Some cameras are better at handling low light than others. I shoot with a Nikon D90 and have had good results at shooting with my ASA set at up to 1600 with very little noise. Good for shots up to 8 x 10. I love shooting with side lighting from a window. Distance from the window is critical. To close the picture is harsh too far away not enough light. Fun to experiment with.

Good shooting

I too must jump on the bandwagon support of Topaz products. They are great. I especially like their masking plug-in. Also, another program I like is" OnOne software out of Portland. They have a bundle of products similar to Topaz. It can run as a plug-in or as a standalone. I particularly like it for working with portraits. It does beautiful job with skin tones. I am presently running Photoshop CS6, and current versions of Topaz and OnOne software. I am sure there are lots of photo editing software that works well also.

Good shooting

No I haven't tryed Vertus Fluid Mask. I will look into it.
Thanks for the tip.

Good Shooting

Not sure if this will help. Create a new layer and cut and paste your second image into the blank layer. That way you can manipulate each picture on its own layer. Also, using a masking program such as Topaz 3 you can create a mask and then cut and paste the results into your blank layer. Hope this is what you're looking for.

Good shooting

I have tried various masking programs and so far Topaz 3 is doing the best job for me. I have not looked into the masking part in Photoshop CS6. It has been redesigned but I haven't delved into it yet. It's time-consuming and frustrating at times but Topaz is my chosen program. I shoot with a Nikon D90 in both fine JPEG and RAW. This is a very interesting subject.

Good shooting

Nice pictures. The important thing is do you think that they are canvas pictures?

Take a look at Photoshop express. Not sure what your requirements are however this program works well and is a free download from Adobe.

Lenses are not normally at there best focus when shot at the extremes. Try coming in 2 F-stops from either extreme when shooting for the best focus......

Good shooting

NAPP National Association for Professional Photographers is an organization I have belonged to for about 10 years. It is $99.00 a year and they have some online tutorials I have found quite good. I think they have a 30 day free trial. You might look into this. They have seminars, they put on, around the county during the year. They are close associates of Adobe. Check it out......

Enjoy.....

My camera is a Nikon D90. I have two bodies and a number of lenses. I shoot Exclusively in Raw and JPEG in fine. That way I have the best of both worlds. With a 4 gig card it gives me 175 shots. For me that is more then enough for a shoot. My reasoning is that I'd rather have quality over quanity. My only issue is that it takes up a lot of room on my computer as it all eventually gets stored there. I keep one of my hard drives (1 terabit in size)for my photos)
My Photo software is Photoshop with a few 3rd party plug-ins.

The object is to not offend. Often I will look at the picture, analyse it and say to myself "what's wrong with it and how could I have made it better" and then compliment the picture taker. Remember photography is A LOT SUBJECTIVE. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder......

How do these stack up. 01 is 4X6, 02 is 5X7, 03 is 8X10. I did this in Photoshop CS6. I have to believe you can do this in PSE. Try enlarging the original photo before cropping

P. Cragin

4X6


5X7


8X10

I also shoot with a Nikon D90. I alway set my camera to shoot in Raw/Fine. That way I have both. With a 4 Gig memory card that gives you 175 shots. On the PC I create a folder on my hard drive and using MY COMPUTER just Cut and Paste them to the folder. Then get a cup of coffee. It normally doesn't take more then a couple of minutes move the file. After the pictures are moved I reformat the memory card using the cameras format option. Hope this is of some help......