Photos and Slideshows

If you enjoy digital photography, like I do, you probably have already come across several different file formats used by digital cameras.

Regardless of whether you are an amateur or a professional, you will have to deal with image formats when you are taking pictures and transferring them to your computer and editing them.

Which image format is best for you? Much of it depends on the results that you want and how much control you need to have over editing your images. Below are some of the most common image formats used in use today.

JPEG

This is perhaps the most popular image format. It is used in both digital photography and in web design. This is an advantage because you can be sure that you can open your file using any computer and without the need for special
software.

There is a downside, however. JPEG is considered a lossy format, which means that a lot of details are lost due to compression.

TIFF

The answer to JPEG’s lossy quality is the TIFF format. This means that more details are saved for a better image quality.

The main disadvantage is that TIFF files ar much larger and therefore require more storage space.

RAW

Among the three, RAW could be considered as the file that shows images in their most raw form. RAW images are unprocessed which gives photographers more control in
editing them later on.

The choice you make depends largely on your specific needs. The good news is that there are many different alternatives to choose from.