dblack1 Loc: Oxon Hill, Md.

What is the best form to save a raw file: raw - tiff - png - psd

PixelStan77 Loc: Vermont/Chicago

My preference is RAW

CHG_CANON Loc: the Windy City

It depends on your shooting format and your tools.

If you shoot in RAW, for the most part, you can't 'save' RAW as the RAW format is read-only. If you have tool like Lightroom that stores all the edit information, you don't have to 'save' anything. Just export the edited version, when needed.

In a Photoshop-only environment, save the PSD with the layers. Just 'save as' or return to LR to export the edited results to an as-needed sharing format / size.

A TIFF is quite large, and if saved as 16-bit in ProPhotoRGB, ready for continued edits, but still needs to be save-as to a sharable format.

PNG and JPEG are just output formats. Where possible, always retain the original JPEG files and try to use tools that encapsulate the original image with the edit instructions or store the edit instructions separate from the image file.

Consider these additional ideas, not as your long-term 'save' format, but as methods to transform your full-resolution image into a format to be shared, as needed. Recommended resizing parameters for digital images

rook2c4 Loc: Philadelphia, PA USA

Depends on what you are planning to do with the image.

Longshadow Loc: Audubon, PA, United States

Ditto.

DirtFarmer Loc: Escaped from the NYC area, back to MA

Always save the raw file. It's your original. By "save" I mean do not delete it. You can make as many copies as you want, but retain one for future reference.

If you want to show the file to someone, jpg is the easist format to distribute. Tif will work, but it can be quite large. Png is OK but larger than jpg. Psd is a working file from Photoshop.

If you save a file as jpg, make sure to use minimal compression. That will keep the image quality up. The compression will be determined at the time you save the image to a jpg and different programs have different ways to adjust the compression. Some programs allow you to adjust compression by specifying a "quality" value. My limited sample of processing programs indicate that quality numbers in the middle of the range or larger are probably OK for most programs. Lightroom's quality number ranges from 1 to 12 and even 1 produces better quality than a lot of mid-range numbers from other programs. Larger quality is better, but you most likely won't see any image problems from mid-range up.

Many people try to avoid jpg because of the lossy algorithm used for the compression. I studied this a while back and found it was not nearly as much of a problem as I had expected. https://www.uglyhedgehog.com/user-page?upnum=3000

dblack1 Loc: Oxon Hill, Md.

Thanks everyone for the input, I have always save as Tiff... just checking

Gene51 Loc: Yonkers, NY, now in LSD (LowerSlowerDelaware)

If you use Adobe software - you want to always keep the original raw file and edits exported to psd where you will presumably do more editing. Adobe also provides the ability to save raw edits by writing the metadata changes to a corresponding xmp file.

rgrenaderphoto Loc: Hollywood, CA

It really depends on what applications you use in your processing workflow.

I import everything in RAW format directly into Lightroom, since there's really point in converting to DNG during the import process. When I export for uploading to a website, I create JPEG files. When I edit in Photoshop, Adobe Camera Raw creates a TIFF file for processing and saving back to Lightroom.

LCD

I do DNG for no real reason other than it is what I've done from the start.

jerryc41 Loc: Catskill Mts of NY

I save the good ones in raw format.

gvarner Loc: Central Oregon Coast

Save the original in whatever format it comes out of the camera. Do whatever you want with a copy of the original.

rcarol

You can't save a RAW file that you have processed, as a RAW file.

DirtFarmer Loc: Escaped from the NYC area, back to MA

The only exception there is if you are working with a dng file. The dng preview can be changed to show the current edit. This is one reason I don't use dng.

SteveFranz Loc: Durham, NC

Memory is cheap - save in multiple formats.