A few questions

[Photogfan]

Hi everyone I'm new to the forum but have noticed that there seems to be plenty of experienced photograhers here.
I have a couple of questions:
I have compact camera and am wondering if it's possible to get those perfect colored shots, like the ones everyone here seems to have here, with longer exposure etc.?
What is your opinion on photoshop?? (I know some photographers prefer to keep it all natural and others say photoshop can be an enhancer)
Thanks all the advice in advance:mrgreen:

 

[sabbath999]

First, welcome to the boards!

To answer your questions:

1) It depends on which compact camera you have as far as exposure lengths go. Some do, some don't. As far as taking great pictures goes, you can take a lot of fantastic pictures with just about any camera.

2) While I prefer to do as little post processing as possible, sometimes it is necessary. Photoshop CS3 is a fantastic program, with a fantastically high price... and unless you are very, very serious about photography you don't need it. Photoshop Elements is a great program that cuts out a lot of the high end features, at a price that is quite reasonable... so if you are thinking about PS it might well be the best place to start. I use Nikon's Capture NX (I shoot Nikon DSLR's and Canon P&S's), some folks like it, some don't. I personally do. GIMP is a fantastic image editing program, and it is free, so I would personally start there. Also, Adobe Lightroom (plus Aperture on a Mac) are great for organizing your files, but you can start out for free with Picasa for the PC and iPhoto for the Mac.

I would say that you should push your camera and software to their greatest limits before spending a lot of money to move on. Start out with Picasa and Gimp if you are on a PC, then add PS Elements. If you become more serious about Photography, you can upgrade to bigger and better cameras and software packages as time goes by.

 

[Big Mike]

Welcome to the forum.

Sabbath's advice sounds good to me. :thumbup:
You can get great shots with just about any camera, if the conditions are right and you know what you are doing. More knowledge will go a lot farther than better equipment.

What is your opinion on photoshop??

Asking a digital photographer their opinion of Photoshop...is almost like asking a B&W photographer their opinion of a dark room....it's essential. Well, photoshop itself isn't...but image software in general.

 

[Garbz]

Use a tripod and the lowest ISO setting possible and go and try. At worst you would be limited to a 30 second exposure, but that is more than plenty for a twilight picture, and may only limit you from taking late night pictures.

All natural only exists to photographers who don't get their film developed. In reality many people do not realise that what most digital photographers do in photoshop or another image editing program is little more than what photographers did 100 years ago with chemicals, and stopwatches. They try to get the best image they just took out of their camera and into a displayable form. Many don't even realise how much post processing a lab will do even when you drop off a roll of film. I certainly think of post processing as a necessity, though not strictly limited to photoshop.

If you will just edit images photoshop is overkill and free programs like GIMP make much more sense. These are still image editors though and I prefer to work with programs which simulate a digital darkroom like Adobe Lightroom, BiblePro, Capture One, and other such programs, I still use photoshop though for heavier grunt work when needed.

 

[Photogfan]

Thanks for the welcomes
Now that I think about it, Sabbath and Big Mike, your statements make complete sense! Thanks for putting that in perspective! I'm definetly going to try Picasa, these pictures are starting to get a little overwhelming.

Garbz I'm definetly going to toy around with that the ISO (now that I think about it, I don't think I ever have!) I don't have a tripod tho, I usually try to place my camera on something. What you (and Big Mike) said about post proccessing makes sense too! Why am I not thinking lol

Thanks for the advice everyone