Preface

These days it seems that trying to stay ahead of the game as a digital photographer is like trying to catch the wind. You gradually build your skills and knowledge and no sooner do you get a handle on the best workflow for your style of image making that the industry changes not only the goal posts, but the very game you are playing.

Shooting raw is such a change for the quality conscious photographer. The way we photograph and process our images has, again, changed for ever. Choosing to shoot raw over other capture formats is not just a matter of changing the file type on your camera, it requires a change in the way that you think about your photography. No longer are we condemned to allowing our camera the lion’s share of decision making when it comes to converting the basic picture data that is recorded by the sensor. Choosing to shoot raw is an act that rightly repositions the photographer and his or her skills at the very center of the picture-making process.

This book is a celebration of the return of the photographer as the master of the whole process – from capture to archive. So join me as I show you the skills, techniques and knowledge that you need to reassert your rightful place in this ever changing world of photography.

Philip Andrews