That is some pretty good work; Those are some handsom yound men, you must be very proud.

Here are a few banners that I did for an internet client. I used Xara Pro 7 with Vertus Fluid Mask, Xara 3D, and a number of plugins, namely Medhi, Alien Skin, Redfield, Topaz labs, and Eye Candy. I have done almost 175 of these with about 250 more to go. They average between 6 and 15 layers each. I did all the masking, layering and graphicfs manipulation myself.

I have done some massive map projects for Ogden and Davis county, Utah that each had several hundred layers incorperating .JPG, .BMP, .Gif, .Tiff, .Png files and vector shapes, again, all done with Xara Pro 7. I shudder to think of the extra work it would have taken to try to do them in Photoshop.

OK, everybody needs to take a look at Xara pro. It started with the power behind Corel's graphics engine (the original engineers that started Xara used to work for Corel in their core group of programmers, so I've been told), anyhow, Xara is powerful, uses all Phoptoshops pluins, is easy to learn and use, is faster than Photoshop, does everything in real time,uses less steps to get things done, and costs a little more than 1/4 of what Photoshop does. I know it is not as cheap as some others but for what you get the cost is well worth it for the serious graphics editor. I've been using it for over ten years and I love it.

P.S. - I own CS4 in case I need to work on .indd files (got the suite free from my sone when he got CS5 from school); I think I have opened up Photoshop maybe once.

That is undoubtedly true; for all its power Photoshop is leaving a lot of people in their dust and that creates a real market for a more streamlined product; that is why I never pass up the opportunity (I probably get down on Photoshop a little too much) to promote the software that I use and tell people that I have been very successfully doing it for over 25 years and have never felt the need for anything in Adobe's CS Suites. I do like and promote Photoshop elements and use it almost exclusively for one of its tools - the clone tool; I vigorously promote the concept of "building your own suite" if you are a power user who does not want to get into Photoshop.

As for your situation, I say more power to you, it seems you are doing that which will get you ahead; you cannot buck the system too much or you might kick yourself in the head. If you have the patience, skill, and tutelage to learn Photoshop then you will do very well and that is where you should stay until the industry standard changes. After all, there are reasons that Photoshop has gained such a stronghold in the marketplace and it is not because it lacks the graphics manipulation power to do so but, alas, it also has the people and media manipulation power that is tainting the water and needs a vocal opposition to keep it in check.

Not bad at all, in fact your editing out of the webs and branches is quite good. My only concern is that you manipulated the contrast and sharp filters to the point of making the soft backlight of the feathers too bright, I honestly think it was better the way it was (the bird that is). I would have also cropped into the bird somewhat or left the larger branch on top to give dimention to the picture. In any case I have to say that you do have skills with editing software that most people do not, Good job :thumbup:

Of course you have not. Photoshop and Lightroom are the industry standard which is the very reason that they are not for the average user, you can have too much of a good thing. There is no getting around the fact that, in the "Industry" there must be consensus and these two programs fit the bill very well. My son swears by Photoshop, the only reason that I have the CS4 suite is because he upgraded to CS5 (his college required that upgrading meant getting the whole suite all over again at about 1/10 the price of off the shelf so he gave his CS4 license to me) so you can guess that we are alway quipping each other about who's software is "Best". What I consider unfortunate is that Adobe actively seeks to drown the competition in one way or another. they are a beast that needs to be reigned in a bit because I think they styme the creative juices of those who cannot get a handle on photoshop and do not know that they don't really have to.

You are right about needing to crop both pictures but I would leave the horizontal orientation and crop into the butterfly just enough that you don't crop out too much flower.

As for the hummingbird there is some implied motion by virtue of the subject hanging there in mid air so again, I would crop into the bird equal proportions on top, bottom, and left side leaving a bit of room, not too much, on the left side to give the bird somewhere to go.

These shots are excellent, good job. I love the highlights on the hummingbird's feathers and tail but the stick and cobwebs are distracting so here is where a little post production would come in handy; you can crop out the lower web letting the bird fill the frame and a little clone work in photoshop elements would remove the stick and remaining webs quite nicely (with some practice). The roadrunner needs to be cropped so the bird fills the frame as well as the pelican's head and neck, it's too bad you did not get the whole bird and where it is cut off needs to be closer to a head shot but that is just my opinion, others may disagree.

Other than that very well done! this is a good example of how you do not need a fancy camera to take good pictures, these might very well have been taken with an expensive camera - :thumbup:

Inside Xara Pro 7 there is a flyout button (a camera icon) that has all of Xara's photo editing tools and a number of magix plugins that make up for Xara's lack of a few important pixilating brushes such as a liquid brush. I also like the pro 7 magic errase button which is also a patch clone tool with blended edge capabilities - it's a vector answer to the clone tool. I once errased the entire eifel tower and it was flawless with a click of a button. Xara is still evolving, not with the intent to completely compete with everything that Photoshop is able to do, only to become more powerful and faster at what is most important with the goal of streamlining itself; a great deal depends on what you are trying to do.

As I said before I could do everything I do now if I was using Photoshop but prefer the self styled custom combination of several programs each created to be the best at what they do rather than a single program that can do it all provided you are willing to jump through the extra hoops and dig through all the features to find the ones you need.

Like I said before, if a person is already familiar and comfortable with Photoshop then that is where they should stay because they can get anything they need done and done well, I just think that a new user would be better off looking at all their options before making the leap into the long and often complicated path that leads to photoshop, especially if they are casual users and/or hobbiests.

My biggest gripe with hard core photoshop users is that they tend to want to make people believe that if you are not using Photoshop you are not with the program and must get on board or never be worth your photo editing salt - nothing could be further from the truth.

Well, you had plenty wide enough angle. In that case I would have opted for a one cow/barn shot by getting closer and putting the horizon on the lower third line as the "rule of thirds" would have suggested and then exposing a little longer with a graduated ND filter that would have balanced the sky with the ground. With a light ND filter you may have even got a better shot without the polarizer depending on where the sun was and how harsh the reflection coming off of the Silo on the barn.

Photoshop has the ability to be part of a component system, it's just that people see Photoshop as ”the be all to end all” program. There are things that Photoshop will do that other programs will do faster, easier, and better. Just because Photoshop will mask does not mean that another program will not be easier to use and more efficient with better results. Sure, you might give up a little time depending on more than one program but the journey is so much more sure, comfortable and efficient with greater power to actually accomplish what your mind’s eye envisions without constantly needing to “brush up” on what you have already learned as is far too often the case with Photoshop.

I prefer a range of programs that are each more focused on doing fewer things better rather than trying to do everything adequately. Plugins are great but Photoshop has far too many whistles and bells to begin with, the majority of which are never used by most and therefore just muddy up the water and those that do get used generally require more steps to get things done than you would find in a streamlined program.

In my opinion, with the advent of programs designed to do fewer things better, Photoshop is a jack of all trades and master of few; with rising specialized competition the time is not far distant that, comparatively speaking, Photoshop will become master of none.

Yep, its the end result that matters and the feelings they engender. I wonder if the great artists of long ago would scoff at the whole photography thing to begin with saying if you don't use brushed and paint to create it you're a cheap imitator or if they would embrace the new tools of art and welcome the new artists into the realms of artisans the same way they would a sculptor or architect. those who do not work with change will get left behind by it.

Oh cut it out, me thinks you're fishing, your pictures are very nice and I think you know it. :roll:

An artist is always his own worst critic; it is what drives them to greater heights. Your pictures are fine, I know some people in my photo club that would be tickled pink if they could capture a hummingbird as well as you have here. Of course your pictures could be critiqued and made better because there is always somebody with a better eye, “always” and it does not matter how good you might or might not think you are; we all have the ability to learn and then teach. So don't go playing the role of the martyr or you will never get to where you, as well as the rest of us, want to be. :thumbup:

I rely on a vector based program called Xara Pro 7; I have been using it for over ten years now. It’s quite powerful, a lot easier to learn than Photoshop and will run all of Photoshop's plug-ins and more. Xara has an amazingly easy to use and understand layering ability but, because it is Vector based and not pixel based, when I need to blend photos (Xara will blend and mask layers but I don’t like how it does it) I use a program called Vertus Fluid Mask (it can be used as a plugin) that is simply the best masking program I have ever worked with.

For me it is like a good stereo system. I like component systems instead of the one box does it all system. Photoshop is a one box system. I work smoother, faster, with more accuracy and control using several combined programs than I ever would relying solely on Photoshop.