Which Image Format Do I Choose?

If you are into digital photography, chances are that you
have already come across the different file formats used by
digital cameras.

It doesn’t matter if you are an amateur or a professional
because you will have to deal with them when taking
pictures and transferring them to your computer and
eventually editing them.

But which image format is best for you? It all depends on
the result that you want and how much control you want to
have over editing your images. Below are the most common
image formats used by digital cameras.

1. JPEG

- this is probably the most popular image format used not
only in digital photography but also in web design. It is a
good thing because you can be sure that you can open your
file using any computer and without the need of special
software.

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

2. TIFF

- the answer to JPEG’s lossy quality is the TIFF format. It
means that more details are saved which translates to a
better image quality.

But it comes at a price since TIFF files are notoriously
huge and could eat up storage media space in no time.

3. RAW

- among the three, RAW could be considered as the file that
shows images at its, well, rawest. RAW images are
unprocessed which gives photographers more control in
editing them later on.