Digital Camera

Digital Photography -which Image File Format Should You Use?

  • 01:39:16 pm on December 20, 2009 | # | 0
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    You are able to create digital pictures in three different types of file formats: JPEG, TIFF, and RAW. Each file format has its good qualities and bad qualities. It is the photographer’s choice to see which file formats to use that works best. If you want to send an image through e-mail, the best format would be JPEG. If you like creating large prints and like optimizing the color that best suits you, shoot in RAW, or you may prefer TIFF if you are working with an advanced desktop publishing software. What are these formats and what do they stand for?

    JPEG is an acronym for Joint Photographic Experts Group; this is the gathering of photographers who met to discuss formats. JPEG is used a lot in e-mails because it is a compressed image file format and has a smaller size in megabytes unlike the other formats. A disadvantage is if the image is compressed too much the photo quality may seem noticeably damaged.

    TIFF stands for Tagged Image File Format. This is a file format that was created in the 1980’s as the standard format used across multiple platforms. Once the TIFF was introduced many people have improved upon it and now there are around fifty variations. Also the TIFF format can handle color depths between 1-bit to 24-bit.

    RAW files are unprocessed images that are generally referred to digital negatives. RAW mode doesn’t compress the images and another disadvantage of RAW is that it uses a lot of memory on your card. An advantage is that since this format is unprocessed you can have more control over color corrections and processing on the computer. If you plan on making large prints this is the format to use. More expensive D-SLR cameras have this feature and come with editing software allowing you to open RAW files. Then you are able to edit them and save them to JPEG or TIFF file formats.

    Now having a better understanding of file formats you are able to be more creative in your digital photography.

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