Dennyboy

I understand completely elements is a version of Photoshop, albeit cut down.  Most people however refer to Photoshop when talking about the full version which is about 8 times the price of elements. I have the niksoft plug ins which allow selective adjustments of areas of the image from Lightroom. You can also use the adjustment brush and make adjustments as well to exposure, shadows, clarity, highlights, colour, contrast etc so you can do local adjustments to a point. I paid 63 quid for Lightroom 5 which i feel is good value for a powerful raw editor that allows full non destructive editing of images, cataloguing of images, slideshows, printing, photo books, web publishing etc etc 

I used to use elements for cloning and removal of unwanted things in the image, this was i used it most for. I just try now to look around the image viewfinder and try to ensure there is nothing there to clone out. Lightroom 5 has a clone brush, but it's only ok for small corrections, so suits me. Each to their own. I had CS5 and ditched it as i found it too complex for a simple chap like me!

Saw that the other day, he uses his eye and had been doing it decades

Ian life was fine, health not too bad. 2yrs ago (age 52) and my hip gave way and i fell out of a bath backwards, cue 2yrs of knee operations x 2 off, scans, crutches, pain etc culminating in a hip replacement during which the surgeon fractured my femur knocking the new joint in. 10 weeks full time crutches. Yes life's a bitch mate, i have just joined to try and get my photography going again and maybe make some new friends. Keep your chin up.......i know it's really hard mate.......when i post you can give me some critique and bug me if you like!

My trial version of Lightroom 5 is coming to an end and I have loved it. I searched the interweb for the best price and believe it or not, Adobe have the best deal at 20% off for a limited period. I loved it so much I bought it!

It is rather good, go to www.jkost.com (or search julianne kost) she is an Adobe evangelist (not as bad as it sounds) she has some brilliant tutorials and also there is a Lightroom YouTube channel. 

Quite fancy lightroom - might have to take the plunge, people do seem to rate it.

It's very powerful, i have been with it since Lightroom 1, it's now on version 5, i would suggest if you shoot raw it's the best editor out there. If you want layers etc and all the stuff that comes with Photoshop it's not for you. If you want something that will correct perspective and lens issues with one click (even levelling the horizon), or able to adjust individual colours in an image just by sliders. I recommend it. Eg you can shoot 1000 images that may need lens correction, do one and then sync the rest. You can post to web, flickr, Facebook, smugmug etc and manage comments etc from within Lightroom. It's the best i have seen for print or slideshows on the fly. Yes i am a big fan!

Favourite new feature, one click and Lightroom highlights all spots or sensor dust, you then click with the spot tool in seconds to remove them. 

I don't use Photoshop, everything i need for editing is in Lightroom 5, if i do want to do some fancy editing i use elements, which is extremely rare. I find Lightroom wonderfully intuitive and you can't ruin anything. No layers non destructive completely.

One cute squizzell that is! 

http://www.dpreview.com/news/2013/10/16/sony-announces-first-full-frame-mirrorless-ilc-cameras-a7-and-a7r

Announced today i think 36mp, full frame, evf, small lenses. Full hd video and 4k ultra HD ready.

The market will be small dslrs and smart phones if current trends continue.

I have a snake worm and slug phobia, but I've handled my son's Iguana when he had it and he was lovely.

People say that snakes and lizards etc all feel the same, but it's the shape of snakes that puts me off.

I really love spiders and have handled a Tarantula which was all furry and cute.

THe man in the pet shop was quite nervous when he got it out for me to hold. lol.

With you on the slug and worm thing, was never bothered until someone chucked a load of slugs on me when a kid and they went down my coat and all over me. Urrrgh snakes? Had one round my neck, they do feel different to lizards but not slimy. 

Wouldn't bother me if i had a tarantula in the house, would put it outside like any other spider (well maybe not it might kill it), but if i found a slug in the house (unlikely) i would be outside. Slugphobic! Will handle snakes or anything, revived a Bearded Dragon when it almost died when the heat lamp failed. I put him up my jumper next to my skin to warm him gently. So spiders? Leave em alone!

My dog barked out loud, BOL! At Korky!  

Funny but Korky wont be tempted in!

I Love it Bill, the lenses are small as well, with the 16-50 zoom on it goes in your pocket literally, i am a serious hobbyist, i dont make money from photography or want to. So it does the job for me. 

is a bit bigger with the 18-200 zoom but not massive, with the 50mm prime on its really light

I moved halfway, i wanted a smaller system so tied myself with the sony nex system.The NEX6 which i have has a wonderful viewfinder and because its electronic you see the histogram, any exposure changes etc you make in the viewfinder, so change the white balance you see it, there is also an electronic level and once you take an image you can zoom in and check the sharpness without moving it from your eye. It takes some getting used to as it doesnt have all bells and whistles but for me, its spot on and thats what matters....

i wouldnt go back to my Sony A700 as wonderful a camera as it was. i love the lightness and portability and the image quality i find superb as well, i can still use my metz flash on it as well.

http://www.sony.co.uk/hub/nex-compact-system-camera/range/nex-6

Hi Paul, welcome from another recently joined member

Good basic tutorial, i use either Lightroom or if serious noise dFine niksoft which is brilliant for targeted noise reduction

Can't do layers in Lightroom at all, you work with an adjustment brush. But by scaling (editing the brush pin) back the you can achieve the same result. Unless you export it to Photoshop but i find i can do most things directly in Lightroom. You don't flatten layers and stuff in Lightroom everything is editable and reversible

If you subscribe to the Lightroom channel free on YouTube there are some cracking tutorials on there and i learnt some really good short cuts and features i didn't know were there. There is one for 10 hidden features which was interesting. The good news is you can click on the pin and scale the skin back a bit quite easy.

I love Lightroom 5, no woman likes to see her grey hair accentuated! Also i think you went a bit far with the skin smoothing brush, it's personal taste at the end of the day but i think a face should match the age. You bought the background back spot on, the face looks ok light wise. I would just revise the smoothing of the skin and maybe redarken the hair. Some good tutoring at jkost.com what she doesn't know about Lightroom isn't worth knowing. Love the radial filter brush in the new version.

Yes, that's the one, Denny. The old comedies still make me laugh, but these new ones are rubbish and I don't bother to watch.

One I couldn't stand was Benny Hill. He used to give me the creeps.

Never saw it much but i did laugh when i saw it :-D agree new comedy is rubbish though. Only fools, vicar of dibley, even ello ello made me laugh. Bit like this thread!

Do you ever watch the series " Only when I laugh"     It reminds me of this thread.      

Was that the one with James Bolam in it?

Agree the Canadian museum and the one in caen (the really big one) got me going. I took my son who's 27 with me. I was about to have my op and i was on crutches so distance was limited. Might have to go back again. Omaha the day we went, there is miles of beach and there wasn't a soul on it, seemed eerie. Juno beach, i looked at those small gaps they had to run through almost certain to die or be seriously maimed and it makes you shiver. The precision dropping of the gliders at Pegasus as well marvelled me.

If you haven't been Bletchley park is a really good visit, absolutely fascinating i found it.

Could not get on at all after 10pm

Did the normandy beaches and museums this year, very sobering. Stood on Omaha beach and its like standing on graves it's so hard to explain. Did from Pegasus bridge right along to utah beach over 3 days.

Close ups of scars..........as a comp........to guess the operation.

With 2 knee ops, a new hip, one kidney, no appendix, 7 stitches in one hand. I could be there all week......some other good suggestions though.