Both are good shots - the 55-300 is an exceptional lens for the money.

Regards
David

You did say that 'you may have hit on the key', I took this to mean that you agreed with the statement, rather than disagreed with it?

Regards
David

I love the high-key BW of the Bride signing the book - great shot! I agree with the removal of the Silage bale (I think I commented on this when the image was posted on the Gallery), although the cloning is a bit rough & ready (sorry Barrie). I also agree with the changes on the other two and think that the resulting images are a lot stronger.

For the shots in general, they are pretty good, but the ones with sky in them really need some help - even a weak ND Grad used carefully would have made a huge difference. The one with the colour and sepia mix is nice - but you have cut off the Bride's feet! This needs a harder crop to the bottom so this is not so obvious.

All in all, I think you should be commended; as Gwyn says I would be very reluctant to take on a wedding shoot as the main photographer and therefore I'm probably not best placed to judge your image, but I hope my comments come across as constructive.

Regards
David

I really do not understand this philosophy. Whether you shoot RAW or JPEG (I only shoot RAW at present) it is critical to get things right 'in camera' (or as right as you can possibly make them).

There is more time to consider compositions, exposure, use of filters etc. with landscape photography than with other forms and there really is no substitute for making the right decisions when the shot is taken. Yes, it can be manipulated, adjusted, cropped or whatever later, but if the initial shot is not right it is difficult to make it into something that is special. A silk purse is quite difficult to make when you are presented with a Sow's Ear.

Regards
David

As has been said above, these are very moving. For me, the first one is the best from a photographic point of view, but the others are powerful storytellers. Thanks for sharing them.

Regards
David

Congratulations Nigel, you have made a tremendous effort here and produced a simple guide that is easy to understand. There are a couple of quick points I would like to pick up on:

1. On my (old) laptop, PDCU v 4.4 is not at all 'resource hungry'. The PC is a 5 year old Toshiba Satellite Pro 200 with a Core 2 Duo processor at 1.3ghz, the standard Intel 'Integrated Graphics' and 3 gb RAM. The fan does not whir loudly, the processor is not stretched at all and the PC does not run slowly when using PDCU4. I often have multiple programs running, including PDCU4 and Photoshop CS3 at the same time with no performance issues. Maybe a combination of other processes running causes the resource hunger (check your anti-virus software).

2. Although PDCU4 has some powerful features, I do find them more difficult and clunky to use than the same features on other software. As a result, all my RAW processing is done is Adobe Camera RAW and then taken straight into Photoshop, which by comparison to PDCU4 is a pleasure to use and so much more flexible.

As I said though, many congratulations on what is an excellent guide.

Regards
David

I have a Buffalo 2TB Linkstation which has served me very well for 18 months or so. Just follow the instructions provided with it and you should be fine. They give you a step by step guide which was fine for me and it all worked with no hassles.

Regards
David

The font on the home page now looks a lot better Simon, much cleaner and more professional. This needs following through to all the other pages as it looks a bit odd when you go from the home page into the rest of the site.

Regards
David

Monitors also change their colour and brightness based on other factors, in addition to the power supply, for example as they get older, as they warm up etc. A monitor (or an LCD TV) does not display its optimal picture quality when it is first turned on, it takes a while to warm up.

Regards
David

Magnificent shots, great to see them and great to see you posting the link on our lowly forum!

Best wishes
David