diff --git a/src/tiff.imageio/tiffoutput.cpp b/src/tiff.imageio/tiffoutput.cpp
index 8356d312a1..760402e0c8 100644
--- a/src/tiff.imageio/tiffoutput.cpp
+++ b/src/tiff.imageio/tiffoutput.cpp
@@ -109,6 +109,7 @@ class TIFFOutput final : public ImageOutput {
     int m_outputchans;             // Number of channels for the output
     bool m_convert_rgb_to_cmyk;
     bool m_bigtiff;  // force bigtiff
+    bool m_allow_half = false;
 
     // Initialize private members to pre-opened state
     void init(void)
@@ -123,6 +124,7 @@ class TIFFOutput final : public ImageOutput {
         m_outputchans         = 0;
         m_convert_rgb_to_cmyk = false;
         m_bigtiff             = false;
+        m_allow_half          = false;
         ioproxy_clear();
     }
 
@@ -510,6 +512,13 @@ TIFFOutput::open(const std::string& name, const ImageSpec& userspec,
     const char* openmode = m_bigtiff ? (mode == AppendSubimage ? "a8" : "w8")
                                      : (mode == AppendSubimage ? "a" : "w");
 
+    if (m_spec.format == TypeDesc::HALF) {
+        // Look for hints about whether half output is allowed
+        m_allow_half
+            = m_spec.get_int_attribute("tiff:half",
+                                       OIIO::get_int_attribute("tiff:half"));
+    }
+
     // Open the file
 #if OIIO_TIFFLIB_VERSION >= 40500
     auto openopts = TIFFOpenOptionsAlloc();
@@ -625,8 +634,7 @@ TIFFOutput::open(const std::string& name, const ImageSpec& userspec,
         // unless the "tiff:half" attribute is nonzero -- use the global
         // OIIO attribute, but override with a specific attribute for this
         // file.
-        if (m_spec.get_int_attribute("tiff:half",
-                                     OIIO::get_int_attribute("tiff:half"))) {
+        if (m_allow_half) {
             m_bitspersample = 16;
         } else {
             // Silently change requests for unsupported 'half' to 'float'