There's a not-so-old adage that says if you are not shooting RAW digital images you might as well not be shooting photos at all. That's because while shooting digital images in JPEG format gets more images to the memory card, you lose information and add color noise when you shoot JPEG. RAW images keep all kinds of data intact that you can use to make much better photos in Adobe Photoshop later. You just need to know how to use them.

 Difficulty: Moderately Easy
Instructions
 

Things You'll Need
 Adobe Photoshop RAW Plug-in
 

1

Get Adobe Photoshop, at least Version CS or Elements 6. Load it on your computer and register it with the company. Insert your memory card into your card reader and copy every RAW photo to a folder on your hard drive so you are not working on the originals.

 2

In Photoshop, go to File > Open and find the folder you uploaded your RAW images to. If the files are grayed out or don't appear, it means you need to get a Plug-in from Adobe. Go to adobe.com. Go to Downloads > Updates. Go to "Camera RAW Update." You will find a list of supported cameras and be able to download the update for Macintosh or Windows. There are instructions for manually or automatically downloading the software.

 3

Go to File > Open and find your RAW files. When you open the first one, an interim window will appear with the image and controls to fix setting such as exposure, white balance, brightness and contrast and other originally recorded data.

 4

Open the RAW file as if it appears to have the right balance and tone. You can fix minor deviations in Photoshop itself. If the exposure is way off, you can fix it in the interim window before sending it to your regular workspace. You also can set the image size and resolution in the interim window.