michelle a.

Marc I had numerous problems with CS3 Bridge not working properly and I too still had CS2 installed. Bridge would crash or just not load at all, constantly.

 

As soon as I uninstalled the previous version.... CS3 Bridge started behaving and working as it should.

Ben... do you have a link to an article or other relevant article that discusses this issue?

 

Would love to look into it further as I am using LR 1.1 and CS3 with updates.

I wouldn't say the article is negative, it's realistic.

 

This is why when I went to a state university, I took all the photo classes I possibly could and other relevant classes and then left without getting my degree.

 

I've been it for two years now..... and can honestly say the article is right on the money. I "grossed" roughly about $16,000 last year.... do you know how much I actually contributed to my household income..... hmmmm..... maybe about $4,000 of it.

 

More than 80% of my time is spent in paperwork, marketing, managing...

 

Don't get me wrong, I'm not in it for the money..... photography is my passion and always has been.... but more money would be nice... who could argue with that?

If you have 17-55 f/2.8 why are you lugging around two other lenses that over lap focal lengths....???

 

The 18-70 is taking up space and added weight to your bag... not only that but it's slow glass.

 

You could also get rid of the 18-135 and pick yourself a 70-200 f/2.8, I've found that it's my used lens shooting a wedding.

 

If I were building an all around kit.....

 

I'd keep the 17-55 f/2.8 and the 85 1.8 for low light.... and get a 70-200 f/2.8

 

I made a deal with myself that I would never purchase lenses that are not constant aperture, nor slower than f/2.8.... even if I have to scrimp and save to buy them.

5 GB of memory cards doesn't sound like a whole lot..... are you going to be shooting in Raw or jpg.....???

 

Think about this, you may want to purchase more memory if you can.

I should also say that while I realize that you asked about pricing specifically, I think that the things I mentioned are hindering your ability to attract clients.....

I cannot speak for pricing in TN as I'm in the north east part of the country, where things are very expensive.

 

I'm using FireFox 2.0 as a browser, and it's totally messed up looking... the images are overlaying the text, although it appears to not happen in IE.... First and foremost make sure that your website is viewable on all browsers....!

 

Secondly while I have to say I love the music you've choosen, very soothing and appropriate the site itself appears dated (IMHO very 90's). :(

 

If you want to appeal to todays bride I really feel it's important to give your website a face lift....

 

I also think you need to pare down the images to only your very best.... I like much of what you have in your galleries, but then there are many images that seem to have been taken with direct flash, and are not up to par.....

 

Please take this in the sincere manner in which it was meant.... :) I also noticed you've photographed some very famous people! Cool!

"What i mean by "not pretty light" is kind of orange."

 

But candle light is orange.... I've found that high ISO's do not necessarily mean lots of noise. If you get your exposures correct, the noise really isn't that bad. It is when you under-expose and then try to correct it in post-processing that it looks god awful....

 

If you don't have a tripod, get one....

If I had a $1000 in your situation, it would be a toss up between upgrading the D70 to a D200 or purchasing some faster glass.

Personally I'd rather they know if I'm in their budget before they even contact me.

 

I had gotten rather weary of responding to emails inquiring about my fees and then never hearing from then again.

 

Having your packages listed on line basically pre-qualifies them before they contact you, they should already know if you are in their price range.

 

My 2 cents in the bucket.

Colleen Donovan and I think David Schilling (who are both active members here on PNet) are both members of this very special group.... I haven't worked up enough guts to join yet. Even though I have friends who have been encouraging me to do it.

 

I'm sorry I can't give you advice but you may be able to get help from either of them....

I always get excited when I see another photographer from RI....! I'm in the Hope Valley/Richmond area and I'd really love to network with other RI photographers. So send me an email if you're interested in meeting with other RI photographers!

 

I'd suggest looking into bludomain.com.... This is where both of my recent sites are from, (wedding and portrait) and they have been fabulous! It's my understanding that they are having a sale right now, so check them out!

Same here as most... I have a 4 hour, 6 hour, and 8 hour package, anything beyond that is charged at $200 per hour. Personally 6 hours is long enough for me. After the cake cutting, bouquet toss, garter toss, and maybe an hour of dancing what is left to photograph? Usually people are sloppy drunk at that point and it just starts to get repetetive.

 

I let my couples know this at our initial meeting as well..... and I'm usually fried after about 7 hours anyway.....soooo......

I have Adobe LR and CS3.....

 

What I like about LR is that in the library module you have the ability to find

images based on the lens used or pretty much any other metadata for that matter,

simply by clicking on a filter.

 

I'd like to also have this ability in Bridge2 as well, but I'm not sure if or

how it could be added. As it is now if I'm looking for images done with a

particular lens in Bridge, I have to click on each image and look at the

metadata on the right to see which lens was used.

 

Is it possible to add this in bridge or am I wishing for too much?

Hmmm.... dirtyminded girl here thinking porn..... sorry! :)

I'm going to have to take a look at the negatives myself..... I understood from what she told me, that she did get maybe one or two pics from each camera, but even those were really unusable images.... so there was something there... the cameras were used.

 

I just found the labs explanation odd..... Granted I know what can happen to out of date film, but IMHO this film wasn't so old that you wouldn't get any usable images from it.

 

 

Could be plenty of user error too.... Thanks for the ideas and thoughts...

I had a bride whose wedding I did recently. And she called me today because she

had put disposable cameras on the tables for her guests to use. I realize that

most images would not come out due to user error (peoples feet, ceiling shots,

whatever).... but....

 

She brought them to a pharmacy to be developed and none of the images came out.

They were completely dark. The lab told her that it was because the film was

out of date. Apparently, the disposable cameras that she bought had expired in

2004!

She was unaware of this when she bought them.... and has called the store in

Virginia (out of state) to complain... (obviously these cameras should have

been removed from the shelves ages ago!)

 

I told her to bring the negatives to me and I would see if any of it was

salvageable, but I don't have high hopes.

 

I realize that film that is out of date will have weird color shifts, and what

not but will it also result in totally dark images? The cameras had built in

flash units.

 

She has only developed a few of the camera's but not all yet.... she's so

disappointed, and I feel bad for her.....

 

But I still don't understand how AGE of film would result in no images coming

out at all.....

 

Is the lab just feeding her a line of bull?

My portrait fees... no matter who, when, where, are always for up to two people. More than that is an additional charge...... but often if a third person (Mom or whomever) happens to be an unexpected person in a few shots I wouldn't charge extra for that. I might actually end up selling more prints!

Print credits for me using Instaproofs works this way:

 

I purchase print credits through Instaproofs, and pay a 6% fee for the credits.

 

I receive a code for the stated amount, this code can only be used on one gallery (the one that I've specified when I purchased them). I send this code to the B&G.

 

They go online to their gallery, order their prints in the usual manner, and use the code to make payment. If they go over they can use their credit card to pay the rest of the balance on their order.

Grain and noise are differnet. Grain is an organic quality expected with certain film ISO's....

 

Noise is that multi-colored nastiness that occurs with higher ISO's, or underexposure, and trying to fix said underexposure. I've shot with my D200 with ISO's as high as 1000 and achieved acceptable results.

 

As said, underexposure, and attempting to fix will result in that unacceptable noise quality, expecially in the shadow or darker tone areas.

 

Your images is very large, however, how large will you be printing this image? It doesn't seem unaccepable to me, especially if the largest you'll be doing is a 4x6..... I don't see a lot of multi-colored noise, in your sample.

Digital or film it really doesn't matter... a camera's meter is still made to meter for 18% grey... so whatever. As far as I'm concerned it's the same.

 

Meter your midtones, and open up 1 to 2 stops to accomadate for the white dress.

 

Indeed digital is far less forgiving with over exposure and the dynamic range it can handle..... but all in all if you go 1/3 to 1 stop over you should be good. If you know how to use fill flash all the better.

And yes as said above use a lens hood.

Yep.... totally missing them.... because it means they don't work on my film Nikon... *sigh* In other words M mode is out of the question.

 

Always thought of the "G" as cheap.... and still do, although as stated above, I guess I'm wrong. However, I refuse to purchase a lens that will not work with my N90S..... It's a matter of principal darn it!

What Marcos did looks really good! But seriously I'm wtih Ni here, if your skin tones on the couple look good, than I wouldn't bother with the background.....

 

What's there is there.... and leave it at that.

Paid, I am being Paid, to photograph their day.... I left very important word out...!

 

 

Sorry.

Once while photographing a wedding I had to tell the Maid Of Honor.... (of all people!) to please excuse a moment. As I was trying to do formals she had her hands on the bride trying to pull her away for photos....

 

I simply said "excuse me, I am being to photograph their day.... you may have her in a moment when I am finished."

 

She blushed, and I felt bad for having to be so stern.... but that's what I was there for.