New to photography

I know a lot of you probably get sick of helping out us noobies but I would like some help. I have just started in to photography mostly just home portraits of family and kids. I own a T1I kit lens 18-55mm 3.5-5.6 , 75-300 4-5.6 usm and a 50mm 1.8 I use a 430ex II for my flash. I my computer is a Mac and don't know what program I should buy for editting my photos? Plus I am thinking about buying a 85mm 1.8 any thoughts on this lens? I have a couple constant light soft boxes and a few back drops are all back drops and constant lights the same? Right now I am shooting in raw and can't get my photos to load on this forum because the size is to big any suggestions? Thank you in advance for all your help. I will add some photos when I figure out how to resize them.

While this probably belongs in General Photography Talk .. Welcome to POTN.

Many people are having success editing their images in Adobe Lightroom (or since you're on a MAC) Aperture.

Both programs are essentially digital darkrooms where you can adjust levels, white balance, saturation, etc and do some minor spot removal. From either program you can then choose a format and size to export for sharing. I'd suggest you consider getting an account at Flickr, PBase, Smugmug, Zenfolio or another photo sharing site from which you can hotlink images.

Stepping up from that would be Photoshop Elements and the top of the heap would be Adobe Photoshop. Photoshop is fantastic but for most beginners, it's probably overkill.

You can download a trial version of Lightroom and if you like it, you simply buy the license and inject the code and you're good to go.

I'd suggest if you really think you want pixel-level editing, go with Lightroom and Photoshop Elements. Plenty of horsepower until you find yourself needing the power of full-up Photoshop CS4.

Good Luck.

Canon EF 85mm f/1.8 USM
From what you can see is a good lens with a good price/performance ratio.

hi there and welcome to photography,

for the image/raw manipulation:

I highly recommend you trying first the software that was delivered with the camera. canon DPP (digital photo professional) lets you import and process the raw files. The export function gives you the option to "resize" the images (which you may want to do for the upload onto POTN). If you feel limited by the provided software, you may want to look at other software as named in the post above. Download trial versions first. Alternatively, you may also acheive your goals in terms of post-processing by using free software as e.g. gimp with ufraw. another software allowing to resize the photos may be iPhoto (http://mac-tech-switching.blogspot.com …oto-to-resize-photos.html).
I know that a lot of pros will never suggest the use of the software i just proposed. i would nonetheless recomend to have a look at them. once you know about the notions implied with post-processing and raw-processing, and once you feel limited by what you already have, you may still step up onto a more professional solution.

regards...

I seem to be the champion of open source so here I go with my spiel:

Instead of photoshop and lightroom or aperture you could use the Gimp and blueMarine, both open source programs that do similar things to their expensive counterparts for free!

Nothing wrong with offering alternatives.

caesar2164 wrote in post #8693582
I seem to be the champion of open source [...]

I still didn't find an opensource alternative to the 85 1.8. can you help me on that one, plz... lol

edit: i was just googling for your blueMarine tip, the official website seems being down

The 85/1.8 is an excellent portrait lens on a crop camera like your t1i, best used for head and shoulders type portraits. If you have enough room you can also use it for waist-up shots as well.

DPP is free and pretty good, but I would recommend photoshop elements for a beginner - even over some of the other freeware. The reason is that there are tons of books and videos on how to use elements - from simple steps to advanced editing. Elements will easily handle RAW or JPEG editing, and has a lot of the capabilities of the ridiculously expensive CS4.

unfortuately nobody's made any open source lenses yet...

as for the blueMarine website being down, here's a sourceforge link to download it:
http://sourceforge.net​/projects/bluemarine/

To load photos on forums best way is to host them elsewhere and post links. I use Smugmug for this but there are lots of options including free ones. Will need to process RAW and convert to jpg to upload first of course.

85 1.8 is a great lens and a great value. On a crop camera range is a touch long for indoor portrait use, it really excels as an indoor sports and activity lens on a crop however.

hi, welcome to potn! first of all, i would 100 percent whole heartedly say "buy lightroom." i spent sooooo much time learning CS4 - and although i still use it, LR is by far a more intuitive, user-friendly program. most of the editing i do now is done in LR and i've saved sooo much time having switched!

as for lenses, you mentioned photographing children/families - my (new) business focuses on the same! if it's mostly children that you're photographing, you'll need something that's got slightly faster focusing and a bit wider (so you can use the lens indoors as well as outdoors). i would suggest buying the 50mm 1.4 over the 85 1.8. both are amazing lenses, but you won't be able to really use the 85 indoors at all (not wide enough) so you may want to invest in something that is a bit more versatile.

hope some of this info is of use! good luck!

If you own a Mac you already have a iPhoto. iPhoto is great place to catalog and do simple quick edits minor adjustments. I purchased Aperture and used it before I started using Lightroom. Lightroom is far easier to use in your work flow and process than is Aperture IMHO, simply because it permits you to toggle between Lightroom and Photoshop. One great thing about Lightroom is if you have a set of photos that are out of whack overexposed etc. One you make corrections to one photo and get your corrections dialed in as you like them you can copy the settings to the next photo that include the adjustments you desired to make .
The 50mm 1.4 is an excellent sharp as a tack lens and would probably serve your needs at this time in your camera bag, if budget governs your purchase the 50 mm 1.8 is a great buy at around $100 in most of the usual places Adorama, B&H etc. You can download trial versions of Lightroom and give it a try before you buy. Once you get used to it you will find it easier to work than Aperture.
Welcome to the forum don't sit in the corner and be afraid to ask what you thought was the soopid question, the guy in the room next to you was wanting to ask it too.

Thanks guys for your help. I will check out lightroom my problem with Iphoto is it will not resize the photos I have not had time to play with it much because of work and school. I still have the question about lighting setups what to buy? what to use ect.? I have seen some of the photos with the 85mm 1.8 on here and love the look I hope one day I can take photographs like that. If you look at my avatar that was done with my 50mm 1.8 wish I could load it in full size so you can see it better. The 50mm is what lives on my camera I have contacted the local ritz camera shop and they are having a hard time finding me a 85mm 1.8 I would go to another store but they are the one's I have an account with so I am kinda stuck waiting till they find me one. Thanks again for your help

A very good lighting setup is simply to put an external flash on your camera, pllace a diffuser/reflector on it, and bounce off the ceiling. The canon 430ex should be plenty for what you are doing, and I personally like several diffusers depending upon the situation. For general use, I prefer the gary fong lightsphere cloud. If I am shooting from a further distance or under really high ceilings the joe demb flip-it works better for me. For a small and effective diffuser when I am just out and about, the stofen omnibounce works very well

Oh, technique is very important. There are more detailed tutorials out there, but for a quick start:
http://pricelessimages​.net/tips/flash.html