When I had a Dell, I got by nicely using Photoscape, Picasa and Microsoft Picture Manager. I sprung for a Mac and I have not been very happy with the offerings (IPhoto, Gimp). So, I bought Adobe Lightroom 3 and so far I have a sense of when I was back in high school in that Algebra class. I didn’t receive good marks.
First of all it is probably partly garbage in/garbage out. I have somehow forgotten how to set my lighting up and white back grounds turn out blue or grey (I know, simple for most, but not me. I even have the Dummies book for my Canon XTi). My beautiful Canon EF 100mm macro is begging me to figure things out. So, forgive my shots. If you think you didn’t clean your glasses or are having a dizzy spell….you’re not! It’s me.
Things are a bit busy and chaotic right now so in time I will get set up, study up and not burden you with my experiments. I’m going with the glass is half full concept with my pictures.
SwittersB & Exploring 
I’ve been thinking about trying Lightroom but being a long time Photoshop user and not really interested in learning another prog so I’ve just kept going with PS. Digital cameras with light balance make lighting much easier as long as you stay with a single type of light source, tungsten, fluorescent and so forth. Then it’s just moving them around to fit your needs and balance intensity.
With the Canon macro (or any other macro) you don’t have to move in really tight if you have a camera with a decent processor because you can crop out the edge and just use the center. This also uses your lenses best optical area, the center or the lens. Backing off will allow you greater depth of field (area of focus, front to back). The closer you get to your subject the narrower the depth of field. That’s one way to work around small apertures and long shutter times.
I like either black or white backgrounds. Fly Tyer magazine uses blue a lot? It seems easier to me to make black stay black and white stay white.
Good luck with Lightroom, would be interested in hearing what you like on it once you get it down.
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Thank you Wayne! Great advice. I do tend to be in too close and at F22 for example. I have a mix of light. I am sure I will figure it out eventually. Throw another log on the fire!!!
Gary
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