Why Are We Here And What Are We Doing This For ?

[Moire]

From an article I read "Stop Taking Pictures And Start Taking Photos".

https://medium.com/the-mission/stop-taking-pictures-start-taking-photos-9039ca99e1d6

"Photography Is no longer fun for me", too many equipment settings, too much time required for processing (I realize some is required), too many unusable photos to sort through.

Some questions along this very same line as that article.

1. Purchasing the right equipment, for the best results without the fuss, high percentage of usable photos. I do not want to take hundreds of photos, take several really good ones and have them all come out clean and usable! Maybe a camera outfit that has 7-12 custom memory settings for "Flowers", "Landscapes", Birds" and "Wildlife" so i am not spending time with the camera settings in the field.) Maybe just 1 lens, 2 at the most.

2. What software to use for post processing, something that has many basic, predetermined adjustments. Like for instance, have 10 common predetermined different landscape settings. I do not want to deal with individual settings, cant do it.

I am not asking for advice on presenting a feeling into my photos, I need to do that myself.  

Photoshop is just to complicated, DPP is too small to use from my tv (no way to enlarge the print and such) 

I take landscape, flowers and wildlife photos, that's all. It may require hiking in for long distances and i want to simplify the use of the equipment and the process to

"make it fun again". 

thanks

[Escalante101]

Perhaps the answer to this may be as complex as the question itself.  Honestly, sometimes I feel simply overwhelmed and intimidated by all the camera gear, tripod gear, lighting equipment, post processing software programs and gear related to that.  Yes, sometimes I feel like I have become so involved in trying to learn "how everything works" that I do not have much time for taking pictures.  I like to hike and shoot landscapes, wildlife and flowers, also.  Some camera gear is heavy, as is tripod gear, etc.  I guess the trap that snared me into this situation was taking well composed pictures with a basic camera and ultimately not having much control over complicated exposure and focus issues.  I have owned pocket-sized point and shoot cameras, and the latest iteration of them, the G7X.  I have taken great pictures with that little camera, but what is the sensor size, what is the resolution?  Sensor size / pixel count pretty much preclude ever having any meaningfull prints made.  So, what is the alternative?  I think you have a choice.  Settle for a pocket-sized camera or a smartphone and just shoot "snapshots" and hike light - or - spend lots of money, acquire the gear that will allow you to improve on exposure, resolution and creativity.  "Hiking light and carrying pocket-sized cameras" means "letting go" of all the desire to expose a better image.  If you can settle for that, then you can "have fun again".  But, if you want more out of your pictures, if you want to come home with a truly memorable photography of a stunning landscape, a bird in flight, flowers, etc. you have to face the reality of technological challenges at all levels of the experience.

I would love to see lightweight DSLRs or mirrorless cameras and light weight lenses to go with.  Is that even remotely possible right now?  Lightweight and simultaneously sturdy tripods, heads and other related accessories?  Post-processing software without a steep learning curve that makes it seem just too much to even want to attempt?

I think I am dreaming here.  Something tells me that if I am willing to put in the time and effort to learn and understand the equipment I am working with while simultaneously having the patience and perseverance to conquer the best photo post processing software programs out there that my efforts will be rewarded at some point.

Maybe the response to your concern is that at the present time in the history of the technological development of the human race, there are no easy answers. . . .  

[kvbarkley]

For #2 get Perfectly Clear.

[Moire]

Good suggestion, tried a similar camera (lumix) it was impossible to hold, I do like the feel of a bridge camera (slr like design).

Went through the whole wide printer thing, prints on the wall etc, too costly. Hanging my photos on the wall has not pleased me, there is not enough feeling being conveyed. I have decided to just use my tv's (they all have the capability to show my photos) and websites like flickr, at least until I get the right combination of equipment and software that produce fine photographs.

The mid priced ($2000) canon dslr and lenses have never worked well. Heavy, complicated, poor results and big. looked at my Lumix bridge camera more closely, it does have 3 custom selections and it does offer predetermined scenes like, landscape, landscape with bright sky, flowers etc. That might be as close as I can get to a camera.

Have not found a good software, have PS (layers and all that frustrates me). 

[Moire]

Oh I see, Perfectly Clear is a software, thanks

[Moire]

Excellent, thank you

[Moire]

I guess what I need are called "presets" or "preset libraries" ? is that available in elements 11 which I have ? Can I add those libraries from somewhere to elements?

thanks again, that really opened up my eyes to some good possibilities. I have this philosophy about technology, It never does exactly what you want. For instance, I have my camera PDF manual on my phone (tablet) and all I wanted it to do is search by voice. google removed the microphone from their Gboard keyboard. worked on it for about an hour and gave up, ugh. 

[kvbarkley]

You don't really get presets in Photoshop elements.  11 is getting long in the tooth, there have been many improvements.

I find that the camera in P mode does pretty well in multiple situations as far as exposure goes. I occasionally use the nighttime handheld scene mode for long-exposure night shots of lights.

The main difference between flowers, landscape and wildlife is the lens. I like my 60mm macro for flowers and closeups and my 70-300mm or 150-600mm for wildlife telephoto.

[Moire]

gee, what can i say, i think that app "Perfectly Clear" might be what i want but i tried the free download trial and could not get it to work. the download gui looked nothing like the you tube video. if something like this does not work in the first 10 min, i am done with it.

what I am asking for is out there, now that my eyes are more open, but as usual its a real pain to find. Now if Adobe had professional preset libraries I could download for free to add to my adobe raw app in elements, that would be perfect.

I see a lot of people offering to sell presets, give away presets filters but i have no idea who they are or if they are compatible.

man why cant life in photography be simpler. like everything else in our technology driven world, you have to work hard at it to get it to work for you, i just dont have the time or patience for that.

[John_SD]

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@Moire wrote:

Photoshop is just to complicated, DPP is too small to use from my tv (no way to enlarge the print and such) 

I take landscape, flowers and wildlife photos, that's all. 

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You need to get yourself a little PowerShot ELPH.