When you become a RAW photographer, you become the decision maker for these considerations in post processing, where many had been decided by the camera for the JPEG:

1. Sharpening
2. Noise Reduction
3. Color Saturation
4. Exposure adjustments, general
5. Contrast, general
6. Highlights and shadows
7. White Balance
8. Lens corrections
9. Color space
10. Pixel resolution for target image share platforms
11. Disk storage (for the larger files)
12. Image file back-up strategy (for those larger files)

You don't have to understand all these issues, but when you do, you'll be much more successful as a RAW photographer. A RAW file is God's way of telling us how hard it is to be a camera.

I remember back when I was in college that in film photography you had 2 options when you could correct photos! You could do it in camera or you could do it in the darkroom. I always felt it was better in the darkroom, this is because I'm pretty much a klutz when it comes to fiddling with the controls of the camera. I take it for granted this is also the case with digital photography. I guess what I'm asking is Lightroom the better choice over RAW photography as with Lightroom you have the choice of correcting after the fact along with the ability of creating a digital negative?...Julian

In the ideal world, you do as much 'up front' in the camera so as to (a) maximize the potential of the digital image for editing and (b) minimize the work-effort later in post processing.

What does maximize mean?

1. Get the subject in focus, sharp focus.
2. Position the subject within the frame where you visual the final composition.
3. Shoot at the appropriate shutter speed and / or utilize IS / VR support to eliminate motion blur of the subject or you holding the camera, as appropriate to the composition. Use a tripod when needed.
4. Minimize the need to level the image later and / or crop to remove unwanted elements from the frame.
5. Minimize the digital noise in the image by exposing to the right.
6. Take as many versions as needed to assure you have one that maximizes the potential. Don't get home and wish you'd taken more or tried some different setting.
7a. Shoot in RAW to maximize your edit options.
7b. If shooting in JPEG, assure you have the large / fine JPEG setting. Consider if a custom WB (even the camera 'scene' options) is a better match to your light vs AUTO-WB.

In your digital editor, then pick the 1 (or 2ish) that exemplify why you attempted this image and edit that one / few to completion. Do as much, or as little, as needed to complete the image. The seven items above seek to minimize the effort later, hopefully keeping your entire edit effort within the Lightroom workspace.

I remember back when I was in college that in film photography you had 2 options when you could correct photos! You could do it in camera or you could do it in the darkroom. I always felt it was better in the darkroom, this is because I'm pretty much a klutz when it comes to fiddling with the controls of the camera. I take it for granted this is also the case with digital photography. I guess what I'm asking is Lightroom the better choice over RAW photography as with Lightroom you have the choice of correcting after the fact along with the ability of creating a digital negative?...Julian

I remember back when I was in college that in film photography you had 2 options when you could correct photos! You could do it in camera or you could do it in the darkroom. I always felt it was better in the darkroom, this is because I'm pretty much a klutz when it comes to fiddling with the controls of the camera. I take it for granted this is also the case with digital photography. I guess what I'm asking is Lightroom the better choice over RAW photography as with Lightroom you have the choice of correcting after the fact along with the ability of creating a digital negative?...Julian

Julian, I think you may be a bit confused or misled about the roles of raw capture and Lightroom post-processing.

Raw capture is saving all the information from the digital sensor, with no processing. That's opposed to the camera processing the raw data into a JPEG, according to your menu choices.

With raw files, you always work on your computer with every last bit of what the camera recorded. With JPEGs, the bit depth has been truncated the moment after exposure to 8-bits-per-pixel (instead of 12 or 14). That severely limits the tonal range of the file. And the JPEG compression is lossy, so some data has been thrown away by compression, as well. You won't notice it right away, but each time you save a JPEG on top of itself, you throw away more data.

Where you see the difference is with very underexposed, overexposed, or poorly white-balanced images. Raw files can be stretched quite a bit to correct these errors, much like a negative could be in the film era. JPEGs are more like slide film.

Lightroom is the digital equivalent of a darkroom. It is a parametric editor, a database of image proxies and data, a print engine, an export tool, and a lot more. It is the central hub of a pro's software, ready to send files to Photoshop or various plug-ins and other applications. It's the central repository for finished image files, and the creator of multiple files for multiple uses of the same image.

Lightroom is designed to work with raw files, but it will edit TIFF, JPEG, PSD, and some other formats, too. Whatever you "store" in Lightroom isn't the original file, however. That remains intact. Lightroom displays a proxy image, and works on a copy of the original. To get an image out of Lightroom is to Export a copy, or Print, or send to Web, or make a Book... You get the idea. It is a "non-destructive" editor that leaves your originals alone.

Raw files from your camera are like latent images on undeveloped film. There's one important difference, though. You can edit and re-edit a raw file as many times as you like, and start every time with the original, unaltered data. That's like being able to develop the same film image in an infinite number of ways.

In the ideal world, you do as much 'up front' in the camera so as to (a) maximize the potential of the digital image for editing and (b) minimize the work-effort later in post processing.

What does maximize mean?

1. Get the subject in focus, sharp focus.
2. Position the subject within the frame where you visual the final composition.
3. Shoot at the appropriate shutter speed and / or utilize IS / VR support to eliminate motion blur of the subject or you holding the camera, as appropriate to the composition. Use a tripod when needed.
4. Minimize the need to level the image later and / or crop to remove unwanted elements from the frame.
5. Minimize the digital noise in the image by exposing to the right.
6. Take as many versions as needed to assure you have one that maximizes the potential. Don't get home and wish you'd taken more or tried some different setting.
7a. Shoot in RAW to maximize your edit options.
7b. If shooting in JPEG, assure you have the large / fine JPEG setting. Consider if a custom WB (even the camera 'scene' options) is a better match to your light vs AUTO-WB.

In your digital editor, then pick the 1 (or 2ish) that exemplify why you attempted this image and edit that one / few to completion. Do as much, or as little, as needed to complete the image. The seven items above seek to minimize the effort later, hopefully keeping your entire edit effort within the Lightroom workspace.

Well if you were taught correctly back in college, about photography, you would have learned that there is only one way to make a correct photo and that is always... in the camera. Post processing is to help finish off what you might not have been able to do in camera, or alter what was available to you when you took the photo. Post processing is never to help correct what you should have done in camera, in the first place.

Please remember that contrary to popular belief, Dodging and Burning in post, are NOT steps to take care of mistakes God made, in establishing good tonal relationships.