PSD is a file format native to Adobe Photoshop. Used mainly (almost only) when you are editing a photograph and wish to maintain layers. It's biggest advantage is that you can open and save then close the photo as many times as you wish without any changes occurring. In addition, you can increase the bit depth to as much as 32 bits.

If you are having us scan an image and you plan to edit the photo yourself. Then PSD is the best format for you. However, since layers are contained within the file expect the file size of each image to be very large.

TIFF, like a PSD file is also a file format that is used mainly for large images and for files that require many versions to be save. You can also embed layers with TIFF files however there are some limitations to how many layers and vectors can be stored. Again, like PSD a TIFF is native to Adobe, however it was originally created by a company called Aldus. Used mainly in publishing.

The file sizes are large however if used with Adobe Photoshop there are several options to compress TIFF files without damage or loss of information.

JPEGs are the work horse files of photography. Over 99% of all DSLR cameras have the option to shoot photos as JPEGs. The files are relatively small (usually less than 10megs), are used throughout the internet and on all photo sharing sites like Flickr and Picasa. The one major issue with JPEGs is that if you open the file, make changes and save repeatedly, small bits of information is losts. Like many things this is not a really big deal unless you plan of editing the same image 30-40 times.

We recommend JPEGs as the best format to store your images.