Winter colours

[katalen]

all i have is Adobe Photoshop Elements 6.0 and Digital Photo Professional that came with my camera, i shoot in RAW format as well but in order to get them into adobe i need to run them through Digital Photo Professional and change the file format

[Iguanasan]

Hehehehe... not completely, Barefoot. I get the shot mostly right in camera and Lightroom lets me do the basics. If I need advanced stuff with layers I still flip over to Gimp but that's rarely necessary unless I'm doing something very specific. Lightroom does almost everything I want.

Well, hot damn! Gave up on the Gimp, huh? Don't let Iggy fool you, Katalen. He's still got the first dollar he ever made. Just a tightwad, that's all.

All kidding aside, I have a copy of Photoshop Elements 11 that I deactivated some time ago and its just sitting in a draw wasting away. If you need some decent software, its yours for free. Someone might as well use it and I don't see any legal problems with it as long as I turn the license over to you.

[Iguanasan]

I'm not super familiar with either of those but I believe you should be able to do most of what you need. If you don't want to splurge on Lightroom just yet you might want to check out Picasa. Picasa It is free and works a bit like a very basic Lightroom where it lets you organize your images and edit them non-destructively.

The biggest recommendation I can make is to take small steps. Don't try to learn everything at once or you will likely get frustrated. Getting better at anything - photography included - takes lots of time. I've been working at it as a fairly serious hobby for years and I'm still learning.

all i have is Adobe Photoshop Elements 6.0 and Digital Photo Professional that came with my camera, i shoot in RAW format as well but in order to get them into adobe i need to run them through Digital Photo Professional and change the file format

[Barefoot]

I get the shot mostly right in camera

Indeed you do, Ig. As a result, everyone here enjoys your work. I know i do, anyway.

[JAS_Photo]

A very wise photographer once said, "Your first 10,000 images are going to suck." Which is a way of saying, practice makes perfect. But not just practice, practice where you take away something, every time. You learn from your mistakes. You know compositing so that means you are not afraid of technology or learning.

Now is my chance to share a little Joe McNally video.

[Marko]

great share Jas!

[HighSierra]

... i find if i have a window or light in the photo it turns the photo really dark ...

The window doesn't have to be in the photo. Just use the window to provide side lighting.