OpenEXR 16 (half float) or TGA files for animation

[tricky]

What are the advantages of half float exr files over tga for animation stills? When I open both in Photoshop CS2, I don't seem to see any extra lighting 'depth' in the EXR image.

[m_hinks]

Not sure why you would expect to see extra depth, they are both just the same image to photoshop. The difference in formats is an exr can store all your elements, and mattes, and something like AE or Nuke can extrtact them to play with. A tga is just the RGBA image, nothing else. I use exr for ALL work now because of the extra render elements I get for "free"!

[LarsSonparsson]

Exr was created for deeper colour depth, not extra channels.
Extra channels are later addition.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OpenEXR


Have you tried with any other program like After Effects or combustion?
I haven't edited exr's in photoshop.

[rivoli]

16 bit images won't store information with a range as wide as full float hdr/exrs, but they still provide much more room for editing and post work than 8 bit ones.

try creating a gradient in 16 bit space in ps and then convert it to 8 bit, evident banding should appear where there was smooth transition at higher bit depth.