You should try Lightroom then, it's not that hard even tho there is the word "photoshop" in it. You'll just control the sliders of contrast, highlights, saturation, black level, white level, some split toning and gradual filter. Simple stuff, almost like ACDSee.

I use this mainly because I shot RAW.

Not a sifu. But RAW will just help you to experiment the settings broadly than jpg to achieve different result, it will help to retain more details than altering a jpg.

If you notice, when you developing a jpeg, not much of difference going on compared to altering a raw.

"Jpeg is like a baked cake, you can add only few finishing and decorations, while RAW is RAW." -That's my sifu used to say.

Of course, you only use it if you want to dedicate one or two pictures to make them extremely beautiful.

If you shoot RAW for travel, wedding and events, sure that would a waste of time to develop them.

RAW like a raw beef steak vs JPEG 70% cooked beef steak 
aside wide range editing i think no more already.

i'm not sure how detail about raw vs jpeg la, but i think raw might can get a very fine detail...but file size also larger of course

edit: you got RAW+ JPEG option right?? use that and compare la 

White balance.

Sometimes I am clumsy enough that I forgot to change the white balance setting. Most people stick to auto white balance, but camera white balance is not perfect.

There are times, when it fails and you get wrong white balance, thus if you shoot jpeg, it is hard to recover compared to RAW.

I have this problem before when my camera cannot evaluate proper white balance indoor.

Corrected
You get a much better chance of saving a photo if you shoot in RAW You'd be amazed at what you can do with a RAW file, should try it out once you get your DSLR 
I only shoot in RAW even though the files are large and slows down my PC abit haha

Same here, u can recover shadow , highlight very well in RAW file, black point white point and almost everything u can have more space to editing hehe

Just curious, which DSLR are you getting and when are you getting it? 

Great choice man, grats in advance   

Advice? Don't get conned haha, and keep shooting 

that body doesn't have much button compare to D7000, but there are a lot you can do if you make use of the swivel LCD screen

anyway.....gonna ask the sifus here a question, what should i take note of when shooting fashion portraiture? should i focus more on full body and make sure DOF is enough to cover the outfit?

I am using it too.
Same advice like everyone else here, shoot like hell. Play with settings, start with auto, program mode then other manual modes, you won't get desired results often, but it is the process of learning that matters, so don't feel down when it happens. Congrats on your purchase.

Nahh... don't worry about it. I shoot hundreds pictures on event, 50 something just for experiment. My former Canon 1000D already exceeded its estimated shutter life but still works. Only the flash get stuck.

By the time it hits the final shutter, I should have enough money to send it to centre for shutter reset... or get an upgrade.

It's electronic stuff. Sooner or later it will die regardless of shutter life, same like hard drive.

Until it died... 100k-150k like that... To replace only like few hundred ringgit...

so far there isn't any major issue beside dust and oil issue in D600 units

my use my d5100 to shoot under rain and bumping here and there during event and still working fine

Yeah, Nikon D600 units are plagued with oil splattering issues onto the sensors, that's the reason why Nikon released the D610 very recently which claimed to have fixed that issue. But Nikon's move had upset a lot of D600 users

DSLRs are not water resistant one haha, best also weather sealed in higher end models 
Even so, best not to shoot too much in the rain la haha, humidity is very conducive to fungal growth

I just bath my 2x D7000s this morning, well light rain that is.

1x D7000 is in good condition,

1x D7000 has been exposed to salt water, the lens mount are covered with rust, as well as all the screws. 

Both are not mine.

DSLR is not water resistance, some are weather sealed

even though your DSLR is not weather sealed you can still shoot under the rain but not heavy rain la, and of course to cover the viewfinder, buttons and mount parts when you are not shooting so the water wont sip inside to the internal parts and damage the camera
salt can rust metal/iron very fast best to clean the body after exposed to salt water
i use wet cloth to clean the body, the lens front and back element just use lens pen, easy and no messy

Waves, when I was on the beach shooting sunrise, I noticed some droplets on my lens even though I'm on the beach. Thing is, the wind is so strong that it helps the waves splashes spread.

I should be more careful now then, hahahaha! I never thought of rust.

During my trip to Phuket, I saw quite a lot ppl using polypropylene (I think) bags which "mounts" at the lens and covers the entire DSLR body. A very good item to avoid getting the DSLR wet 
And way cheaper than a casing haha

Aiya, just saying lol, noneed to buy la, most of us don't always go to beaches also ah haha
I think shouldn't be too hard to DIY also 

dont worry that is hard plastic... my D70s brought to sand there also no problem.. just never put on water and sand...bring alone beach got XD

after that need clean up because got many particles stick on that, better advise you get a filter cover your lens first XD

Talking about salt water, last year I was at Albany The Gap and water was sprinkling like crazy due to the strong wind. Ended up my filter looked like this when I got back to the car.