Please help

Lonestarlady61 wrote in post #11515161
Thanks! I didn't think I would ever own a camera this nice. The price was right too. I'm already dreaming about a Speedlite external flash and a macro lens. Although I've started thinking that maybe I would have been better off with a high end Canon point and shoot *Sigh* Only because I am so lost on manual settings.

You made a good decision to go with a camera that will improve your thinking as well as pointing. Jump in and begin to learn. Learning how to run your camera in manual is a good thing, it'll force you to learn aperture and shutter speeds and reciprocity values.

As far as a flash, you can do just as well with a third party brand like a Vivitar 285, which has as much output as the top canon flash and only cost around $80. I own three of them; I owned Canon flashes before and just got rid of them.

I used photoshop cs4, but you could do all of that in PE7. All I used was the lasso curves and a mask.

Ed Harp wrote in post #11515443
You made a good decision to go with a camera that will improve your thinking as well as pointing. Jump in and begin to learn. Learning how to run your camera in manual is a good thing, it'll force you to learn aperture and shutter speeds and reciprocity values.

As far as a flash, you can do just as well with a third party brand like a Vivitar 285, which has as much output as the top canon flash and only cost around $80. I own three of them; I owned Canon flashes before and just got rid of them.

I agree that my new camera was a good decision but at the moment it seems really overwhelming. This forum will help a lot with that and other online resources as well. Thanks so much for the info. on the flash equipment. I didn't know anything about Vivitar 285 and that price is much more reasonable than Canon.

Hrspwrphotos wrote in post #11516391
I used photoshop cs4, but you could do all of that in PE7. All I used was the lasso curves and a mask.

Thanks for letting me know what software you used. CS4 is definitely out of my price range but I think that I can make due with what I have.

Hello. There's already been good comments with suggestions on the photos, but I thought I would add this link as I found it useful when I had just picked up a DSLR.

Do be aware that it's for the Rebel XT but it has good information in general as well.

http://www.usa.canon.c​om …torial/rebelxtl​essons.htm