# getting a little better at the photography thing



## thelub (Jan 4, 2013)

And wow a tripod helps.

A little out of focus. DOF isn't quite right.









My substrate and DW are still leeching tannins. You can't really tell when viewing from the front.roud:









artsy shot I took with an LED flashlight


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## Snowflake311 (Apr 20, 2011)

i like the last one. I would play around a bit more with the exposure on that maybe edit it a little and it would look really good. 

I like the angle of the first shot Its also in focus. Nice tank.


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## thelub (Jan 4, 2013)

Thanks for the input. I'm still working with the camera settings. But the biggest improvement by far was a tripod. Just couldn't get good picures before. I'm also trying to work out my glare problem. I think a big part of it is how the light fixture hangs over the sides of the tank because I used to have it over my 55 before downgrading to this 45.

And I need to get a copy of PS so I can edit photos.


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## TickleMyElmo (Aug 13, 2009)

thelub said:


> Thanks for the input. I'm still working with the camera settings. But the biggest improvement by far was a tripod. Just couldn't get good picures before. I'm also trying to work out my glare problem. I think a big part of it is how the light fixture hangs over the sides of the tank because I used to have it over my 55 before downgrading to this 45.
> 
> And I need to get a copy of PS so I can edit photos.


Do yourself a favor, get Adobe Lightroom instead of Adobe Photoshop. Its much cheaper, much easier to use, and is actually way more efficient at editing and storing/cataloging photos than photoshop is. I'm a professional photographer, and I only use Lightroom. I've only needed to use photoshop about 3 times ever, and only for very minor things.

Honestly, photoshop is a waste of money for what you're likely to use it for, not to mention using it to edit more than one picture takes much longer than it would with Lightroom.


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## thelub (Jan 4, 2013)

Thanks for the tip!


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## VicSkimmr (Oct 19, 2012)

also, with a student/teacher discount you can get it much cheaper, so if you aren't a student or teacher, find one. I think all it takes is an active student email.


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## GraphicGr8s (Apr 4, 2011)

TickleMyElmo said:


> Do yourself a favor, get Adobe Lightroom instead of Adobe Photoshop. Its much cheaper, much easier to use, and is actually way more efficient at editing and storing/cataloging photos than photoshop is. I'm a professional photographer, and I only use Lightroom. I've only needed to use photoshop about 3 times ever, and only for very minor things.
> 
> Honestly, photoshop is a waste of money for what you're likely to use it for, not to mention using it to edit more than one picture takes much longer than it would with Lightroom.


It depends on where your creativity leads you. I use PS more than LR but they have different purposes. They are meant to go hand in hand. Professionally and personally I like doing panos. PS makes it easy. I also do a lot of composite work. PS makes it easy. I do work for other professional photogs. LR makes it easy. And it makes it easy to keep track of 15-20 clients with the cataloging feature of LR.
I know many hobbyist shooters that love playing with PS and LR. Some of the event photography I was doing you couldn't get the results from LR. Definitely not a waste of money if he wants to go further with photography. Download a trial version and play with it. I will say though the learning curve is steep with PS. The trial time may not be enough. Your patience may not be enough. But if you do persevere and learn it you'll wonder how you ever did without it.


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## TickleMyElmo (Aug 13, 2009)

Yeah, but the vast majority of people in this forum are just starting out and plodding along, getting giddy anytime they get a shot thats actually exposed decently well. Do you really think they should go out and spend three times the amount of Lightroom on software that does things to their pictures that they don't understand, when they don't even understand photography itself? Lightroom is easy to understand, and covers the basics and much much more.

I seriously doubt someone starting out and taking happy snaps of their fish tank and plants is going to be doing panos or composites anytime soon.


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## Kai808 (Jul 19, 2011)

And Lightroom is free to try for 30 days!


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## GraphicGr8s (Apr 4, 2011)

TickleMyElmo said:


> Yeah, but the vast majority of people in this forum are just starting out and plodding along, getting giddy anytime they get a shot thats actually exposed decently well. Do you really think they should go out and spend three times the amount of Lightroom on software that does things to their pictures that they don't understand, when they don't even understand photography itself? Lightroom is easy to understand, and covers the basics and much much more.
> 
> I seriously doubt someone starting out and taking happy snaps of their fish tank and plants is going to be doing panos or composites anytime soon.


Eric I was just commenting on your post about you being a professional photographer and not using PS. It makes it sound like if a pro doesn't use it the average Joe doesn't need it at all. Like lightroom is the end all be all and that's far from true. Not everyone that reads this part of the forum is a total newb and that sends the wrong idea.
LR itself has some learning curves to it also. LR and PS both share the same version and coding of ACR.


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## Nubster (Aug 9, 2011)

VicSkimmr said:


> also, with a student/teacher discount you can get it much cheaper, so if you aren't a student or teacher, find one. I think all it takes is an active student email.


True. I just got LR4 with my student email even though I've already graduated from school. Not sure if they do it with LR, but you can get PS CS2 I think for free off the Adobe site. Not sure if they have free old versions of LR available yet.


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## thelub (Jan 4, 2013)

Hey, even pros use simple tools if it does the job! I just want some simple color balance and sharpness control. I'm not looking to do any chops or graphic layouts. Sounds like LS might be a good option for me.


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## jeremy va (Dec 22, 2012)

Gotta do a +1 on LRoom vs PS. I found PS less intuitive than LR and, while I realize PS is LOADED with features that graphic arts professionals, photo pros, etc need and use, I just felt it was overwhelming for use in photo post processing and storage. A lot of this is personal preference, of course. I also got various plug ins for LR (Eg: Silver effects) and they play nicely (not always the case with software). Those are probably "built in" to PS -- I don't recall. I have used LR now since October 2010 and have many thousands of photos in it (well, in its database) and use it every few days. Ability to accessing old photos becomes important with time (dur) My G/f manages over 60,000 photos with LR and it chugs along. I've never had a problem with updating LR whereas I have had horrible problems updating another adobe product: Acrobat Pro which I absolutely HATE but which I have no alternative but to use. Intuitive is good in my world. My daughter is a student and needed to send in a valid student ID #, provide the name of the school etc. The process was (appropriately) designed to make it difficult for non-students to get a free copy.


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