HDR from RAW???

[Fibonacci]

I love shooting in RAW. As Luis has pointed out RAW is the image exactly as the sensor reads it without any processing or compression. Since each camera manufacturer has its own way of dealing with images you will need the driver for your manufacturer. Most manufacturers give you some sort of software for RAW if there camera will take RAW. PS CS3 has the drivers for the bigger manufacturers pre-installed.
Why shoot in RAW? PS has a great tool for making wholesale adjustments to the image before converting it to a jpeg where you can make smaller adjustments. Telling you all you can accomplish in RAW is outside the scope of this forum, but I will tell you this, you can make significant improvements before you even start your regular PS work. More than once I have been ready to give up on an image only to run it through the RAW process and find I had something worthwhile. Let me give you an example:


I hiked a long way to get this shot and was disappointed at the results. It was late in the day and clouds had rolled in covering the light I was hoping for. Before I gave up completely, though, I ran it through the RAW processor.


Still not a Picasso, but at least I didn't feel my hike had been wasted. Could have been great if the light had cooperated.