Final Render (RGB)
This is the render you'd get directly out of LightWave. I often use this as the base, over which I lay channels I've post-effected.

Alpha (single channel)
This is your standard, "variable transparency," Alpha Channel – white is opaque, black is transparent. (Not shown since in the example images, the walls of the Tavern are opaque, so the entire image is A=100%.)

Raw Color (RGB)
This is the raw, base coloring of the rendered items, before any kind of shading is applied. (In this image, the tankards appear to have shading because I'm using a Gradient to darken them based on Camera-Incidence.) This is often used to bring-back details lost in dark shadows, or as a base, onto which (often) single-channel buffers are layered to completely control the way the components are brought together to yield a final image.

Reflection Color (RGB)
(This Buffer is usually pretty dark, so I've boosted its Gain with a Color Corrector in Fusion5 for this image.) Here you see the reflections, both Ray-Traced and Mapped. You can increase the intensity of reflections by Merging this over your Final Render using (most often) a Screen or Color Dodge setting. You can decrease the intensity of reflections by Merging this over your Final Render using the Difference setting.

Diffuse Color (RGB)
This buffer contains the Diffuse RGB shading information. This is often used as a replacement base, onto which other buffers are layered to give more control to the way the image components are brought together to yield the final image.