Best HEIF (HEIC) to JPG workflow

[Skippermark]

Hi all. What is the best workflow to get HEIC files out of Apple Photos and converted to JPG format that will maintain the best quality? They're currently on my Mac in Apple Photos as originals and on my iPhone as optimized.

My ultimate goal will be to merge the JPGs into LR Classic and manage them there.

Should I just import them into LRCC mobile or the desktop app and let it convert them to JPG automatically, or would the quality be better if I exported them from Apple Photos to JPG?

Lastly, in the future, should I continue to shoot HEIF on my phone or just shoot JPG if I don't want to shoot RAW? I've heard mixed reviews of HEIF, with some sites saying they're way better than JPG and others saying to stick with JPG. I thought HEIF would be more like a "compressed RAW" format, kind of like the Sony compressed RAW format, but after reading more about it, it seems more like a slightly better JPG format with a higher bit depth. Thanks for any help.

[Woodley43]

As the iPhone HEICs or JPEGs (12 MPix) have generally a rather good quality and you want to avoid the nasty JPEG artefacts one might convert the 1-2 MB HEICs to 19 MB DNGs (still 8bit colors). But you cannot avoid unavoidable image flaws from a 1-2 MB compressed image converting it into a DNG.

If you want to reduce the number of file formats – and storage space – you might as well protect your HEICs and work from copies. TIFFs from iPhone 8 photos – still 8bit colors – would have 36 MB, a useless waste of space...

[CanalogSE]

Att Woodley43
No, DNGs from my iPhone 8 is what I want and also what I’m getting now...
Thats fine, and let me forget about HEIC’s...!
OK?

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[Woodley43]

Whatever is fine for you, it depends on the image processing you are familiar with as HEICs are not standard yet. A DNG (8bit colors) ist more robust when repeatedly processed, but demands at least 10 times more space, still has 8 bit colors and containes small flaws from compression (...unless a new iPhone would directly save DNGs instead of HEICs or JPEGs )

Under difficult light conditions (more than 1600 ISO), even the best smartphone sensors produce very noisy images. I have a set of semiprofessional cameras, routinely take RAWs (14bit colors) and convert them, when needed to JPEGs (8bit colors) – perhaps HEICs, if a simple conversion would be available. RAWs are always camera specific, DNGs are not, so I might convert in the future my RAWs after download to DNGs (14 bit color), to be less dependent on expensive image processing programs.

[ulbn]

Hi ther again, Woodley 43

OK, fine with me...however, storage space is not a problem for me!

Rgds

/B

[slingetje]

This might work for some of us: open HEIC file in Apple Preview then export to JPG (adjust compression level as preferred)

[avator]

And what do you think the conpression level should be (8/10/12) to have the equivalent quality of the original HEIC without increasing too much the file size?

thks

carlo

[Woodley43]

That is complex: everytime you safe a compressed image file, the number of artefacts increases. You can verify this by magnifying a detailed structure (roman mosaic, telephone wire etc.) down to the pixel level, then safe, reopen the file, safe it and so on – and examine the detail.

Therefore I would keep the original HEIC "untouched" and extract JPEGs according to the specific use, similar strategy as common using RAW files. Nowadays there is cheap storage space available! For printing fotos I never go below 300 dpi and 10/12 compression Quality.

It is a pity to learn  – according to my experience as editor of a community almanac –  that a majority of people have gorgeous photos from hightech cell phones or good digital cameras an store their original 2-4 MB JPEGs reduced to 100-200 kB or less (WhatsApp, Facebok etc.). That size only allows (lousy) printing photos on credit card format!

[Ethan5FE4]

poopie