Well, I got the recipe for the over cooked photos

[Wildman]

Lightroom is a VERY powerful tool, as is Photoshop. After a few days of reading on the net I am calming down some, but the edits to these over exposed pictures are coming together.

Before and after snap shots. There is actually lace in the dress and my ol man has a tanned bald spot again!

These are low resolution screen captures.

[bmac]

wow what a difference

[Bluesman]

Good deal!

[Shane]

Huge improvement, Danny. Looks like there is still some detail that just isn't there in the brightest spots that can't be recovered, but you recovered everything that is recoverable. Did you save those develop settings so you can apply them to all the pics - at least as a starting point for each edit?

[gjennings]

Looks really good.

[clffrdfdge]

Very good job!

[TexasBob]

Wow. Much better. Glad you were able to salvage them.

[Wildman]

Salvage is too strong. I managed to get them to the point that I am not embarrassed to show them to people.

Shane, I did an application in lightroom as an auto adjust. Problem is that they are all not the same. I am still having to work each one, just have figured out how to manipulate lightroom/Photoshop/Flickr to get the balance.

Most prints still look like trash.

[WyoBull]

Once you get some the way you want them, in the development module you can copy and paste the adjustments to other photos. If might not be exactly what you are wanting for each photo but as Shane said, it is a good starting point rather than starting from scratch on each one.

[Shane]

Getting good prints is next to impossible if your monitor isn't properly calibrated, and that's when you have proper exposures and good pics to begin with. I've been using a freeware software tool called QuickGamma. I'm sure it isn't as good as the hardware/software packages (like Spyder), but I've been very pleased with the results - pleased enough that I haven't seen the need to buy a Spyder system.

You may be calibrated already, but I thought I'd throw that out there just in case it would help with your prints.

[Wildman]

Shane, good tip. My home monitor is calibrated and my colors, and what I see on it are printing the same as what I am seeing on my monitor. Except reds. For some reason I can not dial in reds