Digital Sports Photography - Shoot in JPG, not RAW or TIFF

SUMMARY: In the high-speed world of sports, use a lightweight image format to help you take more photos quickly.

When shooting sporting events, unless you have a top-of-the-line digital SLR camera and write-accelerated media (and even if you do), strongly consider shooting in low-compressed JPG mode and not RAW or TIFF.

Actions during sporting events can occur at the blink of an eye. One of the best ways to ensure you'll take better photos is to simply be able to take more photos at a quicker pace. While RAW images are uncompressed, low-compressed JPG images may be fine for most needs, even professional. You'll also have the following advantages over RAW or TIFF files:

* Need to take a lot of photos? By shooting in JPG, you can fit more photos on a memory card, lessening the chance you will have to switch out media during a critical point in the game.

* Since JPG images are smaller, your digital camera can write the graphic to a memory device quicker, allowing you to shoot photos faster. Plus, as more digital cameras include a larger memory cache, you may be able to shoot several photos in succession without having to wait for the digital camera to store its pictures.

* Speaking of shooting photos in quick succession, by using JPG images, you can take advantage of a feature many high-end cameras have, burst mode or motor drive. This lets you focus on a subject and take many rapid photos within a few seconds' time.