Well, I am in perfect accord with Danny, though I also understand and appreciate as usual what Doug and Bill W. think and say. Philosophically (the old manuals for f.64 California photography tend to surface) I think I ought to strive for the best lighting and exposure from the get-go. Photoshop is better than almost any darkroom
work, but it is analogous. The best post-processing in either case is done on the best original (philosophically necessary even if there seem to be exceptions in practice).
What interests me in the foregoing is that Bill and Doug and I have our favorites from among the Photoshop
tools. I am devoted to Levels for most things and ordinarily use it exclusively. Curves drives me nuts, because I just don't grasp it, except mentally. The 'slides'
tools tend to frustrate me.
The great thing, IMO, about Adobe is that it permits working however best suits each artist personally. It gives you many procedures and possibilities for combining them. Same is true with Dreamweaver (though its having been through three companies complicates it, though the more it becomes Adobe in character the better it gets—yet I
still have trouble mastering it). Mastering an Adobe product is really a matter of making it one's own. People who need to be told what to do with paint brushes and so watch those How to Paint a Landscape programs on TV are temperamentally unsuited also to Adobe
software. They call it confusing!
The artist's approach (though I cannot claim to BE an artist) is best for me: know what you want as a finished product and then figure out how to make the
software do it. No Adobe Manual will tell you how to photograph old coins!
After two years, I am
still struggling with my DSLR. But I've
had Photoshop since 2.0.
After the IRS this year I am about to spend a parcel to bring everything up to date together.
Pat L.
P.S. The lefthand (.jpg) image above shows the character of the surface of the silver in the
field better. I didn't want to go on and on about nuances, but it is not only the aesthetic ones that may be important.