Thank You DPS!

[Hill Country Hack]

As some of you may be aware my wife bought the DSLR as a fancy point and shoot for herself. I have since taken it over.

I found this forum in April and began my journey reading every thing I could find about composition, exposure triangle and reviewing the various critique sections. Over time I progressed from the green rectangle to the A, the S and finally the M.

The MOST important thing I learned was to start shooting in RAW. We went on vacation to Yellowstone after only three months of having the camera. I initially processed the images in the editing software that came with the camera.

Lightroom then came into my life. I imported all the vacation pictures to LR for oraginization purposes. Tonight I took another look at some of the captures and began processing with this better tool. WHAT a difference! I am much more pleased with what I had captured. Had I shot in jpeg, my editing options would be greatly limited. Some of what I learned is evident in reviewing the EXIF of the better shots in the group.

A great big THANK YOU to all who were involved in my learning and growth as a photographer from green noob to improved hobbyist.

Wade

[DanielLane]

Now that you are really processing photos, you need to get yourself a Wacom tablet...

[SwissJon]

Originally Posted by DanielLane

Now that you are really processing photos, you need to get yourself a Wacom tablet...

LoL.. Give him another 3 months before he does that!! (Mind you, I do love my tablet!)

Hey, HCH... I've got 20,000 images that need processing if you're in the mood?

My only real worry with getting into the groove is that when you start cutting back on your bad images, you start to throw away memories that perhaps should stay in a snapshot album. So I'm going to start keeping two separate catalogues (after all that hard work at getting everything into one) and put my "memories" in one catalogue, and my "portfolio" in the other.. Personal and Professional if you like, although I'm no pro!

[Hill Country Hack]

Originally Posted by SwissJon

LoL.. Give him another 3 months before he does that!! (Mind you, I do love my tablet!)

Hey, HCH... I've got 20,000 images that need processing if you're in the mood?

My only real worry with getting into the groove is that when you start cutting back on your bad images, you start to throw away memories that perhaps should stay in a snapshot album. So I'm going to start keeping two separate catalogues (after all that hard work at getting everything into one) and put my "memories" in one catalogue, and my "portfolio" in the other.. Personal and Professional if you like, although I'm no pro!

Daniel-I had to Google a Wacom tablet, I'm not needing one of those yet.

Jon- Thanks but no thanks, I'll leave you with the fun of precessing the 20k images. I'm not going to pitch any snapshots as they are memories. I'll do what I can with them and copy the best to another folder.

[Krusty79]

For me, the next big step after that was learning to make a jpg for the light parts of an image and another jpg for the darker parts of the image from the RAW file and using a layer mask to blend the two jpgs. Of course, you can add a 3rd or 4th jpg once you know how to do it with two images. Bracketing your shots helps.

[dvtldav]

I have been using Verveza 2 by Nik Software with LR & PS and it makes color correcting so much easier. If interested got to Niksoftware.com & download the 15 day trial version and see how you like it, if you don't like it then nothing lost.

Dave

[graciousness]

Neah, not more processing is next.

Flash is

Wait till you start learning using flash. Your photography world will never be the same.

[DelCan]

Lightroom was a game changer for me also. I learned about it right here on DPS!

[Hill Country Hack]

Originally Posted by graciousness

Neah, not more processing is next.

Flash is

Wait till you start learning using flash. Your photography world will never be the same.

A speedlight is on my list to Santa and I've been a good boy this year.