kja

OK, well, after thinking about it and seeing how frickin' far behind I am on all things already this year, I've decided to have a play with you all here in the thread, but I don't think I'm going to sign up again for flickr since there's somethign screwy with my existing account and I cannot for love nor money get into it. I already upload to photobucket and since that works for me I don't want to have to upload to yet another place! I know that will kinda leave me out in the cold since you guys are so active on flickr, but I hope it's ok that I still play here only. Anyhoo, assuming it's AOK - Week 1 Ms MatlildaLily pretending to sleep while I play with my gear

To be clear, I'm only talking about fun shots here really - not ones we might be doing for clients because obviously one builds that time into the session planning That's what I'm trying to find out! Hopefully with all the ideas from such a great variety of people something will help me (and others who are interested!)

To process your photos? Some people do a truckload of processing on their images - or at least some of their images - and I know that it can take a long, long time to get it right. I take a ton of "fun" stuff and just wondering when/how y'all manage to find that kind of time in a day. I always think I'm going to find some time to experiment more with processing, but mostly I'm a KISS Girl day to day. It's like the 7th of January and I'm approximately 8 days behind on work - personal stuff is being squished in whenever I need a five minute break from reality! And this is my dead quiet season - I just don't know what's happening. So, do you schedule time? Is processing something you simply consider a must do in a day for your own enjoyment? Do you think of it as a job (or is it a job as you intend on selling images/calendars/cards/misc or build a portfolio etc)? How long do you spend with photos that you choose to process? Do you stay up really late/get up really early to have some you & processing time?

Wow, that's a really really rude message. I'll give that flickr group a miss for sure. I still might do this here as lordy knows I take enough doglet shots each week LOL

Ah, ok The red/orange flowers second from the bottom is really nice. It kind of looks like several of your images are suffering from a little blur/missed focus and I'd guess that it's because your shutter speed is too slow and on the missed focus ones maybe you didn't give the camera enough time to really lock on. What camera do you have? In general, always check your frame: look for straight horizons, make sure there's no extra bits of stuff in the corners or edges and fill your frame as much as possible. I'd recommend that you join our daily photo challenge and share an image you shoot each day! It's super fun

Welcome to posting photos Not sure what feedback you're looking for, but we love seeing pictures!

sorry you're having probs with photobucket. I use it and never have any quirks Most here use Flickr - which has decided it won't let me into my account no matter what I try and there's no real live help so I'm s.o.l. I'm still getting used to one of my new lenses so here's another Lobo shot Canon 1DIII, Canon 135L f2.0, 1/125, f2.0, ISO 1600, +3/4 stop exposure edit in Lightroom

Both programs should be on one computer - they're built to go together and you're really being hamstrung by having them separate

Panasonic do nice cameras Got to play with a Fuji one Z33 I think, the other day. Very cute. Does a pretty good job on photos. Not shockproof, I don't think, though. OMG just saw the price on that panasonic. CRAZY expensive. I'd buy 3 Canon SD1200s and not care if I hurt them. Maybe find a different Canon model & get the housing too for when I was in the water. I'd still be ahead on price!

Just play with the sliders and poke around in the menus. I've not read the manuals and have watched maybe part of one tutorial LOL

Yes, you can do small blemishes but really Photoshop or Elements is better at larger, more complex areas. I have Lightroom set up to import my RAW images as DNGs, then when I want to play in Photoshop I click the Photo -> Edit In -> Photoshop option from Lightroom's menu and that is set up to make a psd file. I edit in Photoshop, hit the save or red X and viola! the edited image is right back in Lightroom for more tweakage or for exporting however I want. The PSD file type insures that all of my layers and edits are intact. For exporting from Lightroom: Select the images you want to export. For multiple files the easiest is to go to the multi image view and use shift click and cntrl click to choose the ones you want Go to File Choose Export - a new menu pops up - choose your file type, size, destination folder etc and hit the button. I use these setting when exporting for the web: jpeg 66% 72 dpi longest side 650 pixels. there are tons of great tutorials on the web for Lightroom

You can also create the border action exactly how you want it in Photoshop, then export that as a droplet to Lightroom. Then when you have done your other Lightroom edits and want to export the file for the web or for printing or whatever, you simply add that droplet from the export menu (where you set your sizes and destination folder and all that good stuff). One stop finishing

There's a reason for this, several, in fact Olympus do make some very nice cameras and the cameras do work. I personally think that for about the same entry amount of cash, right now, Canon and Nikon have a few advantages that would tip the scales in their favor. Even a few dollars more for the extra bang would be worth it to me. If you do decide to head to Sony or Olympus (or even Fuji), it's not like the camera won't be good - it will be and you'll have oodles of fun (same as if you end up with Canon or Nikon!)

The 50D is a very very nice camera. It handles high ISO shooting very well. Some say (including me) that it doesn't handle it quite as well as the 40D, but really most people who haven't been shooting a lot aren't going to notice and those who have been will kinda have to be a bit retentive about it. It's not like it's bad - it's more the pixel peepers deep in their basements are noticing it The 50D is said to handle highlights & very bright areas slightly better than the 40D as well as offer slightly more detail in the images. I don't see it in real world applications in my dealings with it, but I'm sure it's probably true. Again, I don't pixel peep quite that obsessively. I can't see how you'd go wrong with it, frankly - it's just a solid camera (as are the 40D, 450D, 7D etc)

pretty kindle!! Love the cows & the bus shot - very nice! You guys are making me spend a lot of time in here today

I totally agree! This isn't about impressing people so much as having fun, getting out there and sharing a little bit of your day to day! Lord knows I'm not aiming for contest wins or accolades At least that's how I see it...

Those were done in Lightroom, nothing major just the basics. The biggest was White balance (terrible ambient light as there were huge green overtones from the plants and yellow from the shadecloth). They were the first shots from my camera after getting it back from the doctor's and they'd reset me to jpeg (I never check) and it sucked. RAW FTW, fa shure. HTH

Wow, you rock for going through all of those!! Which photo are you asking about on the editing?

Riley - Awww, what a cutie you have! We got Lobo from the RSPCA in Perth in the mid 90's (95 maybe?) Gosh, can he be that old already??

January 4th (haven't downloaded yesterday's card yet so I'm out of order LOL) Tilly being uncooperative Canon 1DIII, Canon 135L f2.0, edited in Lightroom then brought to Photoshop for some Totally Rad love

black magic - pretty flower!

Olympus is a cutie!! I love the second and the last of him the mostest! and the first two of Nala - gorgeousness

When you are budgeting don't forget: - extra memory cards - extra battery - card reader - software - bag - second lens (you'll want one within six months no doubt) - external flash (again, I give it six months...) There are free options for software (picasa, gimp) but "standard" editing software is Adobe Lightroom and/or Adobe Photoshop or Photoshop Elements. You can download 30 day free trials of Lightroom and Photoshop at www.adobe.com Actually, Lightroom 3 is available for a free download and is valid until the end of April, I think. have fun shopping!

+1, Canon & Nikon have very good options. Choose the one that suits your budget and feels the best to you. Both have a wide range of lenses and lots of users out there who are more than happy to offer support! Have fun!!

Amazing, it's only the 4th of January and I'm already 4 days behind with things that need to be done!! Awesome photos, Guys Loving them! I've been taking images each day but haven't gotten time to download them yet. Today. I have high hopes for today! Here's mine for 2 January: Lobo Canon 1DIII, Canon 135L 2.0