Its hard for us artistic types to accept the fact that each digital image is nothing more than a neatly arranged series of ones and zerosa string of technical information that, when interpreted and displayed by certain programs, looks like a picture. These strings of information can be configured in different ways, each being a different picture file format. The three most common types of formats are TIFF, JPEG, and raw. Many digital cameras give you a choice when it comes to file format. And since you select the format before you take the picture, it's very important that you choose wisely. As with any choice in digital photography, each format has its advantages and disadvantages. Each is best suited to a particular photographic application. These advantages and disadvantages involve a choice between image quality and image quantity. Capturing images in a large, high-quality format, for example, can cause problems when it comes to space limitations on your memory card, while working with smaller, lower-quality formats can cause problems when it comes to image quality, especially when you print your images.

The two most prevalent file format options are JPEG and raw. In a nutshell, the JPEG format is much simpler