The RAW image format is perhaps one of the best ways to edit and see up front just how good your picture will come out. Most cameras take pictures in the RAW format even though you can change this setting. The difference lies in the fact that while other formats are fully processed by the camera, the RAW format remains undeveloped until you are ready to develop it.

Each digital camera that offers the RAW format has its own type of RAW file. No two cameras will produce the same RAW format. They contain pixel data, usually 12 to 14 bits per sensor. The sensor uses a Bayer filter, consisting of reds, blues and greens in alternating rows. Since the human eye is more perceptive to the color green, greens alternate more frequently than the reds or blues. It also acts as the buffer for black and white conversion and overall luminance. Once you are ready to "develop" the picture, it is demosaicized and then is ready to be transfered to and edited on a computer.

Overall, the RAW file itself contains more data than its developed counterpart. The RAW file itself will be higher quality, because nothing is set in stone. Once developed, the parameters are set, and each pixel's color is fixed. While in the RAW format, these reds, blues and greens will mix for more subtle color changes along the spectrum and the overall result will be brighter and more intense than when developed. Corrections, manipulations and other fixes can be achieved easier in the RAW format than on the computer. This allows for less image artifacts than editing after the fact.

Since most digital cameras come with the ability to process in the RAW format, this gives the photographer the unique ability to change certain aspects of the picture before it is developed. White balance, saturation, sharpness and contrast can all be tweaked with on the camera itself rather than spending time transferring to the computer only to find out that the picture really cannot be edited in those ways without producing artifacts.

The RAW file allows for white balance to be set easier than in an image editing program. Most image programs allow you to edit the white balance in pre-set terms, such as sunlight or fluorescent light. Within the RAW file itself, you can tweak the parameters of white balance to any extreme. Since you control when the RAW image will be developed, if you do not like your changes, you can go back and edit them time and time again until you find the right settings. You can preview changes live on the view screen and then discard them easily to begin again.

Digital cameras store up to 12 or 14 bits of information whereas standard JPEG, GIF or TIFF files only store eight bits of information. Shadows, saturation and highlights can be changed and viewed for much more intense or bright color combinations. This allows your color balance especially to be more refined than editing it in a program like Photoshop or Paint Shop Pro.

While the RAW format provides the ability to edit the image at large, it also provides some drawbacks to use. RAW files take up more space on your memory card or hard drive. They are generally two to eight times larger than JPEG and GIF files. Depending on how much memory you have, this may not be the most sensible way to take pictures if you are taking a lot on a given day. Depending on the camera, you may find yourself at odds with the compression of the file itself. Some use lossless compress and others use lossy. Lossless compression does not lose any data about the image, and it is reproduced flawlessly while lossy compression eliminates the unessential data and reproduces the image in the best possible light without those bits of information. Since these process can take longer than saving a JPEG or GIF, it takes longer to save the pictures to the memory card or hard drive and you lose the ability to save pictures in succession or quickly.

There is no standard RAW format. Each digital camera maker uses their own algorithms and techniques for their particular RAW files. Adobe has introduced the digital negative, or the DNG, as a standard, but it has not been widely accepted just yet. This means that if you shoot RAW files on one camera, then switch to another, you may find yourself editing very different pictures even if you are taking a photograph of the same subject. Also, depending on the camera, you may have to use specialized software after the development process to edit that converted image.

The RAW file format makes it easier for photographers to edit their work on the fly and find the best picture in the field. While software after the fact has become the standard for editing work, the RAW image gives photographers the opportunity to tweak settings they will never get a chance to fix later on down the line. Taking advantage of your camera's RAW format, if you have the memory for it, will give you better photographs and more options for fixing ones that may not have turned out the way you wanted them. Only by exploring your camera's various options will you learn just what its RAW files have to offer.