Hi Cliveanne.. welcome to DT! For scrapbooking I only work with JPEG files too..... like the sound of the course you are going to do.. it's something I really need to do but haven't got the time at the moment! I look forward to seeing some of your photography.. perhaps you will share your new found knowledge too?!!

I'll be glad to help...if I can. So far all I can do is to make minor repairs to photos, do limited work in layers plus a few other bits & pieces. I am virtually self taught. There is a lot I would like to learn, fortunately I do have the time. I shall miss the second week of the course as I am on holiday, but I'm hoping that there will not be too much lost...
Watch this space, & possibly my 'photo album

Hi Cliveanne - I'm a newbie too and want to do everything at once but am trying to restrain myself to "one thing at a time" but it's hard. As you have time to go to classes I take it you haven't caught this 'inspiration bug' like some of us - I get withdrawl symptoms if I am away from Daisytrail for too long. I haven't so much for a long time since joining. Perhaps you'll be able to pass on your new found knowledge in 'normal speak' so will look forward to any advice you may have for us novices in the photography world will be gratefully received.

I have my camera set to take RAW+Jpeg. That way for the rare shot that's almost perfect as is, I have RAW and for my happy snaps I have the jpg image. However, that said, I haven't used any RAW images on my scrapbook attempts.

I shoot in RAW all the time, and honestly it isn't difficult, in JPEG the camera automatically compresses the files, which takes away many of the editing choices, after I have manipulated the images I usually save as a jpg for smaller file storage, the first time I edited in raw using photoshop I was blown away by the possibilities (now I know how the magazines get such beautiful rich shots!) by the way I taught myself how to do this which proves it's not difficult!

I shoot in RAW all the time,i use Photoshop quit alot so it has to be RAW.Cheers Longlegs

RAW file format is the unprocessed data file captured by the camera's image sensor, before any in-camera processing has been applied.  When you take a photo; if you have specified white balance, sharpening, contrast, saturation, image effect, digital zoom, etc., these are applied to the RAW data.  Also if you have specified image quality and size, these are also applied to the RAW data.  Every manufacturer encodes RAW a little differently, so you will need to check that the photo editing software you are using will be able to open and edit RAW images from your make and model of camera.

DSA is not RAW editor, if you want to edit RAW data, you would need something like PhotoPlus x2 onwards.

Serif's PhotoPlus X4 was recently released and would be a good photo editing partner with DSA2. Go to www.serif.com

... it has prompted me to try out the RAW image facility on my camera. I have Photoshop so should be able to edit without any problems.

I shoot in Raw + Jpeg basic. This way I can get a good preview of what I shot on a computer screen and decide which photos to keep. The only time I find myself regretting shooting this way is when I have hundreds of photos to process LOL. And, yes, Photoshop is a good program for working with Raw files but so is Photoshop Elements which is much less expensive.