Tiff or Jpeg?
My dad has always taught me to save my photos as tiff. Although I never really understood why before I'm glad I did. I recently ran across this article http://www.scantips.com/basics9j.html that was a little startling and unnerving. Everyone who has a hard time understanding why they should save a photo as a tiff should read this article. The images on the second page clearly show the difference between a tiff and jpeg.
It says that tiff has a lossless file compression meaning "fully recoverable". Jpeg, on the other hand, is lossy. It goes on to say that every time you open your jpeg and resave it, a part of the quality of your photo is lost.
Here's a quote from this article, "JPG format has a magic status for us. JPG is wonderful when the purpose is right, but we need to understand we pay a cost in quality. I know you surely will consider using JPG for master copies, everyone does at first, because the JPG file is so small, and the idea is frightfully appealing. But it's a high price paid in lost quality, and you will eventually come around to appreciate the quality of TIF files. I hope that happens before you have damaged important images that you cannot scan again. Some people argue that high quality JPG masters are not so bad. That's OK with me, it's your file, but the file size is one property of an image, and quality is another. You can choose either way, and I hope you choose Highest Quality, at least for your master copies. My goal is that you understand the effects of your choice in regard to your valuable master copies."
He also goes on to say that sometimes we need to rotate a jpeg image without needing to make any other changes (I know this is true for me). He recommends using one of the following programs:
IrfanView Free, Windows
GraphicConverter Trail available, Macintosh
ThumbsPlus Trial available, Windows
They allow you to rotate jpegs and save them without additional loss. You can also rotate in Adobe Bridge or Camera Raw without losing quality of your jpegs.
External hard drives are getting cheaper every day so I wouldn't worry so much about how much space a tiff takes up. I have a folder that has my master tiffs in it that is for storage purposes and a folder with jpgs in it that is for easy use. This gives me a back up copy as well as allows me to easily use my photos.
Although tiff files may be large, take up space and take forever to open, I think having the quality of your photo safely intact is worth the trouble tiff files may give, especially when you have the long term preservation of that image in mind.
