USVI-On-Line

CG -

Your photos are great! To bring faces out of the shadows I run the photo through Picasa first and use fill light, then I go on to the heavier artillery for the other elements. Picasa also has this great "I'm feeling lucky" button which sometimes is all you need for exposure, color, etc.

There's a less expensive program than PS that has an easier curve - it's called Mircosoft Picture It. I have V10 (compatible with XP, Windows 7). It has the cloning tool, dust removers, cut-out tools, etc., I think MS has discontinued making newer versions but it should be easy to find on eBay. I find myself going to this one before getting into PS where I have to think a lot to remember how to use it.

Can't argue with success, though, and your pictures are wonderful, CG!

Thanks Margy! I'm going to look into Picture It, that sounds great! I've always heard good things about the Picasa editing tool, as well. Maybe that's all I need to bring out the shadows.

Oh yeah, I use that "I'm feeling lucky" button all the time on picasa......great for rookies like me!

I have a plug-in for Photoshop called Velvia Vision and it's something like a "I'm Feeling Lucky" button that you can adjust to your own liking.

If you can't afford Photoshop, GIMP is a free open source piece of software that supposedly has all the same features - but I think it can be a little tricky to install.

http://www.gimp.org/windows/

Nice job on the photos Margo. I love post-production - you really can get some amazing results!

Fabulous!

Thanks everyone! I think I love the post-production almost as much as taking the pictures!