Which External File format to choose?

Since your raw images probably have more than 8 BIT, I'd pick one of the 16 BIT formats. This will ensure a very high quality when doing color adjustments, skin smoothing and retouching. As for the difference tiff-pds, I have no clear preference. Both are lossless formats and work well with Photoshops layers; only the file size usually is higher for uncompressed TIFFs then for comparable PSDs. What is the external editor you want to use? Have a look, what the manufacturer recommends.

Regards

Léonie

I would add only:

OP: if you don't know enough to chose, chose the one that is most broadly used and "costs" you no data. That is 16-bit TIFF. You can always trim later, once you know enough to make an informed decision. You can never get back data you've discarded.

You can never get back data you've discarded.

Very true! 🙂