I’ve completely moved from shooting JPEGs to RAW just this year when shooting with my Canon EOS 40D. That has made a huge difference in how the quality or the drama of the photos turn out.
I must admit I’m still very new to this and I used to have this mindset that whatever you shoot should be preserved in its entirety and not be heavily manipulated in any way. So for 2 years since I bought my first dSLR, the only changes I do with my shots are contrast and levels.
Recently, a friend tipped me about Adobe Photoshop LightRoom and that did it.
Now, there’s tons of dials to experiment on — exposure, temperature, clarity, vibrancy, vignetting and saturation. So, that’s how those photos I see from the old-timers look really cool as if they were taken from out of this world.
I then learned to appreciate grayscale and B&W. I have a long way to go. More pictures in my photoblog.
@ChrisMo: Thanks for the advice, I guess should dig some info with my manual hope to see macro settings on it. :)