Why Shoot Raw?

[Jay Beckman]

Left: Straight From The Camera
Right: The power of RAW files as Smart Objects layered in Photoshop
Smart Objects allow you to use all the same adjustment handles you use in Lightroom or Adobe Camera Raw.

[John S]

Jay, have you used a good tutorial for using smart objects?  I have only been shooting jpeg and want to switch to raw. How many steps did it take to get the results shown above?  I just got photoshop cs6 and using windows 7.  Thanks for any input.