Thursday, April 8, 2010

Which Image Format Do I Select

If you're into digital photography, chances are that you have already come across the different file layouts utilised by electronic cameras. It is irrelevant if you're a newbie or a pro because you'll need to cope with them when taking photographs and transferring them to your personal computer and finally revising them. But which image format is the best for you? It actually depends on the result that you need and how much control you need to have over modifying your pictures. Below are the most typical image formats utilized by digicams.

JPEG - this is perhaps the most well liked image format used not just in digital photography but also in website design. It's a good thing as you can be absolutely certain that you can open your file using any PC and without the requirement of special software. There is a drawback since JPEG is regarded as a 'lossy' format, implying that a large amount of details are lost thanks to the format's compression. Quarrel - the solution to JPEG's lossy quality is the Quarrel format. It implies that more details are saved which translates to a better image-quality. It comes at a price since TIFF files are notoriously gigantic and could eat storage media space in virtually no time. RAW - among the 3, RAW may be considered as the file that shows pictures at its, well, rawest. RAW photographs are unprocessed which gives photographers more control in modifying them later.