You must be an instructor! This is a great way to experiment.

My head IS spinning a little but there is so much good advice here! Now that I am mostly retired, I can experiment with my camera. I am posting a few pictures but please don't laugh!

This is the original. I cropped it & tried 4 different adjustments but couldn't get the red out of my daughter's face.

When I "master" some manual modes, I'll need to invest in backdrops & better lighting apparatus. Any suggestions?

Thank you Jerry. I will give it a try. Back in the 70's, I think I had an upgraded "box" camera with flash cubes! So I'm learning this from scratch!

I've had the D5000 Nikon DSLR for several years and I still use mostly the automatic settings. It seems I'm always in a hurry to get pictures & don't (or can't) take my time with them. I have 3 lenses, 2 speedlights, and a polarized filter.

I mostly use the 18-55 mm 1:3.5-5.6G lens that came with the camera and my SB400 Speedlight. I use my 55-200mm 1:4-5.6G when on vacation. These 3 items, the filter, & the cords fit nicely in my small tamrac bag (plus the camera body, of course). The SB 900 speedlight and the 35mm 1:1.8G lens mostly stay in my other camera bag at home. I've only used them a few times. I love the quality of the pictures and the fact that there is no lag time, plus I can take a burst of photos to catch just the right expressions on my grand children's faces. I have played around with RAW photos a bit and edit some photos in Adobe PSE 8.0. I would love to learn how to use more of the features of my camera so I can take professional looking portraits and group shots.