Do you need to know photoshop for your photography? Most people only need to do adjustments, rather than serious editing. Lightroom is a much better place to focus attention if don't already use it.

Can you do layer masks and blend multiple exposures in light room?

No. You manipulate one RAW (well or JPEG lol) file at a time.

Right, that's what I like about photoshop. I apply a layer mast so I'm editing just the sky, or just the foreground, or one tree, etc. (after I do the macro adjustments in camera raw)

I tried doing that, but somehow that made the border between sky and earth very prominent and exact per-pixel selection takes forever to get right. But perhaps I just need to get better at it.

Yeah you need to feather the border. There are also ways to do it with layer blending properties, where certain colors/lights/darks/etc will be unaffected by the adjustment. (I think - I need to learn a lot more about those)

Here's an example of what Photoshop can do in the hands of a pro (I paid this photographer $50/hr to tutor me and work through some pics):




This is the original RAW file. (Or at least Picasa's default conversion of it to JPG. I think it's doing a pretty bad job with the colors.)




This is me just bumping up the shadows and saturation in Picasa.




And this is Photoshop. For this pic we did 5 or 6 adjustment layers, some for just the trees, some to turn the brown underbrush stuff more red, some for the sky. But I think the biggest help he did was sharpening (which he always does as the last step). It really brought out the detail in the trees and in some of the underbrush that's not front and center but up on the horizon to the right or left. You really need to see them larger to see all of the detail. But I plan to print this up on metal (2p2er/Ob-gyn Irieguy wants to hang a few of my glacier pics in his office) - where the extra detail will be extremely evident.

Very nice. I'm even impressed by the DR from the original RAW and surprised the sky is not blown out.

Lightroom is excellent for speeding up post-production workflow.

I could never imagine going back to Photoshop and trying to edit a set of 100 pictures without tearing my eyes out. I also know there are some tasks that I 100% depend on Photoshop for, so I also could not imagine giving that up.

Check out the trial of Lightroom and you will not be disappointed (unless you are the type of person who compulsively edits single images for weeks at a time to get them perfect)

What are some really second hand wide angle lenses out there? The canon kit lens is 18-55, and I would like to mess around w/ a lens <18mm before I shell out $400 on a sigma 10-20mm or something equivalent.

If it is not compatible w/ canon rebel body, no prob, I got some other cameras it might fit on. Don't want fishy eye, but don't care if it barrels a bit since I can edit.

What does lightroom bring to the table that the bridge/ACR tandem doesn't handle?

Initially, I ignorantly loaded my library into iPhoto and after some massive confusion with its file management was able to salvage my photos back to a normal funtioning directory.

Since, I've shyed away from lightroom because I read that it had a database management system akin to what iPhoto does.

Lightroom stores its own database to track your files, but how you organize them on the hard drive is up to you. If you move a folder, you'll have to inform Lightroom that you've moved it and the database will get updated.

Having not used Bridge/ACR, I'm not sure how LR varies. I know LR edits are nondestructive. You can create virtual copies of an image if you want to apply different edits to the same image. LR has a pretty decent noise reduction system, at least in the 3.x branch (never used 2.x).

The photographer I worked with told me he used lightroom for all his batch editing. But he also used Photoshop for more detailed editing.

Yep that sums it up.

any tips on playing w/lightroom?

Picasa doesn't display canon's raw files properly so I'm playing w/this program. Auto-tuning seems to be a terrible idea. Seems like the program saturates and brightens as a default and nothing else.

a) Sometimes you need the colour profile for your camera updated. E.g., my GF1 has a poor default Lightroom profile so I downloaded a different one which is much better.

b) I usually press auto-tune and see if I like improvement. Reset back if not. For me it often works.

c) Generally just go top-down and adjust things like Brightness/Contrast/Vibrance. Then Saturation either for whole picture or some colours (using the picker tool).

d) Watch free tutorial videos. There are very many, and Adobe themselves have good ones.

e) This is in Russian but probably auto-translates fine: http://sergeydolya.livejournal.com/58796.html . I'm not 100% convinced on everything he advocates, but it is a start.

In case anyone's interested in buying a barely used T1i w/ kit lens, a 4GB SD card, and a UV Filter, I'm selling mine here.

this is really great. I wish that black boat wasn't in on the shot but nothing you could do obv

took this the other day here in Madison, WI. I'm sure most of you are aware, but there's been a ton of rallying/protesting against an anti-union bill that the Republicans are trying to pass.

I just picked up a D90 and looking to buy some accessories.

Definitely getting:
-New strap
-Camera bag
-Reverse ring (for macro)

But what about these:
-Tripod
-Speedlight flash
-Battery grip + extra batteries
-Remote trigger
-Rocket blower
-Lens cleaner

Which of those do I need or don't need? For food photography, traveling, walking around the city, some portraits, etc. in that order.

I would say if you're changing lenses often, you'll want a blower because you will get some dust in the body at some point. For close-up macro work, you'll probably want a shutter release so you don't jar the camera when tripping the shutter and create blur. A good tripod would also pretty much be a must-have for macro work.

The other things you could probably wait on and get when/if you run into limitations that they solve, IMHO.

What you don't need is the kit lens, although I suppose you could try to get by with a 18-55mm and 55-200mm pair of lenses if your budget is limited and you are not overly concerned about image quality or shooting in low light.

For what you listed as interests, I don't see much need for an on-camera speedlight. It's more useful for hand-held indoor people shots. Battery grip is also not all that important unless you are at an event (e.g. wedding / sport) taking a lot of shots, or many of your shots are rotated 90 degrees. Perhaps it is also useful if you use live preview or do a lot of video shooting, but I wouldn't know.

Every SLR owner should have:

• A high quality UV(0) filter on each lens
• A spare battery
• One or more spare memory cards
• A place to put the lens cap while shooting

If you want to take good pictures, you should have:

• A tripod
• Lens cleaner and wipes
• Microfibre cloth
• A plan

Serious photographers probably have:

• More than one lens
• One or more camera bags
• A bulb blower and a soft brush
• White cotton gloves
• Patience

For travelling light, walking around, get an all-purpose lens: the AF-S DX NIKKOR 18-200mm f/3.5-5.6G ED VR II. For learning to see and compose, and for shooting in low light, get the AF-S DX NIKKOR 35mm f/1.8G. For travelling, these two are probably all you really need (until you get serious about landscapes and architecture - then you'll need a wider lens).

For shooting food, you need to be concerned about lighting. You can control it yourself, by buying good lights, or go cheap by using whatever artifical light is available and using a gray card to do a custom white balance for each session (or you can shoot raw and try to adjust white balance in software). A cable release or remote is probably a good idea, and you will want that tripod.

For portraits you want a fast telephoto lens (over 100mm effective focal length, no slower than f/2.8) with good bokeh. On a DX body, consider the AF-S NIKKOR 85mm f/1.4G N (you can use it as a very good short tele on a full-frame body, too). For serious portraiture, you will need a lighting system: at least three lights, reflectors, softbox, and backdrops or maybe green screen. Perhaps a step stool or ladder for you and stools for your subjects. The grip might come in handy here.

This is a religious debate and not a hard and fast rule. If you had a full basket and had to put something back at the camera store this would be the first pick.

not sure if serious?

like, would you say I'm doing poorly by just using my jeans pocket or bag's front pouch for this?

are people buying designer pocket-watch chains for this purpose?

Like "a plan" and "patience", this is not necessarily something you buy. A pocket or pouch is fine. I use a pocket. Some people, (women especially) wear clothes with no pockets. The point is to be conscious of where you have put your lens cap so you don't lose it, or don't look like a fool while you search a dozen pockets and pouches because you forgot where you put the damn thing. The best way is to know in advance where you will put it.

Losing a lens cap is particularly tragic for those heretics who don't put a UV(0) filter on their lens.

The pro photographer that led our tour was very against any kind of lens protector or UV filter because it degrades the image. Also he said it's pretty hard to scratch the lens. He treated his camera more like a work truck than a fine car. I like that approach.