I feel your pain because I have been there. I struggled with Lightroom until "I got it" but once I "got it" I love it. It will address 90% of your needs. If you could only own and understand one program, I would go with Lightroom. Think workflow and it will help everything make sense. It starts with your memory card, travels through Lightroom and exits as a JPG. The beautiful part is that you never lose your work in Lightroom, nor do you ever destroy your originals. If you are persistent you will have your "ah-ha" moment soon and all will fall in place. Thanks, Bob

I have an Eitar Digital UV filter on my lens all the time. I also have a Vivitar CPL filter which I have yet to use. I understand that you should not use both of these filters at the same time. Is that true? At the local dental college there is a small glass display set up as an old dentist office and I bought the CPL to use in photographing that when I get around to getting permission and taking the shot. Thanks for the advice, Bob

Outstanding! I passed it on via my blog. Thanks for sharing, Bob

I ran into a situation where I had two files with the same number. One was .MOV and the other was .mp4. They played the same except one was a little darker than the other. In "properties detail" the files have only a slight difference in size. They have different dates, one created March 16th (MOV) and the other created March 19th (mp4).

I checked on the internet and found confusing information (see attached). I'm not sure what "compression" is compared to "container".

So, I took out my camera and shot a brief video. I previewed it and it showed the file extension of MOV. For some reason I was expecting the format to be mp4.

Anyway, can anyone give me any idea of what may be going on here?

Thanks, Bob

In the old days I kept every picture I took and put them in Drop Box. I would click to create an album and the photos were in the same sequence.

Apparently things have changed now that I am more selective in my "keepers". It would appear the Drop Box is confused by this and creates the album in random order. So I wind up with the first photo of the chimpanzee at the beginning, and the second photo just before the end.

I have tried every trick I can think of including re-numbering my photos etc. but no luck. Does anyone out there know how I can arrange my photos in the proper sequence even though the photos are not in sequential numeric order (they are in order but there are gaps: 004, 026, 129, etc.).

I am ready to pull my hair out. Please help if you can. Thanks, Bob

Math correction: Each tray contained 3 sets of 36 slides for a total count of 1404 plus I had some loose slides for a total count of 1625. 1625 x .29 = $471.25. Sorry for the error, Bob

My kids found a company that does a great job and is very reasonable compared to the local camera shops, etc. It requires that you not be in any hurry because your slides go from home to Oakland to India to Oakland to you. I got 13 trays of 36 done for less than $500 but took a couple of months. I shipped the slides in the trays and they came back the same way. You can track your order and its progress through the system online. The company is called Scan Café (http://www.scancafe.com/). No, I don't own stock but I had a positive experience with their work. Thanks, Bob

Perfect! Thanks, Bob

I'm familiar with this PSE technique but I was looking for the extreme circle also mentioned here. Thanks for your input, Bob

This is exactly what I was looking for. You don't mention the program and I'm not familiar with "ellipse" command. Can you tell me what program to use? Thanks, Bob

Is anyone aware of a program (or method in LR5 or PSE 12) that can produce a round crop? This results in a circular photo that looks like the view through a telescope. I've seen a couple of great shots like this and wondered how it was done. Thanks, Bob

Well done! And okay, I'm guilty of coveting the latest and greatest, and I spend a lot of time looking for the faster, quicker, smaller gadget. I get it that a great photographer can outwit me with his cell phone camera or by holding his finger over the pin hole in a box with film. But I'm not a great photographer, I am a late bloomer following retirement. All I'm saying is that when it comes to getting a great shot I want all the aces I can get on my side of the table. Life is short and getting shorter every day. Enjoy the ride!

Raw is good, memory is cheap. Here is the process I am developing (no pun intended) so far:
1) Import directly from card into Lightroom using "copy as DNG"
2) 1st Pass-every photo gets either a white flag (good), space bar (okay), or a black flag (reject). Filter the black flags and delete them (RAW & DNG-you are NEVER going to use these).
3) 2nd Pass-every photo one more time. 2nd chance for space bars to become white flags and/or vice versa. Give stars to all white flags (1=good, 2=better, 3=best). This is also a good time to add keywords to the ones you know you're keeping.
4) 3rd Pass-Filter the white flags which now have stars and keywords. These are the photos worth your time for now. I do NOT discard the balance because you never know. There may be a contest down the road with a theme of "trains" or whatever. It doesn't hurt to have a boneyard to go through looking for treasure. And like I said, memory is cheap.
5) With only the starred white flags in front of you, enter the develop module and get started. I begin with "crop" and then work down from the top in the develop modules on the right in Lightroom. Since I am a beginner, most of my work is in "basic", but I am learning more everyday.
6) After much deliberating and labor you finally reach a point where you are more and more happy with your product. You are now ready to "go to press".
7) Create a "collection" of your final, edited selections. This is where your photos will live until you need to share them. The beauty of the collection is that you have these photos with their "processing instructions" in one place awaiting further orders. If you change the original it will get updated in the collection automatically. Therefore your collection is always the most up-to-date product suitable for export.
8) Next, I enter the slide show mode with the collection, make my preparations, and then export the slide show to Drop Box for sharing with my family.

This exercise was somewhat for my own benefit, to nail down my exact procedures, but I felt it might be helpful to others as well. If we perform the same tasks the same way over and over there is less chance for disaster. You may have your own sequence or you may like this one, but at least it gets us thinking about what we would like to happen and then make adjustments as we run into obstacles.

I was surprised when I saw "convert to jpg" so early in the procedure here. To me, that is the absolute last thing to do before sharing through export. That way your presentation is always the most up-to-date and pleasing as you can make it. Anyway, that's my 2¢ worth.

I finally got my desk caught up enough to dedicate some time toward this project and it went without a hitch! In fact, in didn't take long at all. I did want to follow up by thanking you personally for extending yourself to help me. I am very grateful for the labor your knowledge spared me. Thanks again, Bob

Yes, this question was directed to you personally. Wow-I am impressed with your knowledge. I do have the Photoshop Elements 12/Premiere Elements 12 program installed. I see you have the instructions included for 12. I will try this later in the day and let you know. Again, thanks for your help, Bob