After RAW Class Number One

Though I'm still not the Photoshop master I thought I was going to be after this RAW class, I did learn some important things about white balance and exposure and all the fun toggles in Camera RAW (the program that is part of Photoshop and starts up immediately when you open up a RAW file).  I typically use Lightroom, but it's more or less the same. (and for those of you who don't know what the heck I'm talking about, it really doesn't mater that much...unless you really want to know. In that case I'll tell you... but only if you ask me ;-))
So, this is what I came up with after this class. Julietta still looks like an alien child to me. Her face is too bright, but I'm not sure how you lighten the face without making someone look like they're from another planet. I am really interested to see what next week holds.

Here is the newest edited photo:

Before Class:

Straight out of Camera (SOOC):

I don't want anyone to get the wrong idea. The goal is to get it right IN CAMERA!!! I  swear, I was trying to work on getting good exposure, but sometimes you (or, I guess, 'I') just don't have time to change your (my) settings to get the shot. This was one of those moments. My girls were actually sitting down for a few seconds next to each other, so I ran like a maniac, got way down on the ground and started clicking away. It wasn't until about five shots into it that I realized I needed to lower my shutter speed quite a bit (or open up my aperture). RATS!

What have I learned from this whole lesson? That I really need to keep working on nailing exposure! So off I go...


Until next time, my friends, keep on clickin' on. Ha ha ha!

A Little Grain Never Hurt Anyone

I wanted to take pictures of Julietta in our living room, near the main window.  I set everything up while she was snoozing - moved all the coats that were hanging on the coat rack behind her, threw the the shoes underneath the love seat into a pile out of sight... etc. When she finally woke up it had clouded over and started to storm. I did snap a couple shots, but by this time, I had to crank my ISO up to 1,000 (I really hate using flash because I don't know how to use it right)!!! Despite these extreme measures, my photos were still under exposed. What happens when you use a high ISO without a professional camera? Noise noise noise! And what if you also underexpose your pictures?? You guessed it - noise that's more like grain. I mean, it's like newsprint.

"Who cares?" I say. "BRING IT ON!"  In my opinion ANY image is better than a blank piece of paper. It can serve to teach us what NOT to do next time, but it can also give us room to use our imagination and create something that we had not initially intended. I love the way this shot came out with some messing around in Photoshop (okay, okay, YES, I also used an action. You got me!).