If you’re a little further along in your photography, you most likely have already established your own workflow. This includes saving your image files in the best file format that preserves your layered work. Otherwise, you must be wondering, what’s this best format and what advantages does it bring to your photography?

In the video above, Blake Rudis of f64 Academy breaks down some of the most popular file types for saving layered editing work, including TIFF and PSD. He compares the two with the other file types typically associated with photos or image files in general (such as JPEG and PNG) in terms of the amount of data they contain and the corresponding file size.

One of the important parts of the photographer’s workflow is preserving layers. So, his file format tips will serve as a guide when you’re editing and saving files for different kinds of purposes. Maybe you want to ensure that the layers are preserved from moving from one software or platform to another. Maybe you want to save a Photoshop file that is larger than 3 GB. Or, you’re asked by a printing studio to send your photos as TIFF files. Otherwise, Rudis also explains when it’s okay to save your photos as high-resolution JPEG files.