Getting field values, properly prepped, is covered here: What is getContent() / the ContentModel, and how do I use it to get and set custom field values?
1 Answer
I kept thinking this was in the Craft core. Wasn't, so I made my own: https://gist.github.com/timkelty/933efd23264d79d91b7a
Has come in useful in plugin dev and some templating.