What will get me the most for my money?

[Kerbouchard]

Check out http://neilvn.com/tangents/ There are a bunch of articles on the right that should get you started on using flash to get great results.

Makes sense now that I think about it a little more - if I get the shots right with good equipment first, I wont need the software.

Specifically with the flash set up - it has a built in flash, which I'm assuming is worthless? Any suggestions for a good place online to learn about the different equipment? (e.g. this is a "trigger")

 

[analog.universe]

Man... I really hate to agree because I do software for a living, but it's true. There's excellent software available for free like The GIMP or Paint.NET, and lots of smaller utilities as well for all kinds of different uses.

The major difference between some of the free titles and Photoshop is time --- you *can* do anything in a free title that you can in Photoshop, but the time it takes you could be extremely long.

I used to work as a software developer at one point as well

The GIMP is what I use (along with ufraw), and I think that up to a certain level it's just as capable as Photoshop. There are some advanced features in Photoshop that are not duplicated elsewhere. But for basic raw and processing and editing, the end quality and time needed are quite comparable I think. Nice pro software is nice, but it's way down on my list of "money I want to spend on photography".

 

[Ginu]

My suggestion is to get a flash 1st (dont necessarily need top of the line) and then invest in a better lens than the kit. 50mm f1.8 is a good start, however I'd like to ask which focal length do you happen to use most out of the kit lens? If you mainly shoot at the wide end, a 50mm will not help that much, so might as well save the $ for a fast wide angle zoom lens. If most of your pictures are taken at 35-55mm range I would definitely invest into a 50mm prime f1.8 lens.


Then decide what you're lacking and save more $ for that and my suggestion is really good glass which is pricey.

Seeing how you've already signed up for a photo class, perhaps a flash is sufficient for now seeing how you mainly shoot family and wait a bit to see what the class has to teach you . Perspectives might change as you learn more about gear.

 

[Bone Puddle]

I'd like to ask which focal length do you happen to use most out of the kit lens? If you mainly shoot at the wide end, a 50mm will not help that much, so might as well save the $ for a fast wide angle zoom lens. If most of your pictures are taken at 35-55mm range I would definitely invest into a 50mm prime f1.8 lens.

Great Idea! Seems so obvious and yet I didn't even think of it. Ha! I'll go take a look and see what the majority of my pictures have been and go from there.