Need Newbie help!

[jenseib]

I have a Canon Rebel XTI. I have read a book about digital photography. I am reading Understanding Exposure as well.
But I still can't get my pictures to look so awesome. I swear the color just doesn't come out nice and bright with my rebel. I read so many people doing fancy stuff with photoshop and other photo editing brnads.
I have Paint shop pro 9 and have been reading a book on that as well, but Some of it I just don't get. The layers section is horrid. I really have no clue how to use them.

Anyways..... How do I get started? Is there a sight that can teach me things. I have tried Ilovephotography.com and I am overwhelmed. Too much info, and I really don't know where to start. I look in the Just starting out section, but people are all talking about clients and stuff, so they are pretty good already.
Is there any other books to start out with? Any places to take classes on this and will teach me from step one. I can take pictures, but I want awesome pictures. I try stuff I read about, but some come out, and some don't. Which I know happens. I see so many nice pictures that show wood texture, or really nice color popping, or different vitages. I know plu ins help with this, but I don't really know how do go about doing that either.

So in genreal, I need direction, as if I was a total newbie as to where to go to learn more. I seem to not find the right sites. Everything seems to advanced for me and alot of times when I ask a question it goes unanswered..I think becuase I am so new and they are all so far advanced.

 

[PoohJen]

I don't have answers for you (but I know you'll get lots of help here!). I just wanted to say I've been using my Rebel xt for a year, and have gotten some great shots, but I agree with you - I've been underwhelmed by the color. I swear my $100 kodak had better color results!

 

[YEKCIM]

I have a Canon Rebel XTI. I have read a book about digital photography. I am reading Understanding Exposure as well.
But I still can't get my pictures to look so awesome. I swear the color just doesn't come out nice and bright with my rebel. I read so many people doing fancy stuff with photoshop and other photo editing brnads.
I have Paint shop pro 9 and have been reading a book on that as well, but Some of it I just don't get. The layers section is horrid. I really have no clue how to use them.

Anyways..... How do I get started? Is there a sight that can teach me things. I have tried Ilovephotography.com and I am overwhelmed. Too much info, and I really don't know where to start. I look in the Just starting out section, but people are all talking about clients and stuff, so they are pretty good already.
Is there any other books to start out with? Any places to take classes on this and will teach me from step one. I can take pictures, but I want awesome pictures. I try stuff I read about, but some come out, and some don't. Which I know happens. I see so many nice pictures that show wood texture, or really nice color popping, or different vitages. I know plu ins help with this, but I don't really know how do go about doing that either.

So in genreal, I need direction, as if I was a total newbie as to where to go to learn more. I seem to not find the right sites. Everything seems to advanced for me and alot of times when I ask a question it goes unanswered..I think becuase I am so new and they are all so far advanced.

I'll give you a "quick fix" answer that I have used since I got into digital photography: Picasa. I'm still using it, but just installed PSP X this week, and will hopefully be moving up the food chain, so to speak.

Picasa, though, is a very easy to learn editing program, and it is a free download so if you try it and don't like it, you've lost nothing. It is not a do-it-all program, but does offer some pretty good enhancement tools that do not require a doctorate to figure out how to use.

All of my WDW pix (see sig below) were edited in Picasa, and on most, all I did was to crop and hit the "auto cotrast" button. Some were sharpened, too, but I don't particularly like Picasa's sharpening tool, since it is not adjustable, which is one reason I bought PSP.

Anyway, I think you will be amazed at the difference just the "auto contrast" tool makes in your pix, if they are flat, as is the case with most straight-from-the-camera JPEGs from dSLR's. If you are shooting RAW, it may be a different story, but my experience with JPEG's is that Picasa is a very useful tool.

Good luck; hope you are able to get the most out of your XTi's potential.

~YEKCIM

 

[ukcatfan]

If color is your primary concern and you feel that your exposures are correct, then try looking in to shooting in RAW nd how to post process them. That format gives more flexibility to push things like saturation, contrast, etc. that might make your images pop more for you.

Kevin

 

[jenseib]

Thanks everyone!
I don't shoot in RAW yet. I just don't have the time to learn that and how to process it yet. Plus it takes up alot of room.
I just found a beginners class for digital photography for a little over $300.00 at our Art museum for a 12 week class, each class being 3 hours. I think I may give it a try too.
Yeckim, I love your pictures too, so I may look at the Picasa too.