I use the Highpass Filter for sharpening in Darktable on most of my pictures. I learned the technique in Bruce Williams' video. I have stored a few presets depending on the level of sharpening I want.

https://youtu.be/9Rv3hEo1Kyg

I second the suggestion of Davies Media Design tutorials.

GIMP (Free open source software) will also do this type of post processing.

I agree with Claude 46. You should be looking at free software. Faststone is great for quick edits on Windows.

Two other options are Darktable for Raw files using the retouch module and GIMP for jpg, using the resynthesize plugin. Darktable and GIMP are cross platform and work on Win, Mac & Linux.

Thank you for the challenge. I'm relatively new to this and am always looking for input to improve.

I also wanted to focus on the Buffalo and my wife liked this composition. I then added the cattle egrets just for the fun of it.

Cheers

(Download)

KeePass works very well. It is an open source application that i know from personal experience works on Windows, Linux, and Android. I assume there are mac & iPhone variants as well.

You can store the database of passwords on Dropbox and it automatically syncs when you have an internet connection. I have not run into sites it doesn't work with.

I noticed in the Exif data that both of these were taken next year. Perhaps it tachyons messing with the time space continuum ;-)

My experience is limited to the last 3 years of digital photography. I am now retired and on a fixed income so I'm parsimonious as well. I use Darktable and Gimp exclusively and while there is a learning curve, you can find videos for both products to address overall digital workflow or usage of specific tools and modules.

When I was on Windows I used Nikon's ViewNX-i to quickly develop the raw files to SOOC JPGs to review. Since it doesn't run under Ubuntu I shoot in Raw+JPG. I view the JPGs to make sure there are worth while images then DarkTable to develop the best of them (DT has great organizing capabilities similar to LR) and then on to GIMP or other tools to create panoramas, HDR, and focus stacking with Hugin, Luminance HDR, and CombineZP (via Wine) respectively all tools are also available on Windows.

If you are an amature and just starting out with post processing you will have a learning curve with any tool. Save you're $$ for when you turn pro.

There is a cheap option, but it is truly that a cheap option. I bought a no name 420-800 zoom through Amazon last year so I could get extra reach when needed on a once in a lifetime safari trip. It allowed me to get shots of rhino's in the distance that I would not have been able to get otherwise. In the pictures you definitely know they are rhinos but focus is soft.

Furthermore, this is a manual lens with fixed aperture based on the focal length. So... I had to work out an exposure table based on Sunny 16 to get me in the ball park.

I'm still learning how and when to use the lens. I'll take it out for a day at the beach or set up on flowers from time to time. At $100 it's a fun toy, but you're not likely to get the gleam in an eagle's eye.

https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B06X6BMY78/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o01_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Also, be aware that finding and tracking things in motion is much more difficult at longer focal lengths regardless of lens quality.

Watch out for a high speed Delorean!

When I started developing raw 2-3 years ago I tried a number of open source software options including Raw Therapee and quickly settled on Darktable. There is a learning curve but excellent YouTube tutorials from Bruce Williams, Rico Richardson and others will help.

I addition to excellent results I love the organizational tools in the LightTable that can help organize and assess your photos.

There are many free plant ID apps available. I will often use 2 or 3 apps to identify plants as I am relatively new to the DR and see many species I've never seen before. There are also some websites that also ID from a picture.

Don't release them as they are invasive. I have heard that they are very tasty.

I enjoy your work Starving Artist. It's good to see you posting here again.

Gimp, Darktable & Raw Therapy are free open source software. All have this capability.