Paul, do not worry, even a stick in the mud has its purposes and its sometimes very useful , drop me a line then.
I saw the mail saying I have a PM but when I check my message box here there is no PM. Something strange going on with this site . Would you mind resending the PM again?
Thanks Paul

Thanks Gareth, I am glad the images came out looking pretty nice and obviously the subjects were excellent so that helped .

Piotro

the lens allows me to take images like this for example, this is my 6 year old and its almost impossible to snap him from close quarters, he will act funny and make faces all the time. The only way I can get him in a natural pose is from a distance when he is not aware, and the lens is excellent for that

Bob
the DA*50-135 carries an absolutely massive reputation for quality, You can't go wrong with that,

and you are spot on again heheheh I was standing on my corner with the camera and lens and just observing the guests in the party and snapping my shots and reviewing them right now I am amazed with the quality of the images

Piotro, how did I miss that crop? lol, now looking at it, this one also looks great.
I think I have an idea Am going to show both versions to the parents and grand parents, in fact I am due to upload the album on the server and will put both, the way you cropped Piotro and the first one with the eyes showing.

I wouldn't be surprised that people viewing it wouldn't even notice that its the same photo lol.

Yup, she has olive complexion, a very beautiful mixture. Dad french white, blue eyes and blonde lol, and mum Mauritian, with a mixture of indian and african. No wonder the girl has that skin and eyes

Bob, yes, this was taken with the 60-250 how did you guess?

Martin and Lil Andy, thank you very much for your input.

Martin, thanks for reminding me that there has been some discussion on the threads, will check around.

Seems like the consensus is for the first picture. I was already leaning towards that myself, but then wasn't sure .

Piotro, thank you for putting some thought on this and helping me out specially with the monitor.
My luck is my work system is due for upgrade now so I can splash a bit from the budget and I was thinking kind of anything under £500, would that get me something decent? Of course the lesser I spend on the monitor the better as I get more left to top up for the rest of the system.

Am completely open for suggestions regarding sizes/resolutions etc

thanks for helping. Going to check that link now

ooh, that was a relief Tel, thank you so much.
Its so tricky having two monitors that differ so much in contrast. I really need to get one that I can rely for post processing work.

I might as well ask for recommendations for monitors from the forum members then, so anyone here with some advice on which monitor to go for please?
Thanks

Gosh, I just noticed now that when I open the images on the second monitor I have where I keep the browsers open the images look quite flat without any warm colours. This is an LG L206WU monitor, while the monitor where I do the post processing work in there the image comes up with warm colours, a huge difference in contrasts of the colours. The other one is an old Viewsonic monitor a VP191S. Definitely the image looks much better with warmer colours, but I am now wondering if its just my LG monitor that makes the image so flat lookng, without any warm colours.
Could someone also please tell me how the images look in the monitor particularly regarding the contrast and if the colours are very flat looking please?

I think I have had it with dodgy monitors now. I guess its time to upgrade and get something I can rely on when working on images.

Trying to see which of these two looks better from the portrait when cropping. Had a small birthday party at a friend's house and am trying to process some images, and I am split minded regarding this one.
The little girl has beautiful eyes and the expression is lovely in my view and cropping it closer enhances the eye expression.
But again looking at the other image it also looks good as it casts an idea on the sorrounding where something caught her attention.

Advice and comments please and any suggestions would be much appreciated.

Many thanks in advance

Amin