Are you looking to get the best quality from your digital SLR? If the answer is yes you need to forget about the auto modes and set your digital camera to RAW.

Setting your digital camera to raw will open up a whole new world of photography. Correctly processed raw images are sharper and contain more accurate colours. The extra information stored when shooting raw will give your image more detail - leaving you more room to experiment in your digital darkroom.

Raw explained: Raw files are a doorway to top-class image quality, which will also allow you maximum control. A raw image contains all the unprocessed data that reads directly from the camera’s sensor. A raw image file does not contain the finished product and you will have more work to do with the digital file but your final image quality should be first class.

For great results you will need to invest in a RAW converter that will enable you to maximise quality and control. A RAW converter is a piece of software that allows you to make all the changes that your image needs. Once you have made all the changes you can save your image to JPEG or to whichever format you need.

Shooting RAW will open amazing new avenues for an amateur photographer or a professional starting to use digital technology for the first time. Pictures with poor colour can be transformed into reasonable images, but this should not be a licence to get sloppy.

The standards of photography are still the same. Your RAW image needs to be exposed correctly; the RAW converter is not capable of making a blurred image sharp; and it can’t change the depth-of-field.

The only frustration when shooting RAW is the extra time spent on the computer, but once you get used to all the new tools with your software, you will soon realise that the changes were worth it.

The true benefits of shooting RAW are quality, control, image flexibility and easy image correction. But be careful - you should always aim for the best results using your camera first.