- This topic is empty.
New complete beginner
-
Hi all, I am a total beginner and hope to learn a little on this forum. I found the site on a web search using the words photography and Ireland. Thanks for accepting me into this forum.
Hi Pelagic, I am so new to photography that in my ignorance I dont have any questions…last week I had a question which was which camera do I buy? I was torn between the Nikon D3100 and the Cannon 550D. I eventually decided that although I felt that the Cannon 550D was probablybetter than the Nikon 3100, especially as I like to take pics of wildlife;birds creepy crawleys and sometimes flowers and plants depending on what I see that interests me, but I ordered the Nikon D3100 because it seemed a bit simpler to handle and because of its onscreen teaching mode and the fact that Its an easy camera to handle in my hand too. Idont know if I have made the right choice or not, I could still change my mind as the camera hasnt been delivered yet, it is due to come on or before the 4th of May. Although I handled the cameras in a shop nearby I purchased online where I got a better deal. I’m a cheap cheat I know!!!!! In the meantimme and for a few weeks now I have been using a Cannon powershot sx130 and that is the camera that has given me my interest in photography, it has made the world at my feet come alive and suddenly I see a reason to take photos, I so hated cameras and taking photos before this…..maybe after reading this ye will throw me out of the site as I really am a very raw newbie to any kind of camera let alone a DSLR. I do have one question though and that is about photo editing software, which one do I go for bearing in mind that I dont have much cash. I am using Corel Paint Shop Photo Pro x3 free trial at the moment and having fun with it. I was thinking of purchasing it. Again I know nothing about editing photographs and am just playing around with them.
Here are some of my photos
Hi Pussnboots.
Welcome to the site. Looking at the new posts, I see you’ve already got stuck in. I love your spider shot (above). You’ve focused lovely on the eyes (which isn’t easy). I use Paintshop pro 2 for editing & find it nice & easy to use for most stuff & it’s a lot cheaper than Photoshop, but not as good.Thanks miki g I have a trial version of corel paintshop pro installed and I am thinking of purchasing it. I have about 16 days left on the trial yet. I’m only experimenting there though, I really havent a clue what I’m doing but when I get some time in a week or two I hope to do some of the tuts and that might teach me a little about how everything works in it.
Pussnboots,
Also download the free trial of Adobe Elements. I suggest it not because it’s better than Corel, but because there is so much free tutorial info on the net and in the photo mags.
This is my story with image editors;
I personally switched to Lightroom. It’s currently on sale for $99. The reason for using it is simple. Lightroom has just the most used features from Elements, Photoshop and Adobe Camera Raw. That along with a great database approach to importing, cataloging and modifing images makes it the easier to learn and use than other tools. It’s known as a professional’s workflow tool but that’s not how many of us use it. We use it until we absolutely can’t do what we want and only then do we use Elements or Photoshop as if they were Lightroom plugins. I’m also experiementing with HDR and all of the leading tools are available as Lightroom plugins. The drift of this approach = start with the best simple workflow tool and only add extras when you find you need them. I came to this conclusion after 3-4 years of messing with image editors, when i only want to do a few things: red eye, crop, white balance, color control, distortion correction, spot removal, cataloging my images, outputing for email, web, printing. Even those few things came to me over those same few years. I started with a p&s so red eye, cropping and while balance were the first I needed.Thanks Pelagic :) I downloaded a trial version of adobe aswell but it didnt work for me, its not letting me click into anything so I went with the corel photoshop then instead. I will see if I can find the tuts , corel photoshop also have tuts so between the two of them I should get some small grasp at least of what needs to be done to a photo once its out of the camera and on the computer screen. :)
I haven’t used used Corel software since I stopped needing Corel Draw years ago. But they do good stuff. Notice that I didn’t mention just the Adobe way of doing things, just what you’ll need to do. The program is just the tool. You are the craftsman.
Thanks Pelagic, After about 6 attempts I finally downloaded a trial version of adobe lightroom that works for me, I didnt get a chance to do anything with it yet though as we are fairly busy here at the moment getting rooms painted etc, so I havent much time to spare these days and wont by the looks of things for the next two weeks or so. However I have clicked in to it and it is actually working. But it will be good to get a couple of tutorials done and see what all this photoshop and lightroom experience is all about. The version of corel I have is for photo and video editing its not the paint and draw one. I will have to learn what I need because as of right now; outside of cropping tool which I use too much and too severely already, I have yet to learn about saturation levels and brightness contrast white balance and so so so so so so much more :lol: I will be on pension before I have learned all I need to know just to get a photo to look okay :lol: Still thats what its all about, the fun of learning how to do it right :) I greatly appreciate all the helpful comment s I get, I need them all :)
You must be logged in to reply to this topic.
