Time to Accessorize

I have been shooting with my Sony a little while now, and I think its time to accessorize. So far I have been using my steady hand but sometime it betrays me (LOL) so definitely need to get tri-pod, and I want Fisheye and Wide Angle Lens.
But I am looking to get with PP never really done anything outside adjust Hues and Saturations with my Microsoft Picture Manager.

Any favorite PP software you might would suggest.:)

I'm starting to like Photoshop Elements more and more, and the price is right for what it does. :) I can only compare it to Lightroom, and I'm starting to believe Elements is the better choice between the two.

Wendy

Hi,
PSE a powerful tool,of course.
Radu Dinu

thank you both I have a look at Elements

In the past, I have used Photoshop Elements and Paint Shop Pro (back a few versions). Between the two, PSP was more capable. I still keep a version of PSP around because it can use use the few Photoshop plugins that I have.

Lately, I have been using Picture Window Pro. The main attraction is that it does everything I need and it works with 48bit files. This is great since I start with RAW files and usually only convert to jpg at the very end. PWP has a different paradigm since it doesnt use layers, instead it creates a new window for most operations. Because it allows you to conduct operations between windows, the result is basically that same as layers. PWP is relatively inexpensive.

I'll make a comment on the tripod. As I've been focusing (no pun intended :)) on getting cleaner shots, I've been trying to avoid the most open couple of stops of my lens, and manually keeping the ISO low. Of course, this means slower shutter speed. I'm also shooting with a far better lens, and I've upgraded from XTi to T1i, so a slighter denser sensor, with next generation processor.

I now find that I'm using a tripod almost all the time, because as you improve everything else, camera stability becomes a limit.

My current tripod is a Manfrotto 410 geared head on Manfrotto 0550xpro legs. I love the geared head: I like the geared adjustment, and it has quick adjust controls on each axis, so the gearing doesn't slow things down. The legs are okay, but I'm planning to get the Manfrotto Neotec, which are quick-extend. As I said, I use the tripod constantly, and popping two releases for each leg is slowing me down too much.

Cheers;
Rick

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by ScoutR

I'm starting to like Photoshop Elements more and more, and the price is right for what it does. :) I can only compare it to Lightroom, and I'm starting to believe Elements is the better choice between the two.

Wendy

---

I see the value in both. I use Lightroom and PS CS3.
I always start in lightroom to perform the basic adjustments like colour, exposure ect.
For other stuff like cloning masking conversion to b/w I use PS.
Both are different types of software.
The way I look at it is like the "old days" when you exposed a film. The film development gives the basic character of the picture (lightroom or Camera RAW in Photoshop)
The enlargement technique creates the final result (eg Photoshop)