What is RAW?

I am fairly new to photography, and hear A LOT of talk about shooting in RAW? What is this? I was also looking through one of my photography magazines and saw a RAW ad, and it looked like it was a memory card. Can someone please exaplin

It means to shoot without clothes on.

OK, not really. Check out this thread and then if you still have questions post them up:

https://photography-on-the.net/forum/showthre​ad.php?t=245510

1)When you take a shot, the sensor measures either red, blue or green light at each pixel, quantifies it, and sends the data to the image processor.
2)The processor creates an image based on that data, using your camera's settings for white balance, contrast, saturation and sharpening. Until this happens, it's not an image. It's just a pile of data.

Now wouldn't it be great if you could interupt the process between steps 1 and 2? And you could set the white balance and all those other things, and see the results on your monitor, before the image file is even created? That's what RAW can do. You process the data with your computer in a controlled, deliberate way, rather than relying on the pre-set adjustments on your camera. The result is much greater control over the final result.

I highly recommend reading the thread Mike linked to.

Wow, Curtis! That is the best, most succinct, explanation of RAW that I've read .

*Mike* wrote in post #3383724
Wow, Curtis! That is the best, most succinct, explanation of RAW that I've read .

Ditto.

The most succinct I've seen.

Gotta bookmark this for future askers.