My son said the same thing, he thought it was a painting. Thank you

Near Deming New Mexico. HDR photo taken 9-16-20

Not at all, learn all you can. Good luck.

That all makes good sense. Sometimes having a little bit of knowledge on a topic, helps one to know who to listen to, as there are many voices on this subject. I am listening to you, for one. Thanks

Thanks to you as well for all the time you've taken to help those of us who need it to understand all of this. I do think I understand most of what you've described here, but I still have a ways to go. Also, getting back to pixels, another variable is the camera sensor. Just because a sensor has more pixels, doesn't necessarily make it better as I know pixel size is a factor as well, and do you know if pixel size correlates to dynamic range for capture? Sorry, not trying to make this any more complex than it already is, just trying to understand as much as I'm capable of and you seem quite knowledgeable as well as some others in this thread. You do state "And since TIFF can be 16 bit or more, it can be a more accurate reproduction" which goes back to my original question about tiff versus jpeg. That is exactly what I thought, so when it comes to larger prints, it seems tiff would be better, yet a recent post from Burkephoto showed some samples comparing a tiff to jpegs and I could not see a difference when viewed at the correct viewing distance. However, that being said, I still here photographers saying if you want more accurate color representation, than print from tiff. So my original thoughts that the majority of these print labs only dealing with jpeg files may be correct. Either they can't or don't want to work with tiff files versus their claims of jpegs being good enough. Uhgg, not sure what to believe. Thanks again for all your help on this subject. Mark

I really appreciate you taking the time to share all of this. I'm going to keep researching and learning about file sizing and image quality from lightroom. Thank you again for all your help. I wish I had your knowledge. Mark

Yes, the color shift did disappear upon download [interesting]. Was the 240 ppi a choice, or is that what was produced when cropped, because it seems 300ppi would be the choice for best resolution? I'm going to study some adobe videos on file sizing for export because there are a lot of variables available in lightroom, and I don't understand all the differences, which seems to be quite complex at this point. My goal is to understand what is needed for different size prints for good resolution and color prints that will match what is on the monitor. Some say sRGB is good enough, and others say to go with Adobe RGB. After viewing your file samples I honestly couldn't see any difference. You can see a huge difference when viewing a TV with 4K resolution versus one with 1080p, so is this not the same concept with image prints? You stated earlier not to mistake file size with image quality. That is confusing as it seems more data should equal better quality images provided it was captured correctly, but your samples don't support that either, so it's obvious there is a lot to learn here. Thanks again for all your help.

I'll check it out. Thank You.

Thank You.

I think what I'm confused about is print resolution. I understand what the poster burkphoto was saying about viewing distance but I'm still not quite clear on two issues. From the color profile videos I've watched, they've all said tiff files will give you better more true color images. Also, when I export my raw files [approx 23 mb] in jpeg at 100% quality and 300 dpi, they're only a 5-6mb file. An earlier poster said his 47mb raw files were exporting to over 20mb jpegs. So I'm not sure what settings he's using, I have to figure this out yet. Although I'm concerned about print resolution, I'm more concerned about getting accurate colors to my printed image as what I see on my monitor. I have an expensive monitor that supports 99% Adobe RGB and full sRGB as well as an X-Rite Display Pro calibrator, so I can achieve accurate colors on my screen. My understanding is sRGB was created for using images on the screen, so I can't yet understand how that color profile can be sufficient for rendering accurate colors in print when other color spaces are available [adobe 1998 for one], and that is what most of these labs claim. When exporting from lightroom, 16 bit files in tiff are an option, but only 8bit in jpeg. My camera captures 14 bit. I need to find a lab that can work in that color space and possibly send me a large image printed in both sRGB and Adobe RGB for comparison. Obviously I'm new to this printing game, but I'm going to keep researching this until I get it. When saying a large file can be worthless, what specifically do you mean? Are you talking about noise, dpi, white balance? Thanks much for your help. Mark

Yep, I have a calibrator and I will do that. Still trying to understand all these variables. Do you send your files in Jpeg or tiff? And who do you use? Thanks for your reply.

Alright, again I thank you, but I have some learning to do. My thoughts were a 100mb 16 bit tiff file (not sure if this is lossless or not exported from lightroom] in Adobe 1998 color space would give a much better resolution on a large print, say 20"x40", than a 6mb jpeg in sRGB. I am researching some of what you said previously and learning about file resizing and exporting now. I know I'm confusing some of these issues and am trying to get this all figured out for the best quality prints I can get. Perhaps a larger jpeg file is all I need. As I stated in my original post, all the labs I've looked into so far only handle 8 bit jpeg files in sRGB.

Thank you, I'm having trouble finding a lab that will take those files. I'm really confused with all the information I've gotten as I'm not sure if it's needed to get a high resolution print, it just seems the more information the file contains, the better the image will be. I'll keep looking into this until I know what to do. Thanks for your reply.

Alright, thanks for all your help. Not sure what you mean to embed the profile in the image file, but I will look into that. I do have a monitor[BenQ SW271] suitable for the parameters you stated earlier as well as an X-Rite Display Pro1. Thanks again for all your advice. Definitely what I was looking for. Mark

That's why I'm posting here. Trying to learn.