RAW Power

My wife and I were relaxing in our living room watching television one evening when something caught her attention from the corner of her eye.  Being the avid birder that she is the TV watching was temporarily suspended while she went out to confirm her suspicions.  The sun had retired for the evening 45 minutes earlier so the options for feathered friends in the front yard where pretty limited. Seconds later I was being beckoned to bring forth a camera.

 

A Great Horned Owl had perched in the top of one of our pine trees.  Darkness had descended and I wasn't about to throw a flash in his face so I cranked up the ISO, opened the aperture as wide as it would go and hoped for the best.  It wasn't until I came back into the house that I noticed I was shooting with my wildlife preset that had Auto-ISO turned on and maxed out at 3200. 

Time to initiate "Plan B".  After a little exposure boost in Lightroom, I was STILL surprised by how much detail was able to be pulled out from the RAW image.  Maybe it's just me, but I find that pretty incredible.  Yes, it's noisy as all get out (I probably could have cleaned it up some more yet), but that's just cool.

By the way, if you still haven't jumped on the Lightroom train, Amazon has been running increasingly frequent specials as much as 50% off the full version price. 

Until next time, keep click'n.

-Ken