There is a lot of truth to what live2paddle, says about photographers not knowing Photoshop and even amount those that do there is a large number that would prefer to not have to spend time with it. Many photo studios are very production oriented, it is about numbers. Try to focus on these numbers oriented studios. These studios will often farm out the edits. Have a portfolio of your work to show. Talk quality, speed, and cost. I have a friend and neighbor that has maintained a good business doing edits for portrait and wedding photographers in the south east. You may want to start by looking around locally at such studios then maybe setting up a web site where they can send you the files and view the results. I would suggest password protected private pages for review work.

Good luck with this. It will take a lot of leg work to get off of the ground, but with luck and hard work it is possible.

For those that may not have notice I was that other member. Hflare and I had a misunderstanding and difference of opinion. As the difference developed, we took the discussion off of the thread and settled it. I believe that we have resolved our issue and I too would like to apologize for my part in the indecent.

Sorry but I have more questions. I hate put you through this.
1.. I'm not clear as to all of the places that you have the problems (Windows Explorer - thumbnails and preview vs PSP thumbnails and full screen) and if all problems occurs with all images?
2. Do you see them if you shot JPG?
3. Do you have access to a second computer were you can look at the same file? It may tell us a little more about the source of the issue. Can you try to display the same image files on both computer if you have access and tell us what you see? That should help in trying to isolate the source of the problem. Saving the images to a thumb drive may be a way to do this.

That's interesting my father flew B-25s in North Africa.

Back to your color issue, I don't think this is be problem but you need to verify your color profile for the camera and PSP. For now I would recommend set both at sRGB. in PSP the setting will be in menus > File > Color Management > Color Working Space. Also set the Profile Mismatches to "Use embedded profiles".

You did not say how you had the camera light meter set? This could be and what you took the light reading on are important. Also, I would not expect a thumpnail to look exactly like the actual image file. This as to do with the way thumbnail are created. There is a bit of compression and other changes that go on. Also do you have the stripe down the right side of all full size images?

It has been quite a while since I have shot a JPG. But I think that I would have notice that. Is this the only photo with the strip? It look almost as if it may be a stripe on the rudder. Also there appears to be an even thinner strip just to the right of it. Yes, Nikon raw is nef. I have a 3 year camera, but I have shot with a neighbors Nikon D7000 and processed to raw with X2 with out issue. I switch to X4 about 2 or 3 weeks ago. I'll look in my image file and see if I still have any images from the D7000 and send you a copy. As for the sky, my first question would be, how did you have you metering set and what did you meter on? If it was the prop, I think I may know what the problem was. At least for this shot.

Man!!! There are lot of very good baby pictures here. There are some very lucky mothers, fathers, and grandparents out there. Congratulations to all of them and the photographers too.

No, don't upgrade to anything. He says that he's happy with the D40. Why should he spend money to get something that he may or may not find to his expectations. What EVERYBODY needs to realize is that specs are NOT everything. That personal comfort is far more important specs when both cameras are capable of meeting the users needs. We are in an economy where we need to be careful with money. If you don't have extra discretionary money don't spend don't spend it and don't encourage others to spend money that they may not have. We need to get away from this mode of everybody going out and trying to get the "latest and greatest".

You are getting a lot of input on very good shots, but what ever you do don't put it off, babies grow all too quickly and you don't want to miss capturing this time. Not only for your sister now, but also later when she will really treasure the photos. I can almost see her in my mind (even though I don't know her) years from now bring out the images that you so thoughtfully captured for her, with a smile on her face and tear of joy in her eye and all because of your thoughtfulness.

I know that this may sound strange, but could you take a picture or two of the top of the tri-pod. With some detail would be nice. I bet that if everybody could see what you have you would have a certain answer in no time.

If you have been shooting 35 film for awhile, you have a jump on some people with the basics. Digital is a bit different, but I didn't find the difference to be a big problem. A book that I recommend to any people (much may be old stuff to you) is Scott Kelby's Digital Photography. Also, try to learn Histograms (cross it with Adams's Zone System ) and your off and running. I have a feeling that you will be running all over the place with that D90 in no time. One last thing to quote and saying that I used to hear on an old Saturday morning ESPN show about guns and hunting "shoot more, shoot more often."

Nothing to do with your problem, but I have say that I love the way that you composed the shot. I think that is neat, my dad was an air force pilot and that was the way I saw a lot of planes when I was a kid. This shot brought a smile to my face and tears to my eyes. Thank you for showing it.

I think, and I suspect that Snowbear would agree, that you have answered your own question. If you are happy stay with it. Why spend money to risk disappointment. By the way Snowbear what part of Maryland are you from? I have daughter that just moved from Frederick. Beautiful country up there:-)

I think that ShakyShutter may be on to some thing. I have a couple of questions.
1. Can you see the RAW when using Windows Explore? If not you may want to get the Microsoft Raw codec download http://www.microsoft.com/download/en/details.aspx?id=26829

2. If you have a friend with another computer and you both look at the same images, do the images appear the same? Before you do this test you will want you monitors settings as close as possible. Use the computer brightness and contrast control and while viewing the same calibration images set the monitors for identical display. This is a cheap and dirty way to do it, but it should tell something.

If after setting the monitor to display as closely as possible and making a side by side comparison of the same image (make sure that both computers are looking at the same file) if there is a difference seen at this stage, look for the problem outside of Corel

I have a funny feeling that we will see a difference here. Either way it will tell us a little more about your problem. Since ShakyShutter has seen something like this on HP systems and yours is an HP, I would suggest following his lead. I've notice that he tends to give sound advise, and so rather than confuse things by having input from all kinds of directions, I will just stand aside and watch. Assuming that is ok with Shaky? If I have an idea I will probably feed it though him in order to keep from confusing you so much. These threads seem to get bombed with opinions from all directions and can leave the person inquiring more confused than before.

As an additional note and I don't think that it has anything to do with your problem, but you need to know that your Corel Paint Pro will have a (not so great but better that nothing color manage section with a monitor calibration section. You will find it in the menus under File > Color Management > Monitor Calibration; I would recommend using it regardless of the outcome of this issue. Some would recommend getting a separate monitor calibrator, but unless you are into photography professionally or as a very serious non-pro, don't spend the money.

If this is a collage level course on photography and/or photo editing then I would tend to say it the other way around, that to teach Photoshop, or for that matter any single product, as opposed to teaching the principles of good design is a disservice. Too many collages and universities are just teaching how to push buttons and move sliders. The principles of design are best taught on simple systems. The last thing that you would want to use is a complex expensive, hi-end piece of software. Leaning Photoshop or any single product can be done via other methods, when the user has decided to focus on using a particular product. Let's quit making our collages and university into trade schools.

Also, if the course is designed as general user photography, as stated earlier Photoshop and GIMP are very serious overkill that will confuse most students and cause many to drop out.

Keep in mind that if you are going into high movie graphics Photoshop is not even in the picture it is CinePaint. You will not see a lot of Adobe or Adobe techs mentioned in the credits of major motion pictures. If you are look at web graphics or work overseas it may be GIMP. We Americans tend to think that the world revolves around us and our ways. It is not so. Get over it.

Depending on your image there may be a number of ways to deal with the issue. But without seeing the image, I would be very reluctant to suggest any.