Advice on file formats for photography

jamesd1981

Active Member
Looking for some advice from some of the many cf photography enthusiasts.

I don`t even think i would class my myself as an amateur yet, but i have always tried to take decent photos and made camera resolution a big factor in any device i buy.

Until now I have only ever used jpeg and given little thought to file formats of photos, but as i get further engrossed in photography, I am considering file types much more for both quality and lifespan of the pictures i take as most are family photos i do not want to degrade to point of loss.

I have done some online research and seems that, jpeg, tiff, png, are the most common formats and was just wondering what formats you use most and if there is one particular format i should be using ?
 

spirit

Moderator
Staff member
If you want to edit photos, shoot in RAW on the camera if your camera supports it, process the RAWs in something like Lightroom, and then finally save as a JPEG.

Otherwise, shoot in JEPG and save in JPEG.
 

jamesd1981

Active Member
I read that jpeg degrades every time it is saved, hence why i was curious about the TIFF format.

I will check my camera it is a samsung es17 which is not great.
 

spirit

Moderator
Staff member
JPEG is easiest to view and file sizes are smaller than TIFFs.

Honestly just use JPEG to save files in.
 

G80FTW

Active Member
I read that jpeg degrades every time it is saved, hence why i was curious about the TIFF format.

I will check my camera it is a samsung es17 which is not great.

How many times do you plan on saving a JPEG image? I havent noticed any degradation in quality saving in JPEG, at least not to the naked eye. Although my camera is only a 12MP camera so its pixels are limited to begin with, but I have never saved a JPEG more than twice.
 

EINREB

Member
I read that jpeg degrades every time it is saved, hence why i was curious about the TIFF format.
QUOTE]
You are mistaken that saving a JPG file, or any file format for that matter, will degrade your picture. That is the beauty of digital pictures! To degrade it, you would have to alter the digital content of the file, something that does not happen with saving files, unless you deliberately change the image before saving it. (Or you have a problem with your Computer, but than it should do it with any file saved, not just with JPG Files!)
 

dwall

New Member
I have done some online research and seems that, jpeg, tiff, png, are the most common formats and was just wondering what formats you use most and if there is one particular format i should be using ?

Working copies of images should be kept in a lossless file formats, such as JPEG 2000 or PNG, if you plan to edit them. Regular jpeg is normally lossy compression.
 
Top