Hi from Los Angeles County, CA from a Newbie....

[Lil Judd]

Just wanted to come in & introduce myself as I'm brand new here. I've been taking pictures for many years & have "dabbled" in some PP, but very lightly. I've mostly been working in Elements 2.0, but last year upgraded to 4.0. Right now I'm trying out PS2, but feel fairly lost as it doesn't act as Elements on some things. I'm running a downloaded trial version & that leaves me rather lost.

I've been shooting jpg for about 6 years with many different versions of P&S cameras, but last year invested in a Nikon D200, which I love, especially after learning about RAW. Now I'm finding that the learning curve for the camera is equaled by the learning curve of software to manipulate the pictures. Time consuming, but I do enjoy it.

I'm trying to decide if I should just stick with Elements or upgrade to PS2 or PS3. Reason this became more an issue is that my daughter, who wishes to become a stage actress, needed head shots so I'm trying to do those for her.

I mostly shoot wildlife, scenic photography & our pets. Now I have to deal with head shots & portraits, which are not something I overly like but will do for my family.

Anyhow, hi & here I am & I'm happy to have found this place.

Lil

[Swampy]

Hi, Lil... Welcome aboard. Wave at my son out there on the west coast (he lives in Glendale and works at Disney in Burbank).

Don't be in a rush to upgrade to CS3. Take your time to learn your way around in CS2. There's not much you will miss when it comes to basic photo retouching and the "Extended" version of PS deals with a lot of media and 3D stuff that you probably don't need.

There is a huge difference between Elements and PS, but hang in there and persist. It will be well worth your time and effort.

There are a number of tutorials here in the RTP Tutorial forum and I can highly recommend the video tutorials available at Lynda.com. You can "join" there for as little as $25 for a month of access to all the PS tutorials 24/7. (A tip on the subscription. Join up, get your access and then immediately cancel so you don't get billed for the next month). It's an excellent way to get an overview of PS and learn the buzz words and how the main tools work.

[Lil Judd]

Hi Swampy,

My husband worked on a show "ALIAS" for Disney for many years. It's canceled, so no more. Disney's a great place to work. What does he do there?

I will continue my 30 day trial of PS2 & see if I get the hang of it. I will try the place you recommend.

Thanks,

Lil

[GerryB]

Hi Lil,

Welcome to the forums. It's a great place to hang out and learn. There are many wonderful people here who are very knowlagable and are willing to share their knowledge with you.

Like you, I started out with Elements 2.0 when I had to restore some pictures of my Mother and Father and their respective families. The learning curve was pretty steep for me but I made it. Then I upgraded to CS2 and went through another learning curve, but it wasn't as steep. Now I'm at CS3 and love it.

The best thing to do is take your time and "play" with the software - a semi-quote from Bert Monroy. It's the best way to learn it.

BTW, I guess I'm sort of a neighbor to you since I live on the east side of Los Angeles County. Also, my 2 daughters and son-in-law worked at Disneyland for several years and enjoyed it very much.

Gerry

[Lil Judd]

Hi Gerry,

I have a lot to learn so I'm very thankful to the person who turned me on to it. Only know his handle & not his name unfortunately.

I "play" with software & with my camera. Great way to get to know them. But love having somewhere to go when I get stomped.

I was at Disneyland Sunday for Mother's Day with our daughter. She'd been planning it for a whole year.

We live in San Fernando Valley. Where are you?

Lil

[GerryB]

I'm in Rowland Heights. That's between Hacienda Heights and Diamond Bar. My wife and I are retired. It's been 4 years for me and 3 for her. We do a little traveling but have been sticking close to home of late. My Mother is still with us and will be 104 in July. Our oldest daughter is married and has 2 children, a boy 2-1/2 years and a girl 3-1/2 months. between our 2 grandchildren and my Mother we're kept pretty busy. Our youngest still lives at home.

We were in the San Fernando Valley 2 weekends ago visiting my wife's girlfriend. After the visit we went to Panorama City to see what her old house looked like. Then it was off to Sylmar to visit our first house.

Mother's day was quiet. We had my Mother and our two daughters, etc. over and had a nice lunch. We have to keep things low key because of my Mother. However, it was still a very pleasant afternoon.

We haven't been to Disneyland for quite a while. Just not enough time. Hopefully we'll get there sometime this year.

Let me know if you'd like to get together for coffee and a photoshop discussion sometime. It would be fun.

Gerry

[Lil Judd]

Gerry, your mother is 104 years old - that's wonderful! My grandmother made it to 99. Well, she was a month shy.... 104 is a very impressive age. Wonderful to say the least.

My husband & I chose to have only one child. Our daughter Andrea is 20 years old, so we have no grand children yet. That suits me/us fine, we want her to live some first & do a few things she wants to.

Now you're going to find this amusing..... Our first house was in Panorama City, we bought that almost 21 years ago. Going on 11 years ago we bought our second house & guess where....... Sylmar.

We're very happy here. We have a small ranch-like property which holds all our pets. I'm generally running around feeding pets from morning to night. But that's all my fault - I'm the pet collector.

It would be fun to get together some day, as long as you're OK with me being a PC person. ;-)

Lil

[Swampy]

Lil,

Todd is the post production manager at Disney DVD. He used to be at Imagineering, He started in the park at WDW/Orlando in the Vacation Resort division. He loves Disney. He's also currently working on his MBA at UCLA-Anderson. Not bad for a kid raised in the swamps of Florida! LOL

Do you work on a PC or a Mac? Just curious. Not much difference in the two once you get inside Photoshop. PS is so deep and so broad and can take years to master, but I love the challenge. I can spend hours fiddling with a photo and trying out new ideas from the tons of online tutorials available.

Enjoy!

[DannyRaphael]

Welcome, Lil, from a former Californian (Venice-Culver City-Santa Monica area). Moved to WA in 1965 after Santa Monica fwy [literally] took out our house.

We're on similar tech paths... Upgraded to Nikon D70s a couple years ago and am waiting for whatever replaces the D200, which is a great camera.

I agree with Swampy re: CS2 (no huge need for CS3) and advice on Lynda.com.

Good luck on surfing the learning curve and enjoy the ride!

------------

Dee Dee: My dad worked at UCLA for about 10 years, so I'm a transplanted "Bruin" and still relishing defeat of USC in football 12/06.

[GerryB]

We lived northwest of LA Mission College. 30 years ago, it wasn't there. It was a bunch of outreach locations. I majored in mathematics, going to night school. After I finished all the math classes, I started on programming and took assembly language and COBOL

We moved to Rowland Heights 28 years ago and have lived here ever since. Our girls went through the Rowland Hights school system and graduated from Rowland High School. It's been nice here...we are centrally located for most of the places we go and things we have to do.

I've been blessed that my Mother is still with us. She lives 3 miles from us in an assisted living home.

I won't old it against you that you are a PC person. I worked with PCs for 15 years at work. I was in the Information Systems Division of the Los Angeles Municipal Court. I worked for them for 30 years until they unified with the Los Angeles Superior Court and continued for another 5 years until I retired. There was only one Mac in the place and it didn't need much servicing.

I got my first Mac, a PowerBook G4 after I retired. Last year I gave up my PC, on wich I learned Elements 2.0 and PS CS2 and got an Intel iMac. I redid my old PC and gave it to my wife. She loves it!

Let me know when you would like to get together and we'll set a time and place.

Gerry

[Swampy]

Gerry...

>>>>I got my first Mac, a PowerBook G4 after I retired. Last year I gave up my PC, on wich I learned Elements 2.0 and PS CS2 and got an Intel iMac. I redid my old PC and gave it to my wife. She loves it!

Because it was free and you are there to support it? LOL

[Lil Judd]

Hi Swampy,

My daughter wants to work at Disneyland, but used to speak of Imagineering. She even remade the Jungle Cruise into a Lion King ride.

I work off a PC. Sorry for not being active today. I have so much I'm trying to do these days I just don't seem to have time.

Lil

[Lil Judd]

Hi DannyRaphael,

whereabouts in WA? My husband's from Port Angeles. We're trying to decide where to retire one day, in a way he's thinking WA, but I think that'll be too cold. We'll see....

I bought a huge book on PS today with a 2 hour video tutorial included as well. It's set up in lessons which I felt seemed like a good way to approach the issue. I bought "Adobe Photoshop CS one-on-one" by Deke McClelland. Know of it?

Lil

[Lil Judd]

Hi again Gerry,

we're well located for my husband's jobs. He's a Steadicam Operator working on different TV Series & now & then movies. He worked on ALIAS for 4 1/2 years, then he went on LAS VEGAS for a year, did a little on LOST, then on COLD CASE. Right now he does days on MONK & is scheduled to go on to NUM3ERS for the Fall season.

I've been working on PCs all the time & that's about 18 years. Self taught & I've done so many upgrades over the years I don't even think about it any more. I like PCs & even learned DOS. I'm happy with what I'm doing. . . .

I'm one of those who believe we should all do what we're comfortable doing & get the most use out of. I don't get into the debate about which is better - Canon or Nikon. It's redundant to me. The best camera for me is the camera I'm the most efficient with & which fits my personality. End. If I wanted the best & could afford it, then I'd buy a Hasselblad camera.

I feel the same way about Mac vs PC, whichever works the best for the person in question is the best computer for that person to work on.

I've bought a huge book on PS CS today. I hope that one will be OK. It's called "Adobe Photoshop CS one-on-one". I chose it over others, which were smaller with more pictures etc, due to the fact that it's set up as lessons. I hope it applies to PS2 as I'm not sure if what's also referred to as CS is also Photoshop 8. If it's a wrong book - I should have checked Amazon.com, then I'll have to return it & order from Amazon.com, but I'm hoping this one will get me started.

I want to spend some time getting to know PS2 before we get together so I don't feel lost & right now I feel swamped in learning new software & really getting to know my camera. Add to that I have 2 horses at home, 4 cats, 3 dogs, about 20 Lovebirds & a Cockatoo along with husband & daughter to take care of as well as chronic headaches I'm combating.

So let me find myself in all this & then we can get together. Thanks for being so willing to help a newbie.

Lil