Reply To: So, am I doing Ok for a beginner?

[cameraclicker]

Well, simoncookerussell, you certainly have attitude!  I thought Brownie’s critique was pretty reasonable and judging by the other’s comments everyone who has responded seems to be of a similar opinion about your photos.

A 7D saves files in two formats:  raw and JPEG.  Raw files have a CR2 filetype and JPEG have a JPG filetype.   DNG is Adobe’s digital negative format.  You must have asked Lightroom to convert the files when downloading them.  I don’t use Lightroom, or Apple products, so I only have a general knowledge of them, I believe when I trialed Lightroom on a PC, there was an option to convert the file, or not.  I believe Lightroom will convert both raw and JPEG files to DNG if the option is set.   In the Windows world, connecting the camera or a card reader makes the card into an extra drive and you can just use Windows Explorer to copy/move the files.  You should be able to do a similar thing with Apple’s file manager.  I recommend using a card reader because it saves your camera battery.

Being able to use Manual mode for shooting is a good thing.  Once you become proficient, check out Aperture mode (Av), it will save you quite a bit of effort and deliver the same result for about 90% of photos if you understand how your metering works.