Use JPEG, RAW, or TIFF?

Of the three file formats, which should you use? Actually, your choices are just two, because TIFF isn’t a practical in-camera option for most people. Between JPEG and RAW, you’ll find that JPEG files are the most efficient in terms of use of space, and can be stored in various quality levels, which depend on the amount of compression you elect to use. You can opt for tiny files that sacrifice detail or larger files that preserve most of the information in your original image. JPEG really allows you to tailor your file size for the type of photos you’re planning to take.

However, as I noted, JPEG files have had additional processing applied by the camera before they are stored on your memory card. The settings you have made in your camera, in terms of white balance, color, sharpening, and so forth, plus compression, are all applied to the image. You can make some adjustments to the JPEG image later in an image editor like Photoshop, but you are always working with an image that has already been processed, sometimes heavily.