I'm easily confused, but I think I've figured it out.

When you folks use the term "Photoshop" to describe a product, I'd appreciate it if you would be more specific.

It could mean Photoshop Elements, Photoshop Elements Premier, Photoshop lightroom, Photoshop CSx, or Photoshop CC.

If this is not quite right, let me know.

If you're staring from scratch, with a group of unorganized photos. here is my suggested workflow.

1) Create a major folder to contain all of the folders created is step 2.

2) Create a folder for each distinct "Date taken".
In windows, I open a folder and display the files in "Details" view (as opposed to "Small Icons" for instance). Then I right click on the heading bar and choose to add a column heading of "Date taken". I create a new folder, name it something like 2015 01 03 and move all of the files taken on that date to the folder.

3) Rename the folders to add a description to the date. This is a good time to get rid of duplicates. I like the windows program DoubleKiller. If I have two folders that contain some but not all of the same photos, I use FreeFileSync to make one folder from the latest of the other.

4) Create a new folder for each of the topics you want, and move selected folders from the major folder to each of these. I like to create topics that don't overlap such as family vs. church vs. work. If you have topics such as vacation vs. holidays, how do you handle a holiday vacation? I use Elements 13 and make a catalog for each topic.

These suggestions are independent of the photo editing program that you use. There may be some automated programs that will do some of this for you, but I don't know of them. Good Luck!

P.S. I have written a Windows program that will rename the photos in a folder to be the folder name appended with a sequential number. As an example, photos in the folder "2014 12 25 Christmas with friends" will be renamed "2014 12 25 Christmas with friends 001", "2014 12 25 Christmas with friends 002" etc.. I find this handy when I collect photos from several sources to give to friends.

My wife used to put her cell phone in the cup holder. This worked great until she put a cup of ginger ale in the cup holder and forgot about it. She didn't even notice it until she went to retrieve the cell phone. The clear cup, with clear liquid, produced one ruined cell phone.

Thanks, This worked. You're the greatest!

Thanks for the discussion and thoughts.

I had considered lens diffraction, along with other things. I didn't expect diffraction to be this noticeable. Several years ago(25 - 30), I did a similar test with a Nikkor macro lens. The aperture was around f/22, and the medium was 35mm Kodachrome. I couldn't see any diffraction effects, even with a lobe, so I figured that it was a more theoretical than practical subject. Of course, in the digital world I can get more magnification.

I plan to see if I can improve sharpness with manual focus, mirror lockup, time delay shutter release, and mid range aperture. I will use a tripod, and try image stabilization both ways.

Do I really need maximum sharpness? No, but if I understand the contributing factors, I become a better photographer.

Here is a link to what seems to be a bargain.

http://www.thedigitalpros.com/item.htr?id=33362

I bought a 18 -55 and a 55-250 with my EOS-70D. I wanted the light weight of the 18-55 for my carry around outfit.

I am trying to evaluate a couple of new lens for sharpness at different apertures. I have a new EOS 70D with a 18-55 zoom and a 55-250 zoom.

The setup is:
A brightly lit outdoor scene
ISO 100
Aperture Priority Mode
Tripod mounted
Manual shutter release. (Not remote triggered)
Image stabilization off
Auto focus
No mirror lockup

I took a shot at each available aperture, in one stop increments, at each extreme focal length of each lens.
When using the 55-250 zoom at 250 mm, settings went from f/5.6 @ 1/640 to f/32 @ 1/20.

I was surprised to find that the sharpest results were at the widest aperture ( f/5.6 @ 1/640) rather than at the mid (f/8 @ 1/320) or smallest (f/32 @ 1/20). At first, I thought that perhaps the slow shutter speed was to blame, but on closer examination, the contrast as well as sharpness was poor at f/32.

In the attached photos, I zoomed in on the round window facing the sun. I displayed on my monitor using 100% magnification. There is a significant difference in sharpness between f/5.6 and f/32.

Is this to be expected? Should I be doing something different?

f/5.6

(Download)

f/8.0

(Download)

f/32

(Download)

Thanks to all responders. I agree that a single purpose printer is, in general a better choice. As per the suggestion and a great deal, and what looks like a great printer, I went with the Canon Pro 100 from B&H. It is a large step up from what I have now.

I have a HP Photosmart 7550 printer. I can use it on a Windows XP system, but don't have drivers for Windows 7. It's an inconvenience to reboot to the XP system whenever I need to print.

It seems to be a pretty good printer, but I don't have anything to compare it to. I've considered buying a Epson Expression Premium XP-820. A wireless photo printer, scanner, and copier for $150 plus tax is a bargain. Does it do a quality job?

With the priority on photo printing, does anyone have any other suggestions? Should I increase my budget?

Note the light/shadows on the left wall of the canal. I would estimate a max of 15 minute time difference.

Members of Amazon Prime are eligible to purchase Photoshop Elements from Amazon for $50.00 plus tax. This includes 2 day free shipping. This is the full edition, not the student edition.

More thanks!

Cowboy radio flash it is. This looks better than I expected.

Two light sources, each 45 degrees from the document works well.

Thanks a lot!

That's exactly what I am looking for.

I have several old flash units that I'm afraid to use on my new Canon D70. I would like to use them as slaves (manual, no auto cutoff) triggered optically by the on-board flash. Are there any products that provide a hot shoe for a flash to fit into, and trigger the flash by sensing a flash from some other flash unit.