Nearly all of my clients request digital files, and in many cases they simply want to post the picture on a social networking site or send it to some one.  Sometimes they want to print the picture.  From my perspective, there is a serious lack of understanding about digital files and there are significant differences in the quality of those files.  While there are many ways to think about this subject, I divided it into three fundamental areas: types, processing and printing.  Select each of the areas below to learn more.

Types of digital files:  This is important because it will effect your ability to make changes to your picture, the kinds of changes that are possible and whether re-saving the file results in lower image quality.  The number of pixels in a digital file will also have a serious effect on what one can do with a picture. 

Processing of digital files: As in the era of film where professional photographers controlled the development of the negative and then the positive films with solutions and chemicals, the digital photographer of today has many choices of converting the camera informtion into a final picture.  Many consumer cameras automatically do this and typically process the pictures to a JPEG format.  The professional photographer has many choices and these choices will effect out the pictures look.

Printing of digital files: I am willing to provide digital files for clients to print, but I believe in trying to educate my clients about their print choices.