In the RAW

{ahem}

 I am now shooting photography totally in RAW and in M!!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

{chirp, chirp, chirp}

 

Maybe I should explain. 

 

Today's digital SLR cameras come loaded with various modes for taking pictures.  You can have as much or as little control of the images as you want.  For years, I shot in completely automatic mode (AUTO), which is fine. But many photographers prefer the freedom of manual mode (M), which requires a decent understanding of lighting, exposure, aperture, ISO, shutter speed, blah, blah, blah.  (It's more like a rite of passage).  One of the first images I was able to capture in M was the fireworks shown above - something I never would have been able to pull off in AUTO.

 

Shooting in RAW was another huge step for me (not to be confused with shooting in THE raw *blush*). In RAW, the image captured by the camera is basically pure and unaltered, which means I have better control of the final product during the editing process.  I can tweak to my taste without the opinion of the camera.

 

But some of the most fun has been learning how to rid pictures of random objects that weren't noticed before the snap of the shutter.  Like this fence post that photobombed Baby Brownie.  A few YouTube tutorials later and my Lil' Unicorn was no more:

 

 

 

 

                                 

 

 

And it didn't hurt him a bit.