Hi all!

[hasuin038]

I'm new here. Still and forever in the learning process I like 'Cambridge in Colors'. I'm a 65 years old French man retired in the Philippines and photography has become most important to me now that I have free time. I believe in QI (quality image) rather than in IQ ('image quality'). An exclusively jpeg Canon shooter and not wanting to spend time on post-processing, I care for my in-camera settings then use only Picasa 3. I have six lenses (oldies, but goodies enough I think ): four prime (24/2.8, 50/1.8, 100/2.8 macro and 200/2.8) and two zoom lenses (20-35 and 28-135 mm) which I mount on a 6D or a 60D (I like to feel I have just the right weight and balance in my hand and am not attracted to smaller cameras). I hope to improve my skill without ever thinking of changing gear. I will take part in some mini and monthly competitions to test myself. Your comments will be most welcome. Cheers!

[chauncey]

hasuin...while I applaud your use of Canon gear, I feel that we must agree to
disagree on the necessity for PP. Regardless, glad to have you aboard.

[Dave Humphries]

Hi Hugues-Antoine,

I assume those are your first names? Perhaps there's a shorter version we can use? - you may call me lazy and ignore the request if you wish

Welcome to the CiC forums from me, I hope you enjoy your time here - and long may that be.

I will take part in some mini and monthly competitions to test myself. Your comments will be most welcome.

I would suggest that the Mini Comps (especially) are perhaps not the best gauge of our photographic progress - and since only the first three places of the monthly challenges are given, the pure odds are that you might not appear in the results. Also, there are few comments given for those two methods of image posting.

I hope to improve my skill ~

If you wish to improve with our help, I would highly recommend posting images for critique and particularly following the advice given in the first post in this thread; How to Get Effective Feedback for your Posted Images.

I look forward to seeing some pictures...

EDIT: OK, seen a few - not bad at all

All the best, Dave

[IzzieK]

Welcome to CiC...

[hasuin038]

Thank you Chauncey, Dave and Izzie.

1/ OK, the name is long so just call me Antoine as many do here in the Philippines.

2/ I think we can agree to agree on PP. Of course I do a little of it most of the time like cropping, straightening, maybe improving light, contrast, saturation, certainly output sharpness. I mentioned Picasa as it does the job most of the time but I have also Gimp on my linux comp just in case... I do not like to spend much more than a minute post-processing a picture and I often feel I coud have used better in-camera settings instead. I have a specific question about output sharpening and I will put it in the appropriate place.

3/ I have a photo website. The address can be seen on my profile page. Maybe the monthly competitions are a little bit more challenging than the mini ones as more people take part...

Anyway I enjoy joining this community. Best to all.

[IzzieK]

Antoine...when you collected enough post -- 10 post as of last count...you can put your photo website like others here, on your signature line.

Just ask questions for guidance if that is what you want to do...I just vote in competitions...not really participate. Not until I get good, maybe...

Anyway, hope you enjoy your stay here. Please do not forget to look at other members' post too and comment on them...sometimes we like our ego (eggo?) touched too. Or criticized, we don't mind. The strong will learn, the weak will crawl in their corners and hide away for a while, read some post and see that it is a norm here...nothing to hurt anyone intentionally.