A question from a reader was raised recently whether I shoot RAW or Jpeg. In answer to that, RAW is the only way to go. Shooting RAW is like shooting film. It gives you the latitude to "develop" your image as you would with film. You can control your exposures(within a couple stops. You should always be as close as possible to perfect exposure), contrast, saturation, highlights, shadows, white balance, etc.
When you shoot JPEG, the camera is essentially processing the image before you have the chance to control the developing and processing. It throws away information to compress it. Shooting RAW, gives you every single bit of information that was captured when the shutter was clicked. Using RAW editing software such as Capture One, Aperture, Lightroom, etc to "Develop" your images gives you the option to control the end product. Shooting RAW creates a faster editing workflow as well.
Can photoshop process RAW images?
Yes, Photoshop can process RAW images. Their RAW conversion plugin is built in and is called “Adobe Camera RAW” If you have the most up to date plugin, it will open RAW files from most all cameras. Bridge is the organizing program.