I picked up a great book for CS6 on Photography. It is called Adobe Photoshop for Photographers - CS6 by Martin Evening. It is basic but covers a great deal and it can be used by both the beginner and the advanced users (although I am sure they would find this a bit to basic). It is a rather large book that also has some video's assocaited with it so that you can use the book and then review some of the major techniques via video. Read, see it, do it :)

sevencrossing said:
I have vowed not upgrade untill I have learnt to use CS5 fully

the CS5 content aware, can be restricted on the area it chooses to be "aware of" by careful use of the selection tool first

Hi,

The 'awareness' is more tame-able by using feathering the selection tool.

My best,

Mike

Wow I was just thinking about getting a copy of CS5. So how much computer do you really need? I was due for an upgrade but the old beast worked so well when I put Win7 on it I just stuck with it. I currently run CS3 on an old AMD XP2500 machine. If I want to stitch together a panorama I get a cup of coffee and a magazine to read while it's work but otherwise it's fine, slow but fine....

By far the biggest thing for me is that highlights and fill light have been completely re-engineered in the Camera Raw 7.1 processor. These are completely new tools and they are so good at getting detail back in highlights and shadows that I'm reprocessing images I shot a long time ago to my utter amazement. I also agree that the content aware functions have been improved and the new cropping tool is incredibly clever and handy.

Wow, no joke, on my Windows XP computer I'm still running Photoshop CS2.

My Mac side I'm running CS4, but still, keeping up with this stuff is ridiculous.

Doesn't mean I use any of it though. :D

I still need to learn how to process stuff.

SkintBrit said:
Yes but they've spent that money now, so time for you to make another donation! :-) Is there any more news on whether they are going to stop owners of versions other than the immediately preceding one from upgrading, rather than having to buy a full copy?

I think it is going to be on a sliding scale no? Or you could rent the use of their products on-line which makes sense with the frequency of their updates I suppose.

They should wear ski-masks.

Just purchased the CS6 today... now its time to buy a book to learn to use it, never ends :)

I have vowed not upgrade untill I have learnt to use CS5 fully

the CS5 content aware, can be restricted on the area it chooses to be "aware of" by careful use of the selection tool first

kanuck said:
Geez and I have only had CS5 for a little over a year....sigh

Yes but they've spent that money now, so time for you to make another donation! :-) Is there any more news on whether they are going to stop owners of versions other than the immediately preceding one from upgrading, rather than having to buy a full copy?

Can't wait! I've been playing with the beta and it's great! I have to use LR4 for the d800 RAW files, but that should be sorted out tomorrow. I am also looking forward to the new Illustrator.

Geez and I have only had CS5 for a little over a year....sigh

One day to go....

jerl said:
I haven't really been keeping track so I have to ask: what are the key differences they've added this time around?

A cloudy version ($50 a month) for the entire suite.
Content aware patching.
3D tools.
"better" graphic drivers so supposed to be quicker.
New blur stuff.
New reflections stuff.
Background save.
And the biggest for me: Content aware move.

Go to Adobe dot com and select the product page. The have a page with new features on it, but as they are a commercial outfit, I suspect our moderators will delete a link if I post it...

I haven't really been keeping track so I have to ask: what are the key differences they've added this time around?

We have got notice from Adobe that we can D/L CS6 (not just PS6) from the Adobe corporate file sin-bin on May 10th. One of us (not me) has been nominated to spend the entire day fighting for bandwidth off their server as it'll be hard work lining up with all the other 9,000,000 people who are trying to do the same thing as we will... All we need is that card with the serial number on, as I'm sure we'll need a new one [sigh]!

All manufacture's proprietary Raw formats change with each body release. Nothing new, nor bad, nor fault of the manufacture - that is just part of progress with new sensors.

Just because the "web" is full of claims, doesn't make it the correct claim. Many times it is just that many are understandably looking at the source of the change being the issue, not the fact that you are using a third party software that must change not the manufacture.

Tao, thanks for getting on to this and I will have another go at setting the colour profile import settings in Lightroom, though I did think I had tackled everything back to simple defaults and made sure auto-tone on import was turned off, along with anything else I thought could have been the problem.
It seems strange though that I do not get this problem if I convert the same file to DNG or Tif then import into Lightroom with the identical Lightroom settngs. This fact is what leads me to think it is the D7000 NEF format!
Anyway I am off to make some dinner and will hop back on to try your kind suggestions.
Thanks again for your help.

At the risk of stating the obvious, have you tried a two button reset on the D7000

If not, then why not just convert to DNG

I far as I can see, the only disadvantage in converting to DNG, is you cannot use all all the functions of Nikon Capture NX2 should want to use it at a later date

Hate to tell you Stuart, but you're putting blame on the wrong culprit. What you are describing is not a Nikon issue. It is an issue you have with your settings in Lightroom or you need to update your software. Look at Adobe's site to figure out your import settings. I did something similar with my X100 (by the way it sounds), can't tell you what I did wrong, but I followed the Adobe guides and it set it straight. Adobe is just applying the incorrect color/profile to the images. It has nothing to do with Nikon.

jonnyaple and sevencrossing, thanks for feedback and will address both at the same time if you do not mind as is more efficient.
Then net is awash with the problems with the D7000 raw conversion and probably only D7000 users are experiencing this. I note the total absence of any official comment from Nikon on this fexing problem and would love to know what they have done differently with the raw files generated in the D7000 compared with the D90, my old camera.
As I stated in my first post, you can not set up a preset as each image behaves differently. I naturally, less work flow, stay with NEF though if I convert to DNG or TIF then the files import perfectly into Lightroom with much the same coulour rendition between Raw and Jpeg, as they always used to behave with my D90 NEF files.
It is not Lighroom, as I can take the same photo with my D90 and it behaves normally in Lighroom with exactly the same Lighroom settings.
You mention sending example pics but I am not sure on how, or where, to post pics??
Thanks for getting involved.
Stu

jonnyapple said:
Stuart, welcome to the forum. ........

You may try changing the default profile applied on import..

I agree with Jonnyapple have a look the profile you are using on import

I don't use a D7000 ( I use a D700) but like many others Nikon users , I do use LR and have no issues with NEF files

PS are you converting to DNG or staying with NEF

and Stuart, welcome to NR

Stuart, welcome to the forum. Do you have samples of the bad processing? I made exactly the same upgrade and never noticed anything amiss in LR3.

You may try changing the default profile applied on import—mess with the sliders just once to where you like them, the tell lightroom to use those settings as the new starting point for D7000 NEFs.

I, like many, many others feel betrayed by Nikon in their decision to alter their raw format in the d7000 to be useless in Adobe Lightroom and cs3. Lightroom and cs are by far the major software used for post editing and the D90 Raw was fine but D7000 has, and remains for me a nightmare. To suggest converting to other formats to enable use of these Adobe programs is stupid in the extreme when dealing with serious workloads, and the argument of suggesting Adobe are to blame is also stupid, as Nikon has caused this situation. Lightroom 3.3 with RAW6.3 import D7000 but boy even with auto settings, levels etc. the result is very, very bad compared to the smooth result that I am used to when I import my D90 RAW files. Yes you spend your life by fiddling with the million sliders, but this in a massive work load and presets will trip you up as each photo can display very different after a preset.
No Nikon, people with massive investment and training are not likely to turn to your less useful software and please do the honourable thing for us loyal Nikon users and give us a solution that allows us to use our Adobe products

freddy_dorji said:
hey guys. first of all i own a d7000. could anyone tell my why my iphoto does not read my RAW pictures????? i always have to convert them one by one from Raw to jpeg :( if i could only transfer them straight as raw and tweak them as raw images. thank you guys :)

Hi,

I'm not a macinitte, but you should check to see if your software is up to date for 14-bit RAW files or needs an update to read the NEF files.

My best,

Mike

hey guys. first of all i own a d7000. could anyone tell my why my iphoto does not read my RAW pictures????? i always have to convert them one by one from Raw to jpeg :( if i could only transfer them straight as raw and tweak them as raw images. thank you guys :)