/

Cool pic Mike.

I've been getting some (hopefully profitable) use out of my new EOS kit taking a few shots for some gear I'm selling on Ebay 
 
I'm really starting to get some good results shooting in RAW. It's a whole different world than faffing about with jpegs for sure.

If possible (and, especially if you have a newer version of PhotoShop) you should always shoot in RAW.  I just upgraded to CS 6 which included a bunch of new stuff.  So I also just finished going through a video training series and they had a large section about working with RAW files and why you want to before creating .jpg's from them.

They also had a very interesting section on working with HDR pictures (where you take the same picture with different exposures so you can create a "High Dynamic Range" picture by combining them).

And, before I forget, nice pic Mike!  I sure would have been fooled by his tricks and left him very much alone.

craigb


They also had a very interesting section on working with HDR pictures (where you take the same picture with different exposures so you can create a "High Dynamic Range" picture by combining them). 

I've been reading up on stuff like this Craig.
 
Very similar to what you describe is a multi-shot technique that helps out with the extremely narrow depth of field you get with macro shots. You take a number of identically framed shots of your subject, but change the focus slightly for each one. Using Adobe Camera Raw you select out only the sharp areas of each image before creating a composite that looks sharp from front to back. Real nifty.
 
I recently got Photoshop Elements 11, mainly for the improved version of the Refine Edge feature (which I'm slowly getting to grips with). One of these days, I'll pony up for the full version of PS, but Elements is pretty good with RAW (it has version 7.1, the same as CS6, but with a few features missing). I also really like the Canon Digital Photo Professional software that came with my EOS.
 
 

/

SteveStrummerUK

craigb


They also had a very interesting section on working with HDR pictures (where you take the same picture with different exposures so you can create a "High Dynamic Range" picture by combining them). 

I've been reading up on stuff like this Craig.
 
Very similar to what you describe is a multi-shot technique that helps out with the extremely narrow depth of field you get with macro shots. You take a number of identically framed shots of your subject, but change the focus slightly for each one. Using Adobe Camera Raw you select out only the sharp areas of each image before creating a composite that looks sharp from front to back. Real nifty.
 
I recently got Photoshop Elements 11, mainly for the improved version of the Refine Edge feature (which I'm slowly getting to grips with). One of these days, I'll pony up for the full version of PS, but Elements is pretty good with RAW (it has version 7.1, the same as CS6, but with a few features missing). I also really like the Canon Digital Photo Professional software that came with my EOS.
 
 

Ooo...  That sounds interesting too!  Unfortunately, I've only proven myself adept at the opposite (the ability to make everything look out of focus) - LOL!
 
I'm also playing with the Refine Edge feature (because I take hi-res scans of all those auto-body clips from different angles for the website).  Another benefit of using a "real" camera is that there are profiles in PhotoShop that will automatically adjust your picture for that particular camera (like fixing the exact skewing a specific camera causes and automatically making horizontal lines straight, etc.).
 
Someday I need to get a decent camera...