PS Elements 7 Question (RAW & JPG)

P/S Elements 7 has editing functions I like in Camera Raw. If I open my JPG photo as Raw, work on it, then save it, will my changes be lost if I save it as JPG? If I work on my photo in Camera Raw, can I save it as JPG? If I save it as Raw, can I later open it as JPG? My camera club requires all digital images entered in competition to be in JPG format. If I work on a photo in Camera Raw, am I "locked" into Raw if I want to retain all my changes?

No, you won't be locked into RAW. In fact, you aren't actually using RAW unless your camera is set for RAW mode. If you open a JPEG file in Camera RAW, you're just using the RAW tools on a JPEG file. You have to shoot in RAW mode if you really want the benefits of RAW. The tools you're talking about can be used on any file but you can't actually save a RAW file. Camera RAW and Lightroom save a "sidecar" file that keeps track of your RAW file changes, but it doesn't actually make any changes to the file until you convert it and resave it as a JPEG, TIFF, PSD, etc.

I'm not sure if that all made sense. Let me know if it's gibberish to you.

You should consider shooting RAW, though. RAW files have a lot more color and density data giving you a lot more room for post-processing. If you're using the Camera RAW tools, you might as well take real advantage of them and use them on RAW files. You'll be able to pull out more shadow detail, hold onto your highlights better and you'll be able to get more accurate color. The basic workflow is pretty straightforward - set your camera for RAW, open and edit in Camera RAW, convert to TIFF (because TIFF is lossless), edit your photo in Photoshop (if you want), save your TIFF (so you have a lossless master file), then save a JPEG if you need one.