Your pix always seem to have a nice crisp look- whats your secret?
My reply just disappeared when I hit submit so hopefully this won't show up as a double post.
Thanks Sto, I wish I had a secret to share but the truth is I just take lot's of photos, pick out the best ones and work with them in Elements until I like the results. What you don't see are all the ones that end up in the trash bin. But in the case of the chipmunk and squirrel above, both were fairly close which of course goes a long way towards getting a crisp shot. And the grey squirrel in particular was very cooperative, giving me ample time to try several different camera settings as he sat there nonchalantly munching away. Whenever I get a willing subject that allows me the time to do so, I experiment with as many different settings as I can come up with, hoping that one of them will be just right. I look forward to the day when I can glance at a particular scene and know instinctively what the correct settings should be and go straight to them, but I'm a long way from that point so in the meantime I experiment. The hard part is remembering what did and didn't work under different situations. But little by little, I think I'm gaining on it so experimenting is my go-to learning tool for now.
BTW, while I like a sharp, crisp, photo as much as anyone, in many instances I actually prefer a softer look and strive for that sometimes.