Here’s a new “category” of posts I want to start: SOOC. This funny acronym stands for “straight out of camera” and means just this — unedited pictures as created by the camera.
While you can do alot in-camera when it comes to colours, contrast, etc., you have to nail the framing when you take the picture as you’re not allowed to touch it once it’s on the memory card… [And you should clean your sensor, see the top left corner of this picture ;-)]
In order to get this picture, I used the “sunset” mode on my camera (yours should have this too) which renders said lighting situations in a particularly nice way with warm colours and strong contrasts (but I also dialed in a -1EV exposure compensation to get even more detail and saturation in the sky). I can’t emphasise enough the importance of knowing the “scene modes”, “creative styles”, or whatever it is called on your camera. Know which ones you have, what they do exactly (either the manual or some in-camera help will tell you) and make sure use them in the appropriate situations!
One could be tempted to think this shot was taken somewhere special (like Africa), but no, it’s just good old Maynooth. This is what we get to see every day whenever the weather permits it.
