spiegelcjs,
Regarding Photoshop Elements: each new version (1-6) added support for the "then current" SLR cameras. The version you are using may not support the particular RAW file your Pentax produces. In any event, the newest Photoshop Elements "6" has so many features and is so closes to the full professional version (CS3) that I think it would be worth your while to purchase. In the future, you might consider shooting in RAW + High Quality JPEG. Memory is cheap and tha way you could get away with showing some of your images right out of the camera. As far as photoshop is concerned, you can order a CD with 30 day programs of Photoshot Elements and CS3 directly from their website (adobe) or you can download the trial version from their site off the internet. I noticed that Amazon is selling Elements with a rebate so it might be worth upgrading and buying through them?

I like to view my images on a large high definition TV. I take all of my processed images and put them into a program called "ProShow Gold" made by the Photodex Corp.. Then I connect my computer (laptop) to the TV and have large images of the same quality as seen on the computer monitor. You can simply arrange a screensaver for on your regular laptop and have the images display that way. I would guess that you would be disappointed in the quality of anything less then a high definition TV picture. If you don't have a laptop, you can get 25-50 foot cables (inexpensive) to run between your desktop and TV. These cables are available online for just $15-$25. Hope this helps.
Regards-Chuck

>>> Regarding Photoshop Elements: each new version (1-6) added support for the "then current" SLR cameras. The version you are using may not support the particular RAW file your Pentax produces.

Keep in mind that Adobe Camera Raw (ACR; the "Raw" reader) is generally upgradeable separately from PSE itself. The newest version (4.4.1) requires PSE 5.0+, but ACR 3.6 works with PSE 3.0 and reads K100D files. You can find the download and installation instructions here: http://www.robgalbraith.com/bins/con...id=7-7899-8656

Paul

I've been shooting like crazy, practicing all of these great suggestions, and I'm already feeling overwhelmed by storage issues. Hope you don't mind a few more questions!

1. How do you permanently store your images? On DVDs or something else? I'm quickly discovering that my current computer's hard drive is not a long-term option; not enough space.

2. What format do you save the images in after you've processed them? Tiff or Jpeg? And do you keep the RAW files after you've created tiffs or jpegs you are happy with?

3. This is a subjective question: As a general rule, how many images do you keep and how many do you delete? In other words, what's your criteria for a keeper? With my practice shoots, after I delete the clearly horrible shots, I'm left a bunch of okay to pretty-good-for-a-novice shots. Maybe one out of a hundred is better than that -- a picture that I say, "Wow, that's really pretty good." None are spectacular, but that's to be expected at this stage.

Should I just ruthlessly delete 99.7% of my output? Most of my best shots thus far are of my dog (who is exceptionally cute, if I do say so myself), but two weeks into my photography hobby and I'm already starting to ask myself, "Just how many pictures of this mutt do I really need?"

Weeding out the pictures is even harder in the field, when I'm trying to decide which of several similar shots to keep based on viewing on a small screen. How do you deal with this? The beauty of digital is that shooting is cheap, but I'm already drowning in images.

4. What do you do with your pictures after you take them (besides processing and storing them)? I like the idea of making MyPublisher photo books with some of them -- especially ones that naturally coallesce around a theme -- like a trip to Africa! But what about the random shot that's good enough to keep but not good enough to enlarge and hang on the wall or in a frame, and that doesn't fall naturally into a category that I'd do a book on? For example, I took a pretty good shot of a peacock the other day, but do I really need to preserve it for posterity?

5. It's this kind of thinking that led me to throw away all most of my college art projects a couple of years after graduation. Now, twenty years later, I could kick myself. Then again, I'm glad not to have to deal with all that clutter.

Have others struggled with these issues? How did you end up resolving them? The best part for me so far has been the actual shooting and the three seconds after shooting when you look at the little tiny screen on the back of the camera and say, "Dang, that's pretty good!"

isabel,
On some of the photographic forums your questions would generate 400-500 replies. There really are as many answers as their are photographers. In other words there is no single right way to decide which photos to keep. In the old film days I had boxes of sildes overflowing in my closets. I used slides in my profession and that was even more overwhelming. However, digital storage is so inexpensive and requires so little space, you really can save a lot more. For example, you can buy a 500GB external hard drive for just over $100. In fact buy two and keep duplicate copies of your files on them and leave your desktop computers hard drive free. My workflow is probably fairly typical, I do minor adjustments in RAW and then save as a 16 BIT TIF file. I import the TIF to Photoshop and make additional corrections and then EXPORT as a JPEG. I then erase the TIF but save the RAW. I can always fo back and make a new TIF file. The TIF files are just too large to save and there is really no benefit in doing so. I usually gi the additional step of backing up all of my RAW files on DVDs but that's really an individual issue. Still, at least two copies (on separate devices) is a good idea. Some people think CDs are more durable and there are some very high priced products with long life guarantees available. I did a safari in Botswana last June and returned home with 15,000 images. After editing, 5,000 remained. After a February safari to Tanzania I returned home with 7,000 images that I will reduce to about 2,500 (most of cheetah and leopard cubs). How can anyone toss out a cheetah cub? I wouldn't try and do much culling while on safari. Unless you have a good laptop screen it is very hard to make a decision. Sure, get rid of the obvious mistakes but wait until you get home to review them carefully. Often I'm unhappy with how an image looks on my camera's LCD or on the screen of my Epson PSD device. However, when I view it on my home computer I see again what I was after when I took the shot. A really nice way to share your images is to make a screensaver of your best 100-200 images and to play them on your TV when friends are over for cocktails or some social event. Just having these play in the background is a fun way of sharing without forcing everyone to sit and watch your slide show. We find that while some prople are captivated others are entirely bored. Think if it as a sneaky way of sorting out your friends. Another way of sharing images is to send an occasional image off to a friend to use as "computer wallpaper". Lots of our friends now ask for them and look forward to an occasional new image. One last suggestion, look up MPIX, they specialize in all sorts of prints and in making photo albums. I have had some very nice large prints made and these can even be given as gifts.
Cheers-Chuck

speigelcjs,
I just realized that I really didn't answer your post entirely. If you have one of the newer flat screen LCD or Plasma TVs, it probably has an input for a cable from your computer. If your desktop is in another room, you might have to use a laptop but if you have both of these handy then it is a simple matter to convert your TV to display just like your computer monitor. By the way, if you do use ProShow Gold to make your presentations, you can add a soundtrack (lions, zebras, leopards etc) this comes is handy, particulary if your showing pictures to children or if your friends are just plain dull.
Cheers-Chuck

Hi Isabel,

I ran into the space problem recently myself - my hard drive and backup drive seemed sufficient in size until I went to digital photography. Since I had to come up with a quick solution (long-term solution is waiting for when I upgrade my computer), I turned my backup drive into an external hard drive, moved about half of my files there and bought a larger drive for backing up both the internal and external hard drives. I want to reiterate what Chuck said about duplicates. If you don’t already back up your files, please start. Two weeks after I returned from my March safari with almost 4000 pictures, my hard drive failed and could not be repaired. Fortunately, I had backups and was able to restore everything but the edits I had done in the three days since the last weekly backup.

Like you, I’m not that interested in doing a lot of post-processing, but I shoot RAW so that I can if I want to. I keep everything in RAW and create a JPEG only if I want to print or post online. A program you might want to look into is Adobe Lightroom. It doesn’t have all the functionality of Photoshop, but does allow a lot of adjustments if you want to make them and I think has a shorter learning curve than PS. You can download a trial copy from Adobe’s website.

I’m still looking for the answer on how much to keep. When I shot slide film and had to worry about physical storage, I kept a maximum 6 shots out of every roll of 36. That sounds more arbitrary than it really was, but basically, if I was ‘sure’ there were 20 good shots out of a roll, I knew I probably wasn’t being disciplined on the editing. It’s much easier to keep a higher percentage when the photos are digital, but clutter is clutter. I definitely keep more than I used to, but having too many so-so pictures distracts me from the good ones. This is where my ‘vacation’ keyword comes in - in other words, I don’t really think this is a good picture, but I’m keeping it because it reminds me of the trip!

Like Chuck, I would say not to edit too much on the trip. I’ve had that same experience of being unhappy with the image on the camera LCD or my Epson PSD but it looking fine on my computer. I downloaded my photos every night to my Epson, but only deleted the ones that were obviously blurry or where I could tell I would hate the composition even more on a bigger screen.

Hope this helps.