Newer hobby photographer That just doesn't have a clue! ;-)

LisaCadwell · Oct 7, 2012

Hello to all!

I just found this and already have it bookmark! I'm excited to read more from all of you in the hopes to improve my skills. A little about me... I've been taking snap shots of my family for years... I upgraded my camera when it came time for my daughters senior pictures. I looked on-line and thought... well, I can do that! Wow was I in for a surprise. Aperature??? Shutter speed??? I loved my camera's programs. I was "lucky" enough to come up with some decent shoots after the hundreds we took. I would like to be more than lucky.

I wanted to share a few of the pictures that I took today - but the files are too large. ????

Which brings me to one of my first questions - EDITING!!! I installed Canon's DPP; but, I've been told that I should be using Lightroom.

SO - Help me....

Lisa

Desi · Oct 7, 2012

Hi Lisa,

welcome to the forum.

I know how you feel. I was afraid to give up my point and shoot because I knew I'd have to learn all that stuff. It is quite confusing at first.

A few things:
Composition is important. It doesn't matter what kind of camera you have, you still have to arrange the subject within your frame in a manner that is appealing to the eye. Putting your subject dead center in the frame is usually considered a no-no. Look up the "rule of thirds" and start from there. It is a simple rule but takes a long time to really digest.

Shutter speed, aperture and ISO are considered the "exposure triangle". Not sure how "clueless" you are, but if you are just beginning, you might want to read Bryan Peterson's "Understanding Exposure". It's an easy read, has lots of large pictures to study and really does a nice job on getting you started.

As for posting: see here.http://www.thephotoforum.com/forum/...forum-functions-pictoral-guide-using-tpf.html

Good luck and hope to see you around

Desi

Oh, and Lightroom rocks. But there is so much to learn......go slow so that you aren't overwhelmed.

LisaCadwell · Oct 8, 2012

Does it help if I post a link to Winkflash? My Public Share Images At Winkflash

TCampbell · Oct 8, 2012

You need _some_ type of software to get your images out of the camera, onto the computer, and allow you to make adjustments to them.

Most editors allow you to open and manipulate your images one at a time.

Some years ago, Apple noticed two problems: (1) the method for adjusting images in most photo applications was set up to work more like the way a computer programmer thinks and less like the way a photographer thinks. Photoshop is, frankly, VERY UNNATURAL. It has it's own language and a difficult learning curve. (2) if you shoot a lot of images, you need a way to manage them all. Here again, most apps were definitely written without really thinking about how a photographer works.

So Apple wrote a program called "Aperture" which became very popular -- but it only ran on Macs.

Adobe (the 800lb gorilla and undisputed king of the image editing world) noticed this and responded by creating "Lightroom". Lightroom was basically designed to compete against Aperture.

I'd say Aperture was clearly better... but Apple had some internal turmoil on the Aperture development team and lost a lot of ground to Adobe. Apple came back and I think their most recent version is pretty good, but Adobe managed to capture quite a foothold on the market so Lightroom is definitely the more dominant app today.

The prices have come down... it used to be $200 for Aperture and $300 for Lightroom. Today Aperture is $79 and Lightroom is $149. (QUITE a bit less expensive than when I first bought it.)

The convenience of Aperture and Lightroom is that you import your shoot and can immediately get to work on them... you don't "open" an image file, make edits, and "save" it before going on to the next. You just see all of your images... you move from image to image doing the things you need to do. Commonly you'll want to correct the white balance, adjust the exposure, tweak the highlights & shadows, maybe sharpen up some areas or de-noise them then go after spots or blemishes that you want to touch out. For the types of changes that should apply to lots of images (e.g. say you took a dozen shots in the same light and you want to fix the white balance on all them) you can apply adjustments to entire ranges of images all at once. Or you can take the adjustment you made to one image and copy it to all the others. BUT... unlike Photoshop and it's significant learning curve, Aperture and Lightroom are pretty easy to use because they "speak your language". Adjustments are named by the words that photographers use.

Aperture and Lightroom are particularly good at dealing with "RAW" images (but they certainly work on JPEG images too).

HOWEVER... prioritize learning your camera. If spending $150 on Lightroom is a bit tough to do, don't worry about it. Keep using DPP -- or any other tool. There are LOTS of tools that will let you adjust your images, export them in different sizes and formats, etc. It's just that Aperture and Lightroom are fairly easy and convenient.

joshhuntnm · Oct 8, 2012

Lightroom is fantastic! Highly recommended! Every pic I take goes through Lightroom.

jwbryson1 · Oct 8, 2012

LisaCadwell said:
Does it help if I post a link to Winkflash? My Public Share Images At Winkflash

Not familiar with Winkflash, but photos posted here from Flickr tend to look the best.

LisaCadwell · Oct 8, 2012

Thanks Tim for that break down. It makes sense to use Lightroom and I am sure that I will ask for that for Christmas. I appreciate your time.

Lisa

Desi · Oct 8, 2012

Lisa,

I took a quick peek at some of your images on winkflash......sure looks like you are having fun.

There are way too many to comment on, and most people on this site won't follow a link to pictures.

Try to post them on this forum and ask for C&C. Only post 1 or 2 at a time, and maybe try to ask a specific question with each shot. That way each shot can be a good learning experience.

Look at other people's posts and critique them as well. You will learn the most when you gain a critical eye to apply to your own photos.

It is long process which I am learning myself.

Desi

LisaCadwell · Oct 9, 2012

Thanks Desi. I'll look into how to resize the pictures as I seem to upload them to this site. I would love to get a C&C to see how I can be diong things better.

I'm sure that this will be a life long venture; and as the kids are leaving the empty nest is kicking in. What a wonderful hobby to have!

Lisa

LisaCadwell · Oct 9, 2012

I think I finally was able to upload a picture. Anyone care to C&C it?

LisaCadwell · Oct 9, 2012

Desi · Oct 10, 2012

Here's a few thoughts on your images. Note that a reviewers critique reveals their experience....I'm a relative newbie.

1. Exposure looks decent. The faces seem a bit soft to me, like you just missed the focus. I don't know that the foreground helps much. I'd rather see a bit of a tighter crop on them. You cut off his elbow. THe main problem, to me,, is that the white balance seems off. Too cool. The pose seems nice.

2. She seems a bit underexposed and the white balance on the cool side. Her skin looks a bit blotchy. You included just a bit of her hand coming out of nowhere. I did a quick edit with a tighter crop, removing the hand. I warmed up the white balance and then increased the overall exposure while darkening the blacks. Overall, I think this is a nice shot and just needed a bit of developing in lightroom.

touched_up_427x640_.jpg by Javier Descalzi, on Flickr

3. Sunset. nothing particularly special about it. Nicely exposed sky but foreground is dark and lacks interest. Horizon seems slightly tilted. This image needs a subject.

LisaCadwell · Oct 10, 2012

Thanks Desi! I appreciate the feed back. 1) yep - agree with all said. I'm still playing with the editing so my eye is learning what to look for. 2) I would like to see the edit you did. I tried to see it but it stated that the picture was private. I would be happy to have you send it to me via email - cm9yso@gmail.com. This is my daughters senior picture and I was trying to get the skin tone to look better. She is a life guard and has the weirdest suntan lines!!!!! 3) the sunset focal point was supposed to be the boat! LOL - it was a little far out there for my lens though. Point taken well.

Desi said:
Here's a few thoughts on your images. Note that a reviewers critique reveals their experience....I'm a relative newbie.

1. Exposure looks decent. The faces seem a bit soft to me, like you just missed the focus. I don't know that the foreground helps much. I'd rather see a bit of a tighter crop on them. You cut off his elbow. THe main problem, to me,, is that the white balance seems off. Too cool. The pose seems nice.

2. She seems a bit underexposed and the white balance on the cool side. Her skin looks a bit blotchy. You included just a bit of her hand coming out of nowhere. I did a quick edit with a tighter crop, removing the hand. I warmed up the white balance and then increased the overall exposure while darkening the blacks. Overall, I think this is a nice shot and just needed a bit of developing in lightroom.

touched_up_427x640_.jpg by Javier Descalzi, on Flickr

3. Sunset. nothing particularly special about it. Nicely exposed sky but foreground is dark and lacks interest. Horizon seems slightly tilted. This image needs a subject.

LisaCadwell · Oct 10, 2012

Thanks Flanders. I just started to use Canon DPP and I now have the trial version of Lightroom per several peoples nudging. Was there anything in particular that you were thinking???

Flanders20 said:
You need some type of software

Desi · Oct 10, 2012

Doesn't the edit show up on my post? It's just private on my flickr so that visitors to my flickr won't get confused.

I'll email it to you. The image I got off TPF is pretty low resolution, so not a particularly good edit.