Why RAW?

Jpeg is the universal format for photos taken with digital cameras. But there's something else: RAW.
Raw format was something I wasn't interested at because I thought it was for pros. But then one day I tried. Since then, I never shoot other than RAW, or better, RAW+jpg, a big raw file ans a small light jpeg one, to be used when you want a fast check.
Let's go practical about the wonders of this format:
I took this image at my daughter's birthday. Had it been in jpeg, I would have thrown it to the bin without a doubt.


Now, watch the process in Adobe Camera Raw, a plugin for Photoshop, to work with this kind of format.
First, open the shot:

Then start adjusting levels: exposure, black, white, light, etc:


See how it improved? Let's go further, with desaturaturation and exaggeration of black and white and light:


Now, we're finished. Click to open it in Photoshop and go for the final adjustments, say crop and background fix.
And here we are, the final black and white that appears at the beginning of this post.
Don´t you think it's worth trying?