sumit_dua

Thanks for the responses.

Timothy - thanks for the link. Completely agree with everything you said - I know i need to process raw images b/c the camera isn't doing it - this is what made me think about all this in the first place.

Fred - not really looking for purity personally (the photograph never looks like what the world is anyways - its how we want to see it for the moment), but just trying to see when I should claim that one of my photographs is somewhat real (whatever that means) and when I should say manipulated. For me it is more of a definitional thing - need to know what the words mean when others use it.

I did mess around with lightroom recently and now am interested in putting together a workstation to play with images. I was thinking lightroom + photoshop on a decent windows machine. Should I look at getting anything else? And any good sources to point towards workflow.

Thanks again.

I am just an amateur and one day picked up a camera and started shooting. I

have read stuff on the net and browsed a few books here and there. I can't take

any courses due to time constraints, but am happy to read about photography in

the middle of the night.

What are some must read books that would help a medium level amateur move up to

the next level (shooting digitally now). Would like to build a solid foundation

and a somewhat wide knowledge of the field (I shoot both color and b&w and do

shoot people, travel, and landscapes). Can some of the more experience people

recommend some sources to get started (past the basic technical stuff - fstops,

shutter speed, etc.).

Also some resources on learning to process raw images and digital workflow would

be appreciated. Currently trying to setup a system to do this and need to

decide on software, etc. Probably will do windows based.

Thanks.

I am shooting in raw format and now need to process images from a seven week

vacation.

How do most professional photographers process raw images (especially those that

are presenting it as photography and not as digital art)? I assume color

adjustment, saturation, brightness, contrast. What else? Can anyone recommend

a good source to learn raw image processing.

For those photographers who do not manipulate images, what is considered okay

during processing (from a purist point of view)? and When is an image considered

a manipulated image?

Would love to hear thoughts on this or if there is a consensus.

Thanks.