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| Sunrise on Sinopah Mountain Two Medicine Lake Glacier National Park, Montana |
A breeze ruffled the surface of Two Medicine Lake as sunrise light moved down Sinopah Mountain. There was a large brightness difference between the sky and mountain and the water still in shadow. I captured a raw file so I would have more flexibility when editing the picture.
I wanted to smooth out the lake's surface, so I added a neutral density filter to block light (like putting sunglasses on the lens) which forced me to make a longer exposure. With a low 100 ISO and the smallest aperture of f/22, my shutter speed was 25 seconds.
But there was still more texture in the water than I wanted. So using my raw editing software, I reduced the texture and clarity just in the lake. I also made the sky a bit darker and shifted the color more toward blue. Then I lightened the shadows of the trees on the distant shore.
Knowing the possibilities of your camera settings in manual exposure mode and the controls available when editing a raw file helps you make decisions at the time of shooting. These combine to produce a picture that you imagined. Learn how to use manual exposure mode and basic editing steps to get the most from a raw photo in my new class Advance Your Digital Photography, which begins September 1, 2026, at the Lifelong Learning Center in Missoula, Montana. Click here for more details and registration.