Recently, I have been experimenting with taking photos in RAW. In my ole trustworthy Nikon D60, and in most other DSLR cameras, you have several options when it comes to image quality; several JPG options and then RAW. The RAW option gives the image captured by the sensors in the cameras, i.e. the photo is not processed and can be likened to a negative in old-fashioned photography.

This of course means that you have to process the photo yourself. Because the RAW image is not processed it cannot be viewed with normal image software. You have to use specialised photo software. Last year I bought Adobe Photoshop Elements 9 and that works fine with RAW images by opening special camera raw controls. Although Elements has not quite as many options as the full Photoshop version there is still a wide range of ways to tweak the colours and contrast of the RAW image. I mainly tweak temperature, tint and brightness, but exposure, clarity and saturation are also very useful.

One slight disadvantage with Elements is that once you are done with your image, you have to open it in the normal Elements in order to save it as a JPG, since it can otherwise only be saved in DNG (digital negative format that is standard for archiving RAW images).

The image above shows some of the power of RAW images. The same RAW image of a tree has been 'developed' by using two very different settings (mainly differences in temperature, tint and saturation).

All in all it takes a considerable time to post-process RAW images, but in return you get much more ownership of your images with the high degree of input you have on the final results.