Help for a beginner... please

[gocolts18]

Hi,

I have been taking photographs for a while and I'm pretty good at it. However, post processing confuses me to no end. I see all these different editing programs and I've downloaded the free trial of both Lightroom and Photoshop CS5. I've uploaded pictures to them and I have absolutely no idea how to make them do what I've been doing with Picasa and Picnik. How do I move from Picasa and Picnik into the more advanced programs?
My other question is when I take pics and then want to print out an 8x10 and sometimes even a 5x7, I can't get my whole shot in the frame. What am I doing wrong. My camera is a Canon EOS Rebel XSi

Thanks!

KJ

[AdrenoJunkie]

You're not doing anything wrong. Your camera has 2:3 aspect ratio. That means it prints 4x6 8x12 etc. 8x10 is a 4:5 ratio. To print at other sizes you will have to crop some of it. If you know what size you plan on printing it at before you take the shot then frame it with that in mind. If you plan on printig it 8x10 then compose the shot with a little extra room that you can crop off later. As far as your PS question you can do like I did and just google photoshop tutorials, or search them on Youtube. I'd never used any editing software before PS and I am now pretty comfortable with it and for the most part can accomplish anything I want to do to my photos short of total photo manipulations. There is an endless supply of tutorials out there, written and video. There's alot of good tutorials on this site also. And if you can find any videos or books by Scott Kelby he's good at making PS understandable

[Tzetsin]

I'm not familiar with those programs you mentioned your used to using, but I am familiar with lightroom and ps.

lightroom and ps really have different functions, and altho they are both editing software, they are actually for somewhat different applications.

Lightroom, as the name suggests really deals with light and color almost exclusively. You can do some very basic editing, such as spot removal and cropping, but for any heavy editing your going to want to move to photoshop. Photoshop can do everything that lightroom can, but not the other way around. The advantage to lightroom is that its very easy to use and has a fast workflow. Its best feature is that it can catalog your sets and do very quick global edits all within the program. If your just new, get this program, its the best bang for your buck.

Photoshop on the other hand can do whatever you can dream up, though its extremely complex and complicated to use. The workflow, if you know what your doing isnt so bad, but its geared for single images, not sets. If your looking to do heavy editing (ie changing the composition) than this program is going to have the tools you'll want. But its going to take some time and more than a little research to learn how to use it. If you consider yourself more of a graphic artist than a photographer, (ie you want to merge photos, move parts of the photo around, add textures ect) than this is the program you want. But be prepaired to pay. and to spend some time learning how to use it. alot of time. really.

About the picture sizes...

I find this pretty retarded too. the standard picture frame / printing sizes are absolutely not even close to the aspect ratio of you camera, nor just about anyone elses. unfortunetly that standard is a throwback from the past and I guess the professionals havn't bitched about it enough to get it amended yet. Theres nothing you can do about it except take pictures with a loose composition that will allow you to crop into the standard sizes, or be willing to have white bars on the top and bottom of your prints.

[gocolts18]

Thank you for the comments. They make sense to me. I don't think I have time to devote to Photoshop CS5 since I have a full time job and kids, but eventually maybe I can figure it out. I will look up Scott Kelby and see what he has to offer. The YouTube idea is great. Thanks!

KJ

[kcoppock]

Yeah, I was complaining about the print sizes the other day, they seem fairly arbitrary. I have no problems just printing them to fit, and trimming them down. Custom mattes are pretty damn cheap to have cut anyway. I'd rather have an odd size than crop it to fit an old standard.

My last print/matte was 6 x 18. (That was a panorama, though)

But yeah, how I learned Photoshop was to just play with it. Just dive into the menus, find out what everything does. My suggestion:

Learn Curves. Curves is awesome.
Next, Layer Masks.
Image > Adjustments > Shadow/Highlight. Don't overdo it.
Whenever possible, work non-destructively (layer masks / adjustment layers)

[GreggObst]

You may want to take a look at KelbyTraining.com. Once you sign up you can watch as many of the hundreds of different training courses available as many times as you want. Sign up for a month and then cancel if you don't want to continue. It will be the best $24.95 you ever spent.

For lightroom, look for the classes by Matt Kloskowski who is hands down, the most knowledgeable guy on the Lightroom product. For Photoshop, there are many instructors that are quite good including Scott Kelby, Corey Barker, Calvin Hollywood, Dave Cross and others. They have beginner level courses and tons of courses on photography topics if you want to get more into things like lighting, portraiture, landscapes, etc.

[DanielLane]

Another place for tutorials is Lynda.com. That web site is dedicated to tutorials for almost any software you can think of. All of the tutorials are made by people who have been professionals using the software for many years, even decades. There are many free ones on there, but if you find you want more, you can sign up for $25 a month and learn to your hearts content. Cancel when ever you want. There are literally thousands of tutorials on there for photoshop as well as light room. I highly recommend checking it out. I first heard about it while in the television industry. It's pretty much become the standard place where professionals in the tv and graphics world go to learn about new software and upgrades. You will be blown away at what you can learn.

[Tzetsin]

Originally Posted by DanielLane

Another place for tutorials is Lynda.com. That web site is dedicated to tutorials for almost any software you can think of. All of the tutorials are made by people who have been professionals using the software for many years, even decades. There are many free ones on there, but if you find you want more, you can sign up for $25 a month and learn to your hearts content. Cancel when ever you want. There are literally thousands of tutorials on there for photoshop as well as light room. I highly recommend checking it out. I first heard about it while in the television industry. It's pretty much become the standard place where professionals in the tv and graphics world go to learn about new software and upgrades. You will be blown away at what you can learn.

+1000000000000000

This is where I go to learn.

[gocolts18]

Awesome!! Thank you for the tutorial info!