Hi Sally:  I should probably be the last person advising you on Photography, since I'm such a rank amateur.  All my pics on this site are simply tourist pictures.  I think for the most part, I'm pretty good with composition, but hopelessly clueless when it comes to the technical stuff.  I'm not a serious enough photographer to invest a lot of money in expensive equipment or software, but I do like to play around a little with color correcting.  I use a free download program called Infranview.  It's very low tech and can probably do a lot more than I've yet discovered, but I think there's a good many of the pics I've sent here that I probably wouldn't have submitted if I'd not corrected them a bit with Infrnview.

This shot of yours is brilliant, Sally.

Picture by Sally Birch

I absolute love it!  As for the color, I find it a bit too green.  I downloaded it to my computer and ran it thru Infranview, adding a bit of blue and I think it looks probably more true to life. What do you think?

Paul, you sure are a little cutie!!!

Hi 

I have read all the above posts with I have say no surprise and it seams to me that most people are missing the point on what basic photography for the armature is all about.

The camera only captures the image it does not take the image

The image is taken by the person looking through the view finder

So the image your camera captures is the image you have told it to

And instead of using any cheap and nasty PC imaging software

why not set the camera up properly in the first place to get the image you want

the photographer is in charge of the camera not the camera in charge of the photographer so if the image you put onto your PC is not what you wanted

go take it again 

people today seam not to want to take an image for what it is

they have to turn it into something its not 

A.S.V 

Wow ASV! Your comments should certainly stir up a response. Photographers have been adjusting images since the birth of photography and there is little difference now that most of us have moved to digital cameras, just different techniques to learn.

I am newcomer to digital and in particular to RAW files and I consider good imaging software a neccessity as Raw files by design need at least some minor tweaking.

I have been and still am very grateful for the advice received via this and other threads on the POE Forum and I'm sure I'm not alone in this so I hope contributors who have some advice to give will keep on giving.

Looks like a little truth still rubs against the grain with adobe software users 

The only photographers that have been adjusting images since the birth of photography are the ones that can't do it right in the first place 

But it would appear you are taking images in Raw format

Then I must take my hat off to you because you must have a nice camera

that is capable of doing such a thing 

such as a  Canon EOS 1D Mk 1V or a Nikon D3 which both support

In-camera RAW processing saves time in post-production by enabling JPEG compression, Size, White Balance, Exposure Compensation, Picture Control, Noise Reduction, Color space and Vignette Control image settings to be applied to RAW (NEF) files in the camera. 

So do accept my apology

Your very good friend

A.S.V  

Sally does take some amazing photos Anthony - her close ups are some of the best on here and they look pretty original to me - she never over processes if she does alter them at all. Her only fault is she doesn't realise how naturally good she is!

However I do agree with you about altering images - the only altering I tend to do is cropping and tend to do that on my camera. I am not very technical - in fact I am a bit techno-phobic and I hate instructions so I am no help in any of the technical threads. I treat photography like art rather than science and believe in a moment captured just as mother nature intended it to look.