Photography Shooting In Camera Raw

Camera Raw.

I tried it.
I LIKE IT!!

Check out this terrible photo. Yeah I’m awesome that way. Especially in the evening, in my kitchen with crapalicious lighting.

BUT…

Have no fear! I remembered I shot this in my Nikon D5000′s Camera RAW setting.

And Voilá!

Literally two steps later….

Seriously this is the same image, opened with Photoshop Elements 8 Camera RAW editor first. Clicked a few of the options and toggle bars… and oh my gosh! An image I wouldn’t have been able to save at all in a regular JPEG, is miraculously pulled back from the overexposed brink.

I am one happy photog mom right now.

I’d like to thank Marcel Walker! I managed to get a private Skype lesson a few nights ago. I begged her for a quick tutorial on photo editing with PSE. She took about 15 of my most favorite recent vacation photos and walked me through how to easily and quickly edit them like a pro (with the non-pro software!).

After the editing tips she asked if I ever shot in Camera Raw. I said no, I don’t really like sushi. She said just TRY it. You might like it.  And I did (camera raw not sushi-blech!). And now I need to go make more Strawberry Rhubarb Pie.

Oh and BONUS. I found out what LEADING means. (In the PSE Type Tool.. at the top where it has two little As stacked… when you have a second sentence changing this option moves the sentences closer or farther apart! Oh how I love Photoshop.)

Keeping on a  roll here. I found a tutorial for tricking PSE into letting you alter the spacing between letters in a word. It’s called ‘kerning‘. And in PSE it’s a bit strange as you have to turn on the Asian lettering? Weird, but hey.. it works!