Today’s Question: When stitching JPEG images together to make a panorama, does the resultant full panoramic image suffer from the multiple saving JPEG resolution reduction? If so, is it better to shoot raw and use those as the basis for the panorama?
Tim’s Quick Answer: I recommend using raw capture for composite panoramas (and basically all photos) to avoid JPEG compression artifacts. If you do assemble a composite panorama from JPEG captures, saving the resulting image in a format other than JPEG will avoid compounding the JPEG compression issue.
More Detail: JPEG images employ “lossy” compression, meaning that the compression causes a loss of fidelity and quality in the image. Even at a high setting for quality, it is possible that compression artifacts will be visible in a JPEG image. If an image is modified and re-saved as a JPEG, there is a compounding of the loss of quality due to the compression.
Therefore, I recommend opting for raw capture whenever you want to ensure maximum image quality. This includes capturing a series of photos with the intent of assembling a composite panorama.
To be sure, depending on the content of the image and how the image is shared, in many cases the artifacts of JPEG compression may not stand out very well. But once you are familiar with how those artifacts create a bit of a grid pattern texture in the image, it can be difficult not to notice the effect in a JPEG image, or an image created from JPEG originals.
The bottom line is that if image quality is a concern, I would always opt for raw capture rather than JPEG, even though the files will be considerably larger.
