Old newbie wants to get back into it

[mirrodie]

So it just dawned on me that I don't think I have uploaded a single photo to either of the two " major aviation photo sites" since my daughter was born over two years ago. And to be honest I guess I've lost interest in uploading and getting rejections all the time. More importantly, I'm glad to be wise enough to know what my priorities are at this point in my life and how quick life goes by and so I try and devote all my time to my kids.

But I'm thinking of getting back into editing photos again.

But I'm not sure I'll put myself through the craziness of arduous workflows.

Let's start from scratch: when I plug my camera into my MacBook the photos either get directed into iPhoto or into separate folders for aviation.

From there, I guess I would open up the only editing software that I have, Photoshop CS3.

Now this is where the experts come in: can anyone here please give me a relatively straightforward way of editing the photos just as I can share them with you guys? I still have my old workflow see. But I'm looking for new ideas.

And I'm not too aware of what aperture is and what light room is and how different they are from Photoshop per se. But I think I would like to stick with Photoshop CS three since I have it.

Thanks in advance

[gonzalu]

Mario, CS3 is still good... Lightroom is only a great workflow and organizational tool but it does not replace Photoshop. That being said, if you don;t want to do much editing, Lightroom is great (so is APerture but I prefer LR)

Don;t change a thing... Crop, Center, AUTO-COLOR/AUTO-CONTRAST, resize export... done :-)

[megatop412]

Life goes by too damn quick to get bogged down in photo editing. Unless of course you make a living out of it.

Want to keep it simple like me? Avoid the 2 sites entirely and get a Flickr account instead(then make me a contact). Then crop/color/sharpen and...you're done. Plenty of time left for the kiddies.

[mirrodie]

How about a real basic question. I usually upload pics automatically to iPhoto but all aviation pics I manual make new folder for. HOw do you guys suggest doing it?

[gonzalu]

Mario,

This is why I like Lightroom. Once you ingest your photos into LR, you can pretty much do lots of things FROM LR directly without ever doing much work, such as uploading to Flickr, Smugmug, etc. etc. Just a thought...

Outside of that, Adobe Bridge can help output a bunch of images automatically, resized and all, and then you can drag and drop them to your favorite on-line system

I really don;t consider A.net/JP.net the same as Flickr. Actually, totally different. Obviously JP.net and A.net are COMMUNITY sites where you are literally being judged. There is a purpose for them and you either want to or not. To each his/her own. Flickr and Smugmug and Pbase etc. is just a place where you upload and host your own personal galleries. Different ballpark and technically a lot of people do both. It is absolutely your choice. If you remember what it was like to be rejected by A.net, you will be surprised how much more stringent the process has become. They keep raising the bar you must meet... for better or for worse, not my opinion. I like the challenge :-)

So, use what you have... Go download Dr. Brown 1-2-3 Process and use it to do batch processing. Use Bridge as much as you can, it is part of CS and you have it ... it is powerful and usually ignored by most CS users.

[mirrodie]

I don't know, Manny. I was on both sides of the fence at Anet. I didn't feel it was an issue of being judged vs busting balls. And to be honest, I might considered flicker or smugmug at some point. But would likely stick to Anet/jp.net.

I may go find that thread you posted some time ago about editing and see how I feel about it. Also will look at Brown. Thanks!

[gonzalu]

Mario some of your pictures on A.net are still ones I look up to and admire. I still can't believe I actually and speak with the likes of you and Raj and Eric and Phil and Art. And EVERYONE else here tat started waaaay back... Your picture of the lineup with NYC in bg, oh man, I only hope one day I can stand on that same spot and snap a few frames, planes or not :P. so, you ave nothing to worry about... If I were you, just pick up where you left off. Nothing wrong with whatever system you had that worked. The new screening is just more of less noise, perfect contrast/exposure, framing etc... All else is old school... Sharp, not too much, not soft but just right. And aligned. Lol. I am here to help or just shoot the s**t if you like on all things editing! Hit me up on Google Chat if you like as well...

[gonzalu]

Mario, I just came across this nice article on automation... may be of value to you ...

http://www.dpreview.com/articles/0567301971/automating-photoshop

[mirrodie]

Thanks for all the info Manny. Gonna download that LR beta that Eric had mentioned to me in passing and see what its all about. O haven't even taken the pics off the camera yet, want to try a new way of doing things.

Appreciate the kind words! Amazing though how my thoughts have changed.