Here's somthing I didn't know about JPEG files.

I've always saved my pix as JPEG's. I was re-reading one of my books and it said that every time a JPEG file is opened, and then saved again, it looses some of its quality. I did a little research and confirmed this about JPEGs. I never picked up on that tidbit before. TIFF's do not suffer with no image degradation, you can open, and re-save them, as many times as you wish.

I have my 40D set to record images a JPEGS and sRaw. After I transfer the pix to my computer, I use the JPEGs just to see if the pic is worth keeping. If it is, then I develop with RAW. But from now on, all my finished bird pix will be saved as TiFF's.

Just thought I share that with others, who may not know.

Hack

Hack, if you use Photoshop or PSE to edit your RAW images (or jpgs), .psd format is also non-lossy and I like it better than .tiff. Also, if you use Lightroom, you can make changes to your jpgs that are non-destructive to the original .jpg file.

Thanks, DMurray, that's something else I did not know - .psd format. I do use PSE 8. Is there any particular reason why you like .psd format more than .tiff? "Non-lossy", that's what I was reading about, but I couldn't remember that term.

Hack

I heard this was true, but wonder how much it actually affects people in normal use. I don't open a file and save it somewhere else; I copy or move it. And if I'm editing it, then yes, I expect it to lose some 'bits'.

Although having said this, I just tried it. The original and the copy are both 1,359,672 bytes. Doesn't look like it lost any 'bits'. :)

I like psd's better because they are smaller than tiff's and I can save layers . The big advantage of using tiff is that psd is Photoshop specific, so if you like to use other programs, tiff might be a better choice-I always use PS or Lightroom, so psd's work well for me:)

sherry, I don't know if the loss of quality is expressed in a reduced number of bytes of the saved file.

DMurray, thanks for your reasoning. I use other programs, beside PSE 8, so I probably keep using tiff.s

Hack

Well, I've seen that it takes noticeably longer for a tiff bird pic to upload to Dave's Garden, than a jpeg. So, I'm gonna save anything headed for Dave's Garden as a jpeg. In fact, I think that unless you open and close a jpeg a zillion times, one might not even see a difference between tiff and jpeg. files

Hack

I didn't know you could even upload a .tiff . . .the file size is lots bigger so I can imagine it does take a lot longer. Maybe you could have both-a jpg for online sharing and a tiff for the archive.

What I'm gonna do is shot in RAW, work it up with PSE 8,and when I'm satisfied, save it as a jpeg. It is my understanding that jpegs don't become lossy, unless you save them over and over. Once I'm done I won't ever need to open and then re-save the file, I'll just close it. Then share it online.

Hack

It may be a mistake, but I don't save my originals. It just seems like way too much work to keep up with them.

Hack