No reason to get pse13. CS6 is way better and isn't hard to use. The basic features work almost exactly the same way as pse it just does more. Use the part you understand and then just keep working to learn more parts of it.

If you really need something else the suggestion to get lightroom is right on the money.

Cannonman333, I agree with MT shooter. It may depend on what we are shooting for, but all I have to do on aperture priority is set my shutter speed to the speed I need to freeze the action and set the aperture to the setting i need for the mood the photo is intended to create. In my case, sports photography, that generally means shooting wide open to blur the background and isolate the subject. I can leave the camera on aperture priority at f2.8 almost all the time and just leave the shutter speed set at 1/250 and I'm ready for almost any sports photography without any further adjustments.

Because my camera is not good in low light, Nikon D300s, I shoot manual in low light just so I can deliberately underexpose rather than have the camera bump the ISO up where there is too much noise or having it slow the shutter speed down, then correct the exposure as best as possible in camera raw. Works pretty well for black and white, in newsprint, not so well for color, but sometimes there isn't much choice.

I use manual most of the time when I'm shooting for myself, because it allows me the greatest degree of control.

As far as I know all of the local sports photographers use either aperture priority or manual depending on the situation. Usually aperture because you can't afford to miss a photo.

But most of them use manual at least part of the time when shooting for themselves. I don't know any local newspaper photographers that use shutter priority or auto.

With that said, use the mode that works best for the kind of photography that you do, the capability of your camera and your skill level, but don't be afraid to keep trying new things.

JD750 is pretty much spot on. The only issue is if you try to shoot the trucks when they are moving very fast you are going to have to use a shutter speed of 1/250 up to 1/1000 to stop the motion. If they are coming straight at you you can get away with a slower shutter than if they are going by from side to side.

In an emergency shoot on manual, bump the ISO up and underexpose. Shoot in raw and you will have more flexibility to correct the exposure and white balance after the fact.

Good luck. That kind of shooting really pushes the limits of equipment. However, you have the luxury of a new camera that is better in low light then all of the older cameras. You can probably push your ISO to 6400 which will really help. I can't go above 1600 ISO so you have two full stops of light better than I have which should really help.

You can't focus a blurry photo. If the photo is just a little soft you may be able to help it.

If you are going to try to do extensive sharpening always make a duplicate layer to work on because sometimes blending the two layers will give better apparent focus. It won't really be sharper, but it may look sharper at first glance.

First thing to try is change the mode from RGB to LAB then go to channels click on only the black and white channel and then unsharp mask. Try 193 on amount 5 for threshold and 2 for radius. That's about as much sharpening as you can get away with. Once finished click back on the entire image go back to mode and change back to RBG. One other thing you might try with this kind of sharpening is if noise is part of the problem click on a and b one at a time in LAB and see which one shows the most noise. Whichever one does click on that layer go to filter blur gaussian blur and change the slider to about five. Only do that in conjunction with using unsharp mask on the black and white layer. Switch mode back to RGB and hope for the best.
If it improves the image hit flatten image and you are done. If it didn't help just throw the top layer away and start over again.

Choice two, make a second layer, click on filter, other, high pass. It will make a grey layer above your initial photo. Slide the slider to the right until the lines in your photo stand out. Click OK, then go to layers and change that layer to overlay. Once that is done, try changing the opacity of that layer until the photo looks best to you and then click ok. Once again flatten the image and you are done.

It won't fix bad photos, but it may salvage some things.

Final thing to try is to make a second layer. Change the layer to vivid light. Then go to image adjustment, invert and click ok. This will make a grey layer over your initial image. Next click on filter, blur, surface blur. Move the slider to the right until you begin to see some detail in the grey layer. Keep going a little past where the lines look the crispest. Initially it will make faint, then more solid lines, once you go too far the lines will begin to have faint shadows. Once you begin to see the faint shadows click ok. The filter will take a little while to process the file. When that is finished hit control shift alt and E all at the same time. It will make a third layer above the first two. Now click on the middle layer and delete it. One final step. Click on the top layer and change it to overlay. Adjust the opacity of the top layer until the photo looks as good as possible then flatten the image.

Keep in mind that none of these will fix a really bad image. The best you can hope for is a little improvement in apparent sharpness.

The guy from the camera store is right. The only way to really upgrade image quality is to buy better lenses. the only way to buy better lenses is to pay for bigger, faster, and heavier glass. that means that you give up focal length for image quality.

Photography is an area where you can't have your cake and eat it too. I have a 12-24, 24-70 and 70-200, all Nikon f2.8, and a Sigma 150-500. If I could only take one with me it would be the 24-70, but no, cropping still won't give you the reach that you have with your current lens.

If you really want only one lens and want a lot of flexibility then what you have is about as good as you are going to get.

I think jaymatt is right. If you crop the first image following the rule of thirds it would be a stronger image than either of the choices that you have choosen.

apology accepted. You have largely been the voice of reason in this discussion. I just do what I can with what we have to work with. For my own stuff it's sRGB all the way.

'When a camera creates an hdr image it may be fine. But it's the same argument as the jpeg vs raw. You get one choice and limited ability to change it post production versus more freedom to explore and try new things. It's not a better or worse, it's just the freedom to alter the image the way you want to after the fact.

We don't have a printer. We have a 40 year old four color press. The press we have is about the same as what a lot of small papers have. Without new technologies and new software there isn't a choice. The editors aren't being brainless, they are working with the press and software that we have. 1998 would actually be an upgrade, but that's not the editors fault. Sure it would be nice to have a press that would work with sRGB, but we are still outputting our pdf files to film. It's old school, but in case you hadn't noticed newspapers aren't making the money to do expensive upgrades.

why would I save a jpeg to tiff? The reason is simple. When I'm on deadline I don't have time to process a raw file. However, the press uses a CMYK Tiff for all color photos. I have to convert to a tiff or the press can't match colors.

There are several reasons to shoot in raw + jpeg. I work for a newspaper. The paper uses such an old post processing system that I can't open raw files at work. Consequently if my work is time sensitive, example a shot taken 20 minutes before we go to press then I have no choice but to use jpeg. However, we only print twice a week, so often there is plenty of time between when a photo was shot and when we go to press. Press photographers frequently work in low light situations. Raw allows me to correct or improve exposure. By having both files I get the best of both worlds. In a hurry use the jpeg. Have time use the raw file and improve the quality of the final shot.

That's the practical reason to shoot both. If I have the camera set for both all the time I don't have to ever worry about forgetting to change the setting and I will always have the file that I prefer available.

However, there are other non-work related reasons why shooting both makes sense. Example if I shoot a sunset photo in jpeg it may be fine, but if I want to play with hdr of the same sunset raw give me that choice. A single raw file can often be processed to make three different exposures that can be used to make an acceptable hdr photo. Not a practical option with jpeg.

In addition raw allows me to maintain more detail in highlights and shadow. In jpeg it's easy to maintain detail in one, but often difficult to get detail in both.

Raw is better in low light. Jpeg is faster to process so on vacation I can sort my photos looking at the jpeg files and delete anything that i don't like. Then later when I get home i can go back through the same files looking at the raw images and do my post production work.

Finally jpeg images give you what you shot and not much else. sometimes that's great and doesn't need any changes. Raw on the other hand allows me to print the same image in more than way. It also is really useful for manipulating tonality for black and white photos.

For those purists who don't like post production keep in mind that's what all the great early photographers did in the darkroom. Raw gives more post production flexibility. Thats reason enough to shoot it. Jpeg gives speed and works great in most situations. Also a good reason to use it. Shooting both gives you the best of both worlds.

sure, I would be happy to try to answer any questions that you have. Columbia Gorge is nice, and hopefully there will still be some fruit trees blooming on the north side of Mt. Hood when you start the loop around the mountain.

As far as what there is to shoot in the Willamette valley and Columbia Gorge that depends largely on your interests.

There are a range of possible subjects, especially if you do some hiking.

If you go all the way to The Dalles, there are some old abandoned farm buildings south of town that are interesting and some of them have mountains behind them that add to the scene.

If that kind of thing doesn't appeal to you there are a lot more waterfalls in the gorge than most people ever bother to see, including some that can only be accessed while going one way on the freeway.

Unless you are going to spend time hiking in Central or Eastern Oregon I would stick with the spring. The problem with September is that the only color there is that late in the year is just a few alpine flowers, and if there has been an early freeze even those can be gone.

You will have more color in the spring and fewer tourists.

If it was me I would go in May, and concentrate on Western Oregon from the west side of the Cascades to the coast.

The azaleas on the Southern Oregon coast should still be blooming that early in the year and you should have enough foliage to shoot the waterfalls you are interested in.

If you haven't ever done it the drive from Astoria to Brookings has a lot of scenery. It works better to go north to south than the other way around because then your car is always on the side of the road that the turnouts are on and you don't have to cross traffic to park.

I live in Central Oregon so I spend most of my time shooting the other half of the state from where you are going, but we go to the coast whenever we get a chance. Once you kind of finalize your trip let me know if you have questions about specific locations. Might be able to help.

Proxy Falls is about a mile round trip on mostly flat trail. It may or may not be open that early. McKenzie Pass has opened as early as Memorial Day weekend, and as late as the first week of July. All depends on how much snow and how cool the spring is.

Leaves should be budded out completely in the Willamette valley by the first week of may. The higher you go the later spring comes. The Cottonwood between Sahalie falls and Eugene are usually in full bloom by Memorial Day weekend, but depends on the year when they leaf out completely.

You will probably have more color in June for a lot of what you are looking at, but it just depends.

As for Oneonta Gorge, even if you can't get clear to the falls you can wade up far enough to take photos of the gorge itself very safely in the spring.

I know it's considered poor form to post photos on other people's posts. All three of these were taken before the first week of June.

Hope it gives some idea of how much the foliage has leafed out by then.

Tom McCall State Park on the east end of the Columbia Gorge will be filled with wild flowers the first week of June. There will be some flowers there in May, but not as many.
All of the waterfalls in the Columbia Gorge will be good in either May or June.
Your two trips will be just off for the Rhododendron near Sahalie falls and at Hendricks park in Eugene. You are a little early in May and just past the peak in June, but either one will have some color.
Crater Lake is good in May, you just have to go in the South entrance and don't have access to the entire park.
You shouldn't worry about the weather. June will probably have a little bit better weather, but the advantage of May is that if you get rain it makes the colors pop more and the vegetation that is just leafing out will be really bright.
If you go in June I would recommend that you go up the west side of McKenzie Pass and go to upper and lower Proxy Falls they are a lot more interesting than Koosah.
In the Columbia Gorge there are a couple of lesser known falls that are really worth the trip. If you can wade Oneonta Gorge is beautiful as is the falls at the upper end of the gorge. Most of the wade is shallow, but there is one deep portion just before the falls. On the same creek upstream is triple falls which is really unique. Also above Horstail falls Ponytail falls is really nice. You can walk behind the falls and can shoot them from either side.
Silver Creek falls is probably best in May, the others are pretty much a coin flip.