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I highly recommend this book for digital photographers:

http://www.amazon.com/Kelbys-7-Poin...=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1215090224&sr=8-4

It pretty much covers what you are looking to do. It goes through Scott Kelby's work flow from start to finish. Well worth a read and an IMHO an excellent resource to have in your library.

For me I want to get as good as shot as I can within the camera with very minimal amount of tweaks in photoshop. But in some cases you just have to use photoshop to recovery the shot.

Seconded! I found that this book helped me a lot with basic RAW processing in Aperture (or Lightroom I suppose) as well.
 
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For me I want to get as good as shot as I can within the camera with very minimal amount of tweaks in photoshop. But in some cases you just have to use photoshop to recovery the shot.

I very much want to learn how to make the most of Photoshop (at the moment I mostly use it to tweak pix and upsize them for picture library use). BUT... I only want to work a little on my BEST shots, maybe to improve them by an extra 5%. Trying to RECOVER pix that really weren't good enough seems like a big waste of my time. Pix that don't 'work' get deleted, not 'recovered'. This is just my way of working; it helps me impose some 'quality control' on my work.
 
brilliant! that looks like an awesome book - thanks for the heads up!!

I highly recommend this book for digital photographers:

http://www.amazon.com/Kelbys-7-Poin...=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1215090224&sr=8-4

It pretty much covers what you are looking to do. It goes through Scott Kelby's work flow from start to finish. Well worth a read and an IMHO an excellent resource to have in your library.

For me I want to get as good as shot as I can within the camera with very minimal amount of tweaks in photoshop. But in some cases you just have to use photoshop to recovery the shot.
 
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I do enough processing until I get the image how I want it to look. Sometimes it only takes a few adjustments, other times it can be more extensive.
 
I highly recommend this book for digital photographers:

http://www.amazon.com/Kelbys-7-Poin...=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1215090224&sr=8-4

It pretty much covers what you are looking to do. It goes through Scott Kelby's work flow from start to finish. Well worth a read and an IMHO an excellent resource to have in your library.

For me I want to get as good as shot as I can within the camera with very minimal amount of tweaks in photoshop. But in some cases you just have to use photoshop to recovery the shot.

The OP indicated interest in books on how to take a better photograph to start with rather than relying on Photoshop to make a mediocre photograph better (for now)

slick316 said:
Thanks for the great advice, it really is helping me a lot.

I think I will look into basic photography first (I mean, I didn't know what the rule of thirds was until this thread) before I invest in software for PP.

I think I am set equipment wise, so I really should just spend the time and learn how to use my D80, and understand basic stuff like lighting.

If you have any suggestions on books that might help me, I would appreciate it.

I think the moral of this thread is that all the photoshop in the world won't help you if you aren't aware of basic design, composition, and exposure guidelines.

The books I mentioned earlier (Understanding Exposure, Learning to See Creatively, Digital Photography Masterclass) all mostly teach how to take a good picture first... Photoshop can come later. I think those are the titles the OP is looking for.
 
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Honestly, as little as possible.

I try to compose and expose so that, the most I should need to do is crop/resize depending on where the image is being used.

Always shoot in RAW format though, that way I have more options should I need to do more.

Occasionally I may do some cloning to get rid of an unwanted element in a corner or along an edge.
 
I was just wondering how much post processing you guys normally do to your pics.

I am just learning how to take pics and then I realize that I suck at processing them (I tend to overdue it and the pic looks all messed up and grainy and I lose detail, etc.)

I am sorry but to me this sounded like a little help with post processing, since he/she said they sucked at processing.

Hence my reference to the post processing.
 
Like has been mentioned before in this thread - I try to do as little post as possible (unless the situation demands or calls for it) ~ and I try to get it 'right' while I'm shooting...
 
The minimum possible to achieve the desired result... :)
Like has been mentioned before in this thread - I try to do as little post as possible (unless the situation demands or calls for it) ~ and I try to get it 'right' while I'm shooting...
Wise words indeed!

First, learn to use your camera, then how to compose and take a decent photograph! :)
 
I was just wondering how much post processing you guys normally do to your pics.

I am just learning how to take pics and then I realize that I suck at processing them (I tend to overdue it and the pic looks all messed up and grainy and I lose detail, etc.)

I took some pics yesterday and all I did was slightly adjust exposure and/or saturation, take a look and critique please.

http://web.mac.com/mitul316/Site/Photos_2.html

Please, any help would be appreciated :)

Nice pics. I have two site too. And I used the same two iweb templates. Weird, huh?. And it looks like we have the same taste in photography. I even have a bee on a flower. Very weird.
http://web.mac.com/ryemac3/RyeMAC3/Photography.html#grid

PS what camera are you using?
 
I use Post almost every time. When I shoot I make damn sure the composition is right, the lighting is correct and it captures some drama or narrative. After the shoot, I go straight into Lightroom, file the photos I like and being looking for imperfections.

In this day and age, Post is part of the process. I won't get into semantics but I strongly believe the camera is just part of it, not the whole.

Clients are very savvy to how the photography process works; they may not know how to use PS or any type of post software but they know it is very common.
 
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