Hello From Illinois (D3100 user)

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Percussionman11

Senior Member
Hi I'm new to DSLR's and am really excited about my new camera purchase. I was so excited I went out and bought 3 lenses to go with it and look forward to tons of feedback from this site and its users. I have been using the camera for the past 3 weeks and have already started to grasp more of how to use the camera and its different functions.

Please feel free to give me as much feedback on my flickr photos as you want as I am very receptive and still very much a noobie to this. I make every attempt possible to take pictures every day even if I don't post them as I am very critical of my own work. This probably comes from being a musician and teacher....

I do not have a photo editing software yet (ie. photoshop) so I leave all of my pictures for the most part in their unedited form. I have started to dabble a bit with the free Nikon software but please feel free to offer editing thoughts regardless as I hope to acquire the software in the future and can always refer back to comments at a later date...or I might just go out and buy it anyways like I did my second...and third lens :)


I'm also going to put this in a separate thread but I am looking to purchase a case to hold my current lenses/camera as well as hopefully one or two more smaller future purchases. Any suggestions? I think I'd like a backpack or sling as I always have my camera on me and plan on taking it with on a future vacation to NV/CA and want it to be easily portable on hikes/plane.

​Thanks!
 
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nickt

Senior Member
If you are thinking of buying software, I would check out Photoshop Elements 11 and Lightroom 5. Elements does almost everything you would want to do for much cheaper than full blown Photoshop. I get much more use out of Lightroom. For me, Photoshop Elements is more for special projects. You can download a 30 day trial from adobe. 30 days goes quickly so you might want to get one at a time to spend more time with each. Look around the Adobe site and watch some of the videos to get a feel for what the programs do. In the end it good to have both programs.
Consider shooting RAW, its pretty amazing what you can do to fix/tweak your photos.
 
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Mike150

Senior Member
Welcome Perc
What are you wanting in the way of editing software. If it's basic adjustments (lighting, color etc) then I'd suggest Lightroom 5. It's $149 in most places.
If you want more power like image stacking, or moving heads around, then you'd want photoshop or PS Elements. I've also heard Paintshop is a good software too, but have never tried it.
You can download free 30 day trials of the Adobe stuff at You can download it free for 30 days at Adobe - Downloads
 
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Rancher_RIP

RIP
Howdy. You sound just like me. I did almost everything the same way. Camera and three lenses then click away. I don't post a lot for the same reason. I sort of want to share the best that I can do. I am pretty proud of my Flicker stream as I was always picky with what I thought was good. I have some editing software but don't take the time to get good enough to make it second nature. I always have Irfanview to resize and Picasa for a little bit of pop made easy. Keep it fun no matter what and it's all good.
 
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