Looking for guidance with Arcsoft.

[eMark]

Hi there!

I am new to your forum and quite new to digital photography.
I am hoping that someone will be able to help me with some pointers on where I can find some kind of on-line tutorial or troubleshooting guide for the editing software (Arcsoft) that came with my camera.
I would be very grateful to anyone that could help.
Thanks in advance.

[Conk]

What Arcsoft program are you referring to? I don't know of any on-line tutorials but I'm sure there are people with experience with whatever program it is you have.

[eMark]

Colin
the software that I have got is called Arcsoft photo suite,
I am afraid that I am not a Canon user, I got Arcsoft free with a Panasonic Lumix camera, but I know that some Canons also get it because my sister has got an s230 and hers came with it too, although I dont think that it is the same version as what I have got.
I have been happy enough going through the instructions stage by stage when working on my images, but, I would like to get an all round knowledge of how it operates as I find that I sometimes go about the same operation in different ways whilst not remembering afterwards exactly how I done it.

[Stan Melrose]

Hi eMark

If you want to enjoy digital photography to the full you will need some sort of program to manipulate your raw pix.

There are a lot of them. I started off with Arc Soft Photo Suite, but now have MicroSoft Picture It which works in much the same way but has a few more options.

Two golden rules :

1) Set up a well organised system so that you can find your way easily around your collection of pix - because it grows.

2) Never change an important original - most programs have a 'Save As...' features which allows you to save changes under a different name.

These programs allow you to save the best parts of a pic or cut off some unwanted features.

It is always a good discipline after you have done this to save everything as a standard size which you can do with one of the drop down commands.

I usually convert to 1600 x 1200 pixels which when viewed on full screen on your PC will give you a full picture in landscape mode.

It doesn't take long playing about with the enhance features to get the hang of it and improve your poorly lit pictures.

You have the choice to save your work as a jpeg which is the easiest to manage, but if you add text you will probably have to save your pic as a *psf to retain the layer with the text. The pix look the same in either format when you call them up

When you have mastered all this working up your raw pix is as much fun as taking them - so you need to approach it with enthusiasm rather than fright.

Stan Melrose

[eMark]

Stan
Thanks for taking the time out friend, your advice will help me to get there and the last paragraph gave me a real boost.
I have taken on all that you said and really appreciated it.
many thanks.
Mark.