Let There Be Light!

Kitty in fluorescent light, and after the fact change.

Quite some time ago my son tried to convince me to 'shoot in raw mode' on my camera. But it confused me, so I didn't. I went back to safe with the usual jpg images. Why change what was easy?

But more recently I've begun to think that perhaps I ought to branch out a little...maybe learn something about this thing they call RAW. After all, all the real photographers use it. So I went in search on the information highway known as google to learn why I needed to give this a chance.

The biggest asset that I could see was that dealing with light would be much easier. I find it challenging to photograph anything in the Cowboy's arena...it's dark in there! So I decided to give this RAW thing a whirl yesterday. And so far? Well, I'm having fun. I don't know that I've really figured anything out (being of such a simple mind that I am...these technological things often elude me), but I did play a bit with changing the white balance after the fact, which cannot be done when shooting jpg.

Playing with the white balance and the exposure lightened this shot of Darling and Kitty up dramatically, and doesn't leave it all grainy like I've experienced with jpg. There are probably a lot of things I can do to make it better, but hey, one thing at a time!

I kind of had fun changing the white balance from 'auto' to 'daylight' to 'cloudy'...or 'tungsten' or 'fluorescent'. See? I told you I had a simple mind! Goofy little things like that really had me busy here at the computer last night. I think I'm way too easily amused... But maybe I'll actually start to get decent arena shots? Guess time will tell!