Quote Originally Posted by GoldZilla View Post
From my understanding (and I'm guessing others will confirm if this is true or not), JPEG is a "lossy" format, i.e. each time a file is opened and closed, a little bit of the data in the image file is lost, so the file degrades over time.
Nick this is a common misconception. You can open and view a jpeg file as many times as you like without any degradation, the only time the file degrades is when it is saved so if you keep your original jpeg file and save a copy with a different name to work on the original will not degrade. My jpeg work-flow is open original in editing program, do the initial basic adjustments (crop,lighting,contrast and colour) then save with an a after the file name ie img_1234a.jpg. I then do my resizing, sharpening and other adjustments then save with my own code for the adjustments used after the "a" that way I still have the original intact and a working copy to use for further work. Remember always save your worked on images with a different file name. One extra letter, number or symbol creates a new file name you don't have to change the whole name. the main difference between raw and jpeg is raw is the whole file untouched in camera and all adjustments can be reversed. While the jpeg has had in camera processing performed and this can not be reversed.