SNL

Fantastic work, Lighthousers. This is the point where I am supposed to tell you that all the work was for God's glory, so don't forget that. ;) (I notice that in American churches, applauding such "success" seems to be the norm... I'm still a little out of touch with that habit) I'm so proud of you all, not because of what you did (although you did it well) but because of how much your heart was in it. Nobody ever notices what the photographer is thinking or doing behind the camera, but if the Lifehouse pics suck... I'm sorry! You try shooting in a dark auditorium with elephantine tears dripping down your cheeks! =]

So mad that I accidentally cut off his shoe here ;p

Now for technicalities. I decided to give RAW a shot and see what all these snobs are raving about. ;p Honestly? I prefer shooting JPEG. Far less hard drive and CF card space, much faster processing, less fine-tuning and tweaking. Besides, I know my white balances semi-well by now. I'd hate to waste that hard-earned knowledge. Hehehe. I spent the longest time trying to fiddle with those "whites." Very annoying.

I also processed them all in Lightroom as my second experiment. In retrospect, I should not have combined two semi-variables, although I have fiddled with RAW and Lightroom separately before. Although it's very convenient for sorting, organizing and quick-editing, it's not quite what I like. I do like the white balance tool and the sync option. Overall, I think I've just gotten so used to Photoshop tweaks that I'm either going to have to invest a significant chunk of time achieving the look I'm used to getting in 30 seconds in CS3, or else I'll probably have to run the best photos through two edits, a quickie Lightroom run and then Photoshop tweaking on the best photos. Maybe I'll consider Photo Mechanic as an alternative, since it's a journalistic standard when it comes to photo software and tools. One more boost for my resume!