[SDJImages]

I have seen everyone talking about shooting in raw or jpeg, but can anyone advise me as to why you would shoot in TIFF?

sorry if I sound dumb, but am new to all this and currently shoot in JPEG.

Thanks

Steve

[xanda]

main reason is because every time you save a jpeg it decreases in quality, and this doesn't happen with tiff files.

[Steve]

Tiff files are huge in size and if you did shoot in Tiff, you would quickly run out of card space. Thats the main reason why RAW files were invented. Raw files are also (in the majority) lossless and are much smaller in file size, this gives you the best of both worlds...best quality and reasonably small file sizes that don't eat away to quickly into your memory cards.

[Boofers]

At one time,,size mattered...storage was at a premium and file size had to be small,,,jpeg was an ideal cure for a big problem,,,,I used photoshop before I used a digital camera and scanned to tiff because it is lossless,,"tagged image format" tif,,,getting the most out of your picture was important to restoration. yada yada yada,,jpegs are fast, easy to use but have an algorythm that runs in them that throws away data that makes the file sizes smaller,thus a lossy format.,,,,large jpegs or fine until you blow something way up,,,there will be artifacts that show up in the sky or skin as little blur spots....use what ever you like and be happy,,when the time comes to make the most out of your images you will want the most in a format ..

[ChrisRabior]

If you open jpegs enough, you'll actually end up with some pretty nasty leftovers. You lose image data every single time you open the file. TIFF and RAW don't lose anything.

The big advantage for a TIFF is that you're not actually supplying anyone with a RAW image file. For pros, it's a big advantage because they can supply a photo buyer with a lossless TIFF, a copy of the original image, at the same time protecting the RAW should a copyright dispute or need to show proof of ownership ever arise.

[watsonm]

>If you open jpegs enough, you'll actually end up with
>some pretty nasty leftovers. You lose image data every
>single time you open the file.
>TIFF and RAW don't lose anything.

Chris, Sorry to be pedantic but the appender said he was new to this.

Its not when you open the jpeg that you have the problem, it's every time you actually save the jpeg that the compression takes place and data is potentially lost. You can open and view them as much as you like without worry.

If you shoot in jpeg because you only have a limited memory chip in the camera then you can subsequently save it in TIFF or PSD in Photoshop and all you have lost is the first generation losses when the camera first compresses it. [apart from the other data you lost when you fiddled with it in photoshop.. ]

However the better option is more memory, shoot in RAW (or TIFF) but I am not getting into a discussion about which of those is better!!

Mike

[Davetherave]

I had heard that it was every time you open a jpeg but now its every time we save it?

Ive learnt what tiff's are

This site is great

[watsonm]

>I had heard that it was every time you open a jpeg

This probably comes from those dubious applications that re-save in the background when you didn't really want them to.

If you ask an application to rotate a picture (since it is in portrait mode) it may save then or may save when you exit, or may save when you move on to the next picture.

Hopefully it will ask if you wish to save/overwrite but some programs may well have the option to save/overwrite automatically without asking.

You just have to be careful and should probably do so experiments to see if the modify date/timestamp has changed!

Mike