Difference Between TIFF, RAW and Jpeg

[ReSpawN]

I'm quite new to Digital Photography....and i would like to know the difference between TIFF, RAW and JPEG

Which one yield better quality picture?
Does RAW take up more memory space then TIFF?
Under what circumstances do we take TIFF, RAW and JPEG?

For Wedding/Portrait which format gives better quality?
How about for contest?

Thanks :D

[Andy_T]

Hi respawn,

RAW is the uncompressed format in Canon digital cameras.
It can not be used directly for printing or editing, but has to be transferred to either TIFF or JPG (compressed format).

TIFF is an uncompressed format that can be used on computers for printing and editing, e.g. in PS.

JPG is a compressed format you can use in the camera and on the computer.

You achieve best results by shooting in RAW and converting it to TIFF for image editing in Photoshop. This takes a lot of space on your disk, as TIFF files typically are 3 times as big as RAW files.

You can also convert the RAW to JPG but lose some of the quality (with the possibility of restoring it, if necessary, by converting the RAW again to TIFF)

You can shoot faster (but use quality without the possibility of ever regaining it) using JPG in the camera. JPG in the camera takes about half the size of RAW.

Edit: For important photos as weddings and contests, I'd suggest you to always use RAW. With RAW, you have the possibility to later change exposition, white balance etc. without loss of quality.

Once your photo is converted to JPG (either in the camera or using some software), you always lose some quality if you open it and save it again.

For further information, do a forum search. There are about 1,000 threads on that issue.

Hope that helps :-)

Best regards,
Andy

[cecilc]

Here's a good article that explains those differences a little ....

http://www.sportsshooter.com/news/1199

I'm sure there are many others who'll have links to other articles about RAWs and JPGs and such ....

Enjoy that learning curve ..... there's a lot of experimenting to do.

[ReSpawN]

Hi respawn,

RAW is the uncompressed format in Canon digital cameras.
It can not be used directly for printing or editing, but has to be transferred to either TIFF or JPG (compressed format).

TIFF is an uncompressed format that can be used on computers for printing and editing, e.g. in PS.

JPG is a compressed format you can use in the camera and on the computer.

You achieve best results by shooting in RAW and converting it to TIFF for image editing in Photoshop. This takes a lot of space on your disk, as TIFF files typically are 3 times as big as RAW files.

You can also convert the RAW to JPG but lose some of the quality (with the possibility of restoring it, if necessary, by converting the RAW again to TIFF)

You can shoot faster (but use quality without the possibility of ever regaining it) using JPG in the camera. JPG in the camera takes about half the size of RAW.

For important photos as weddings and contests, I'd suggest you to always use RAW. With RAW, you have the possibility to later change exposition, white balance etc. without loss of quality.

Once your photo is converted to JPG (either in the camera or using some software), you always lose some quality if you open it and save it again.

For further information, do a forum search. There are about 1,000 threads on that issue.

Hope that helps :-)

Best regards,
Andy

Thanks Andy for the brief but clear explanation on the 3 formats

[ReSpawN]

Here's a good article that explains those differences a little ....

http://www.sportsshooter.com/news/1199

I'm sure there are many others who'll have links to other articles about RAWs and JPGs and such ....

Enjoy that learning curve ..... there's a lot of experimenting to do.

Thanks cecilc...quite a good article on the differences

[deezeljuice]

How exactly do you go from Raw to Jpeg?

[cecilc]

How exactly do you go from Raw to Jpeg?

There are several conversion programs that can read a RAW image; allow adjustments to be made to it; and then save that image as a .TIF image or a .JPG image (and, usually, in either 8 or 16 bit mode).

If I'm not mistaken, ALL dslr's come with some conversion software from the camera manufacturer, so that you don't necessarily have to go out and purchase anything else .....