousands layered Tiff files and they take a lot of space on my hard drives. I know that I will not be needing layered files in the future and I know that flattening them will make them much smaller. But I don't want to open layered Tiff from LR to Photoshop, flattening them in PS and closing them one by one. It would take forever. So I want to export all my layered Tiff to new files (flattened Tiff or DNG), I want to be sure that all snapshots are included in these new files and I want to delete all layered Tiff in the end. Does it make sense?

Converting TIFF to DNG (Usually referred to as Linear DNG) is something I do fairly often with scanned images, and compresses your images significantly, even when lossy compression is disabled. Actually, I strongly recommend you disable lossy compression when exporting as DNG thus avoiding any data/quality loss. That being said, if/when you export this new DNG file as a TIFF, then it will be a flattened TIFF and any Snapshots recored to the DNG will again be stripped.

What you're suggesting makes since for the reasons give. However, I'd see whether there's a solution/explanation offered on other forum.

[JohanElzenga]

Any export will strip the snapshots, unless you export as original or as DNG. The reason is simple: any other type of export creates a derivative file, with the edits applied ('baked in') to that file. Because the edits are applied, it would be useless to keep snapshots of the edits with that file. You couldn't do anything with those snapshots anyway.

[jakubn70054137]

I think they (snapshots) wouldn't be useless. If I had flattened Tiff with snapshots I could check very fast the other looks of the exported photo (I usually make more than one look: B&W, one or few color snapshots when editing in LR). When LR loses snapshots I one have this one look and all others are gone.

So there is no lose of data, when converting 16-bit, ProPhoto RGD Tiff to DNG or is there? (of course I don't check "Use Lossy Compression) Loss of quality? Color space depth? Anything?

[Ian Lyons · Accepted solution]

jakubn70054137  wrote

So there is no lose of data, when converting 16-bit, ProPhoto RGD Tiff to DNG or is there? (of course I don't check "Use Lossy Compression) Loss of quality? Color space depth? Anything?

The files remain 16 bit, there is no loss of data/quality, and ProPhoto also continues. Lossy compression is like any lossy compression - it throw aways data/quality.