Ken - does Picasa strip the EXIF ?

I'm very very much a learner at the Post Processing work - don't ask me to do those colour changes - not a clue how to.

I just thought that a demo of what this idiot can do in a few secs [ and that's all it was - lifted exposure slightly and tweaked Brightness and Shadows a teeny bit ] might help to see what you can do with RAW.

It will allow you to get the colours you want / saw , not necessarily what the camera thinks they are .

Ta for the compliment Pentaxophile

Here you go Charlotte
1) As I snaffled it from your post

[IMG]http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a41/Anhelyna/5767741936_a9a2c842c3_z.jpg[/IMG]

2) and here it is after a couple of seconds very inexpert work in Aperture

[IMG]http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a41/Anhelyna/5767741936_a9a2c842c3_z1.jpg[/IMG]

Hope you don't mind - it's just to show you how a teeny bit of work can make your pic come alive

Now watch what the real guys can do to help you

OK - you now need the PS experts to help - but a wee bit of work and you'll be astounded as to how good that actually is

yes - but it was in blotches - not nice at all And only half of her was affected !

Her muck was down to the uprooted trees and the awful winds and rain etc and one particular small lake / puddle on one road I could not avoid - it was deep enough that many cars would have got stuck in

Anyway she's now all nice and clean again

She doesn't get taken to be washed all that often [ last done for the Scottish Meet ] but she really looked messy and unloved .

OK - the only snag with shooting in RAW is that you have to do a bit of tweaking to your pictures to get the best out of them .

If you use JPEG - it's done for you by the time you see them BUT you can then only alter them to a degree as some of the original information on the pics is not 'given back to you.'

In RAW you have all the information on the pics so you can do far more with them.

Hope you can make sense of this .

Next point to consider is :-

What software do you have on your Computer ?

Photoshop [ sort of advanced tweaking - you can do wonderful things with this ]

Photoshop Elements - not really a cut down Photoshop - it's a complete package in its own right and lots of people only use PSE

Lightroom - this allows you to make all sorts of changes to the pics you took

Aperture [ This is what I use on my MacBook Pro] the joy with this one is that I can make what changes to the original shot BUT I still have the original one tucked away safely .

If you can tell us a bit about what you have we will be able to help a bit more - not me as I'm still very much the beginner having switched very recently to RAW - but I'm now enthusiastic about it as my shots are more ' alive ' after a little bit of work.

Well well well

I can see some blue sky

Since Freda got very dirty when she was out during the week I think I'll go and get her washed so she'll dry before I have to go out again this afternoon [ when weather is not looking as good ]

Why am I washing her this am ? - well half of her, from front to back and all down her nearside is brown mud splashes instead of her nice dark sparkly blue - I'm not driving round in something that looks like that - all mud - yes , all blue - oh yesssssss. Half and half - naaaaah not on your life . Poor Freda , like this she looks uncared for

Great fun

The multicoloured deck chairs really make an impact

Gwyn - your eyes are younger than mine

Emma yes - without the bird [ Gwyn if have a lappy with a 13in screen !! ] that is a great improvement

I love the 2 dogs challenging each other - it's better with the bone as it tells a story