Gone are days when only professional photographers – and anyone with money to burn – are those using digital SLR cameras. When camera manufacturers started to roll out cheaper entry-level DSLRs, more camera enthusiasts (and ordinary folks) have joined the DSLR club. Not only are DSLR's more affordable than ever...but they're now much easier to use too. Of course, one of the best options when using a DSLR camera is the ability to shoot in RAW.

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<div><a title="ACR | RAW | Hard Chisel Look Tutorial by Wazari Wazir, on Flickr" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/wazari/3518160200/">[imageeffect type="frame" align="aligncenter" width="600" height="600" alt="" url="http://thebeginnerslens.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/RAW.jpg"]</a></div>
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<p style="text-align: center;"><em>ACR | RAW | Hard Chisel Look Tutorial</em>
Photo by by Wazari Wazir</p>
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<strong>What the heck is shooting in RAW?</strong>

RAW, as the name implies, is the unprocessed digital data as recorded by your camera. It contains all of the information that the camera’s image sensor recorded without any adjustments. It is “raw” in the sense that the camera does not perform any interpretation or alteration of the captured data; this step is left to you the photographer to edit in post-processing. Simply put, RAW data is like a “digital negative”.

<strong>RAW vs JPEG </strong>

As we said before, RAW allows the photographer to save all the data captured by the camera image sensor. On the other hand, when shooting in JPEG, the camera processes the photo at the time of shooting, this processing (or compressing as it is also known) cannot be "undone". Images that have been compressed are usually much smaller than RAW images - and in some cases the quality of the photo may be affected by the compression.

<strong>Advantages of shooting in RAW:</strong>[list style="orb" color="grey"]
<ul>
	<li>Gives you the ability to change the photo in any way after it is taken.</li>
	<li>Gives you maximum control with settings such as exposure, saturation, and white balance.</li>
	<li>RAW images have great color depth.</li>
	<li>Post-processing is unlimited when shooting in RAW and new software for processing images is being developed all the time.</li>
	<li>Large file sizes means your images can be printed at any size.</li>
</ul>
[/list]

<strong>Disadvantages of shooting in RAW:</strong>[list style="orb" color="grey"]
<ul>
	<li>Very large individual file size - usually over 20MB per file.</li>
	<li>Transferring files, and editing RAW files is time-consuming and uses a lot of computer processing power.</li>
	<li>You will need specialized photo processing software such as Photoshop, or Lightroom.</li>
	<li>Action shots taken in burst mode is not ideal when shooting in RAW as it will put a large burden on the memory card.</li>
</ul>
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<strong>So, do you need to shoot in RAW?</strong>

Put simply, maybe. Whether or not you shoot in RAW depends on the requirements for your photography and your willingness to do post-processing work. If image quality, flexibility, and post-processing are of importance to you, go for RAW. If you are just casually shooting images that you are not likely to edit, then shooting in JPEG is probably more suitable.

One last note: Not all digital cameras support the RAW format, but most DSLR's do. Most camera manufacturers will provide software with the camera to edit your RAW files - other photo editing software such as Photoshop, Picasa, and Lightoom will do the job nicely.