If you have high speed internet, start with the help feature in Elements. Naturally, someone will be trying to sell you something, but the are literally hundreds of free Elements tutorials, tips, videos etc. Once you have finished the elements help section, Google Elements tips. Enough reading to keep you busy for months. When you hit a snag you can Google very specific problems and will likely find several solutions. If you like to have a book open while you work, and I do, I like Scott Kelby.

Most failed photos result from either (or both) of:

1. The photographer did not, or could not, move in close enough to fill the screen with the subject or

2. The photograph is out of focus.

Contrary to what many "experts" would have you believe, today's cameras are so good that if left to their own devices (ie; auto or program) they will rarely mess up exposure or color, so manual controls are probably not a big deal to beginners.


IMO, you should look for a camera with a minimum of 10x zoom, and the quickest auto focus you can find (read reviews). If a "superzoom", Canon SX40 or Panasonic FZ150/200, for instance, is physically larger than you want to tote around, today's travel zooms might be just right.

A good, compact bridge camera will still be useful if you someday decide to go the DSLR route. The will be many times when you just don't want to carry the larger DSLR, but the bridge camera might fit in pocket or purse.

What are you trying to accomplish that you cannot make work in Elements? I have stayed with Elements so that I can afford to upgrade every couple of years to get the new features. If I purchased full Photoshop I would feel obligated to use it until the cows came home by themselves, and perhaps miss the latest improvements.

You might do this later in PS Elements with good results. You simply take two or more photos from exactly the same spot, with exactly the same settings,(a tripod makes it easier), then use the Photomerge Scene Cleaner. Worked like magic the few times I tried it, removing anything that moved between shots and replacing the empty spaces with the correct background. A little cloning finished the job.

The only paper book I have purchased since I had my Nook was Kelby's elements 9. I like to have the book open next to the keyboard/mouse. I downloaded a sample to my Nook and although I could read it, it was no substitute for the real thing.

You will probably have to a little of both. RAW processing will help with exposure,contrast, sharpening, white balance and color, but if you need help with cloning, dust spot removal, blemish healing, smile brightening, burning and dodging or layers (for example) you will have to spend a little time in the "JPEG" editor.

There are guides to wedding photography that provide a list of images the photographer should consider. Some new photographers take this too literally, and use this as a check list, insisting on one of everything, regardless how well they work out. This is why you see the same images over and over in different portfolios. Someone must have included angled shots in their list.

I see no reason to buy NEW equipment on Ebay. The prices seem to be pretty close to Amazon (for example), and you don't have the security of a good return system. I have purchased several USED items, however, and the only problems I had were my fault. I recently purchased an almost new $175 camera backpack for $25 including freight. Just be patient, do your research, make sure the shipping charges are reasonable, set a maximum price you will pay, and read everything carefully.

Because I process all my photos (at least the ones anyone will ever see) through Elements, I like to minimize the in-camera processing. I have found it is easier to produce good results with minimally processed images than it is to undo something the camera has already over processed. With Pentax, factory defaults seem to be best. In RAW, of course, no processing is done in-camera.

If you have PS elements, crop your photo to 4x6 then check the PPI in the section just above the project bin. PSE will give you the new measurements and the new PPI. If the PPI is 300 or higher you should be good to go. It sounds to me as if they do plan on printing submissions, or maybe they just don't know much.

Think of a digital camera as a still camera that will (sometimes) take OK video. Just as a video camera will (sometimes) take OK stills. If your primary interest is video, then a video camera is your best bet. Even an inexpensive dedicated video camera will offer effects not possible on the best DSLR's. Think fade in/out, slow motion, on demand backlight compensation etc., and the camera/lens will be optimized for video, not stills.

In the example above, you might want to crop out the bird on the left since his head is already missing. Other than that, I don't see any elements that need to go. Because the original image seems to be more or less in a 4/3 format, I would stick to the same proportions until I decided what size I wanted to print. I would probably crop to 20x16, allowing lots of room to crop again after I decided what size print to make. (I don't know what camera you used for this photo, a 20x16 might be too large for a good print.) If you are going to post a photo on the web you can use any size you like, and you can "enlarge" it a lot more than you could if printed. Although custom frames are an option for the better off than I, I would have to stick with common print sizes for economical mounting.

OK BpoH, but what if your crop for best composition comes out to something like 10" x 4", for a landscape/pano for example. How do you resize this to a common paper size with stretching some dimension?. If this happens to me I add a blank 8x10 canvass in landscape, then paste the 10x4 on this canvass, leaving a white border top and bottom. I'm open to other options

If I crop for the best composition I sometimes produce an image that does not match any common paper size, resulting in white borders of varying width. I therefore always try to crop to the standard size I plan on printing. I have also found that uploading the uncropped version to my printer "MPIX or Sams's Club" allows me to crop on the printer's site, then save the cropped image and the original. If I want to reorder a different size I don't have to download again. I always save the full size version, preferably unedited, so I can begin again if something goes wrong.

If you want to fill the frame with a butterfly (for example), a good close focus lens with a macro setting will probably do very nicely. If you want to fill the frame with a butterfly's head, that's true macro, for which you probably need a real macro lens. True macro success is difficult to achieve because the depth of field is razor thin. Often special equipment, such as a ring flash and a focus rail is beneficial, in addition to a macro lens.