Digital cameras consist of various electrical components, however, the fundamental principles for taking digital photos are simple.

As you can see in the above illustration, light from an image passes through the lens of a digital camera and is then projected onto the image sensor (referred to as a CCD or CMOS image pickup device).
The image sensor is the device that converts the light into digital data (light intensity value). The data converted by the image sensor is called RAW data.
Usually, this RAW data is then converted to JPEG or TIFF format (pictures that you usually view on a computer) by the digital camera and is then saved in the memory.

If you take a picture and save it as RAW data, you cannot view the image before it has been processed. It is necessary to move the RAW data image onto a computer and then convert it to an image file. This conversion process is referred to as the development process, similar to the development process for film.

When using film, a chemical development changes the light caught on the film into an image. However, when using RAW data from a digital camera, this development process is done digitally. Each digital camera maker has its own development engine with different characteristics, and image quality is greatly affected by this development engine. Some high-quality compact digital cameras and most SLR digital cameras have a function for saving RAW data that has not been converted to either JPEG or TIFF format. This means you can use other RAW develop software, allowing you to have more control over how your pictures are developed (converted to JPEG or TIFF).

SILKYPIX is a software that allows you to do the development process.