A Note About Using HEIF

[jerryy]

HEIF was introduced a while back as a new format, some folks thought it would be a good replacement for JPEG for images on the internet and whatnot. It does indeed take up less space. So far, so good.

Initially, there was not much support from hardware makers, but nowadays, it is gaining in popularity, more and more hardware makers are including it as an export option along with raw, tiff, jpg, etc.

Be very careful about using HEIF as an export option for storage, it has a problem, it is engineered so that the only color space “you” can use is sRGB. “You” cannot override this and use AdobeRGB or DCI-P3, or any other color-space.

So, what is the problem? Most of the web-sites and email and all of that internet stuff uses sRGB, right?

Not really, there are a lot of places that use other color spaces. Printing and video for example.

Without getting into a massively distracting sidetrack on color spaces and how to deal with differences, some things that can happen if you try to move between them is color saturation is destroyed or banding happens. Color space issues make for long hours at work and sometimes cannot be resolved to everyone’s satisfaction.

It is looking like HEIF is a short term solution for sending images over the internet to older cell phones. Older phones have screens set up in the sRGB space, newer ones are using the DCI-P3 space, a wider space similar to AdobeRGB.

So be cautious about using HEIF as a storage format, you may want to keep the raw image around as well.

[Greybeard]

Interesting thoughts - but isn’t heif really an alternative to jpg rather than raw?

[jerryy]

1 hour ago, Greybeard said:

Interesting thoughts - but isn’t heif really an alternative to jpg rather than raw?

It is thought about that way, I mentioned that in the first rambling paragraph. JPG still has the ability to use more color spaces, while heif does not, so the only value in heif is smaller files being sent over cell networks to older phones.

It (heif) unfortunately is not a good replacement for storing and using versus full jpg files in place of raw files as some do. For storing, either raw or tiff or full jpg is much better. edit: DNG should be in there for the Adobe fans.

edit 2: Hopefully to make that more clear, if you set your camera to use AdobeRGB or ProPhotoRGB (for those cameras that support things like that) but save the file as something other than raw, be careful about using HEIF, if you do use it thinking you will save space, the colorspace in the saved file will be sRGB, because that is how the format is engineered. If you want to use that file for printing or for video work, weeellll, best wishes.

Edited January 17, 2024 by jerryy

[George_P]

Jerryy, Greybeard, interesting thoughts. I’d never consider not keeping the raws + their edits (in my case in C1). I make the jpegs from them as needed for a particular use (like for printing at a certain size on a certain paper or for the web etc.) I think of them as disposable or single-purpose files. But your post makes me wonder what will happen when me and/or my C1 is no longer there, when no one is there to continue using the images this way. I should start making an archive in some generally useful jpeg version (or teach at least one of my three sons to use my C1 environment so that they can get to the images they may want in the future). In the older days (before Fujifilm, on Canon) that is what I did (I mean the general jpegs besides keeping the raw). In the excitement from the journey from Canon to mirrorless, X-Trans, all the different raw sw (Silkypix etc. etc.), up to current C1 with the fantastic possibilities and image quality… this aspect got out of my sight.