Tobey

Thanks for the advice. I will lurk and learn. I think the members of this forum will have advice that will point me in the right direction to keep improving. I've read a couple threads now, packed with great answers to questions I also thought of asking. It seems like everyone really tries to help (even though, strictly speaking, you're helping the competition) -- I love that everyone seems willing to mentor the new people. This seems like a really great community and I'm glad I joined. Out of curiosity, I went and looked at the difference in $ between what my camera cost and what something basic but up to specs would cost... I was surprised to find options that were actually cheaper than what I had paid, but would have had the sensor size and other features to give me the extra quality for stock images. I'm kicking myself a little over what might have been had I known then what I know now. I suspect I'm asking a tinderbox question but... I rather liked what I read about the Nikon D600 and it looks like an older model (body only) is about $500. Should I go ahead and add it to my amazon wish list or am I barking up the wrong tree? I know just enough to know I don't know anything.

Hello, I just signed up today to be a contributor. Then, before uploading anything I thought I would just do a bit more reading about what's what... Now I'm worried that my camera might not be allowed or good enough. What I have is a Fuji Finepix S3300. It's 14 megapixels and I had been told (back when I bought it) that it was just like a dslr but more portable/compact. I'm wondering if that was not so much true, and just a way to sell me an expensive camera. I have photoshop, and so have spent the afternoon looking at some of my older pics at 100% -- and that was not as brilliant as I had hoped. I'm not at all sure of them anymore. Most of them were taken on auto settings though, so tomorrow I'm planning to take some new shots with manual Apeture control, decreased ISO, and increased sharp/hard, which I think might help. I'm seeing more noise and softness than there should be on all but maybe two pics in my files. Does anyone have any other ideas how to tweak up the quality? Or is it just wasting time trying to get something that will be up to snuff with this camera? I'm obviously not a pro, but I've always been pretty good with a camera -- composition, focus, depth of field, that sort of thing. Right now I'm out of work so I have the time to experiment and try to make this work. It would be great to be able to fine tune my images and have this work out as an income source, but I'm not sure... if my camera isn't good enough to get the quality needed I don't think I can afford a new one right now. Any tips and pointers most appreciated! Thanks, Tobey