learning photoshop

DSLR photography has been lots of fun so far, but more of a challenge than i expected. remembering my time in high school with 35mm film has helped. (thanks mr. brown!) i know about f-stops and apertures and ISOs, and i am making progress with learning where everything is on my camera and trying to get better about thinking while shooting. however, i just had the rather obvious epiphany that photoshop now replaces the darkroom. a SOOC (straight out of camera) shot may be nice, but the wow factor i am trying to achieve is pretty much always going to require some extra work. for example, this photo of the cutest little girl on the planet enjoying some chocolate ice cream is very nice
but after just a few minutes of photoshop work it looks much better to me - notice the golden highlights in her hair, warmer skin tone, and her sticky little fingers look stickier.

most importantly, it looks more like what i remember from that day.
all that beautiful color information is hidden in the pixels and needs some coaxing to come out and shine. the trick is learning when to stop, i guess...if i was going to spend more time on it i'd probably blur the background more. what do you think? leave a comment...

i really love the flexibility i have shooting digital - i can take countless shots of the same thing without worrying about film cost and make 50 versions of a single photo in an hour if i wanted to. the problem comes in self-evaluation...what is a good photo? is this one good enough yet? which all comes back to (as it always does for pretty much everyone about everything) am i good enough?

the downside of digital slr photography is the way it opens doors to an incredible array of spending opportunities. i just ordered two new lenses in hopes of getting some great shots during a maternity shoot and some traveling we have planned.

now to finish getting through this backlog of cameraphone pix...