b_christopher

<p>I think you should get good education in any one of the schools you list in your post. Any information you get on the net--including personal experience information in response to this post is, simply put, second-hand information. I think it will be more meaningful for you to pick the schools you find that may help you achieve your goals and speak to their representatives and professors. Visit the schools if possible, and see first-hand, the school environment, the local area, cost of living, etc. Other than the education and school experience, winter in So-Cal is very different from upstate NY. Experience at large state school can be very different from a small private school. You need to narrow down your choices and talk directly to the people you will be dealing with. Good luck!</p>

<p>A tall building located behind you with lots of windows reflected a lot of intermittent highlights in the shadow areas. It does look a bit surreal. Interestingly, one of the fundamentals of artificial lighting in photography is properly imitating the sun as the key source when lighting a scene(i.e., one key light.) When two equally harsh sources illuminate a subject from differing directions, it is often labeled to be "unreal" and "surreal." Nice shot.</p>

<p>Nathan, you can specify the ratio in inches by simply typing "in" (i.e., inches, or "cm" for centimeter) after the numeric values for width and height.</p>

<p>Can you post example photos? It's tough to know exactly what you mean by your description of the pictures. It could be anything from lens flare to metering technique.</p>

<p>You can still find nice direction of light under overcast conditions, if you know how and where to look. Additive and subtractive elements in the landscape(e.g., a stone wall, a shed, large tree, etc) can offer beautiful qualities and pleasant ratios. Overcast skies and locations with many such additive/subtractive elements just may be one of the best conditions for a family portrait session. I would consider supplemental lighting if I have an assistant.</p>

<p>No one tool can do everything well. A hand-held light meter is the easiest(best?) way to measure light, especially in the studio and outdoors using flash. Gray cards were very useful with film tests(especially B&W), but in digital capture, a color checker chart(e.g., <a href="http://xritephoto.com/ph_product_overview.aspx?catid=28">X-Rite ColorChecker</a>) is a better tool, if color accuracy is crucial.</p>

<p>It's really hard to tell whether any fill light was used at all, in any of the photos. I see no difference in the natural light photo and the fill light photos. Are you certain the flash worked on each of the fill light photos? I see your notation of Off-Camera, but what setting? Distance? Angle? Direct/Diffused?<br>

P.S. Flash doesn't affect sharpness, so you have two separate issues.</p>

<p>If left blank, the pixels within the frame will not change(i.e., no resampling.) If you set a resolution value, it will interpolate. I don't know if Adobe has announced the method of interpolation(Nearest Neighbor, Bilinear, Bicubic, etc.) when using the crop tool. Maybe someone here on Photonet will know. It seems to me, cropping without setting resolution, then choosing the best resample method during image resizing is the way to go.</p>

<p>In that case, I recommend not getting a hand-held light meter. Instead, use the camera's built-in meter, along with the histogram. Don't get me wrong, a hand-held meter is an essential tool for many situations, but in your case with natural light portraiture with a digital camera, it would be much faster and easier to use the built-in meter and histogram. I think a good search on "metering modes/techniques" and "understanding the histogram" will help you greatly. </p>

<p>Melissa, are you shooting film?</p>

<p>It all looks good from my end - no gobbledegook. I'm using Firefox 3.6</p>

<p>Don't you hate changing lenses, though? I do. Yes, I keep my primes around, but really, I am working towards 3 body setup - first w/16-35 2.8, second w/ 24-70 2.8, and last w/ 70-200 2.8 or 100-400 2.8.</p>

In my mind, this has to be one of the most challenging projects I have come across, due to the prerequisite of limitations. I can visualize possibilities with flash, but not existing light and slow shutter speeds. It would be interesting to know how you execute the project, and the resulting images, too.

Justin, it sounds like you have already given a lot of thought and time on this project. I think, as long as you continue to have a genuine desire to photograph those around you, and are honest with your photography, it is the best you can do. The photographer's story of contemplations, the struggles, achievements and failures, the joy and suffering, and everything else he experiences in creating the picture, is very much part of the picture. A photograph is only "worth a thousand words", not the entire story, as it were.

<p>Nathan Gardner, regarding Rob Bernhard's photo of building; the first thought that came to me was "Tron", then I saw IBM super computers on roof. It was fun to experience the progression of the image in my head.</p>

<blockquote>

<p>I'm just not finding ways to successfully get this idea across, although I know it would be difficult.</p>

</blockquote>

<p>Justin, out of curiosity, what "ways" came to mind? I can only think of one way to achieve your goal, and that is to spend lots of time getting to know the subjects on a personal level. How well you know them, may be the determining factor of whether you get your message across to the audience.</p>

<p>Greg, I like your clean and honest photography. The repeated name in differing fonts feels cluttered compared to the work, however. I would appreciate the design of the page more, if it were more simple and consistent with your work. I wish I didn't have to move my mouse to each thumbnail to view the picture. A slideshow, or click image -> open next image type of set up would be a more pleasant experience.</p>

<p>Rob Bernhard, Ah! I see it now. Initially, I stared at it for quite sometime and still couldn't understand it. I could only see the image created in a horizontal view, not the vertical view that it is. But, that was only my brain's limitation and not the image, of course! It's satisfying to know what I am looking at, but it was fun not knowing too.</p>

<p>Which lenses do you use now, and what are their limitations (IQ, focal length, speed, etc.)? How far away from the action will you shoot? What amount will break the bank?</p>

<p>You could have the model(your sister) not engage the camera to minimize the viewer's connection to the model, or not include the face in the photos.</p>

<p>(Rob Bernhard, that's a curious image! What/Where is it?)<br /> I didn't get out much this week. Organizing some old prints.<br /> <img src="http://www.bchristopherphotography.com/temp/temp/prs.jpg" alt="" /><br /> 5D2 50mm f/1.4 1/30@f/4.5 ISO1600</p>

<p>Are you asking whether 100 pounds is a good/fair price? If so, I think it's a good price, if you and your client agrees it's a good price. In fact, any price is a good price, if you and your client agrees it is. </p>

<p>I took a quick look. The landing page loaded fast. I appreciate the clean, simple design and navigation. Information pages are brief and to the point, I like that too. One major bug; when viewing the gallery images, the logo and pictures overlap. Small nit pics are; some of the images appeared a little on the dark side against the bright background. On the landing page slideshow, the rounded corners of the images appear rough and inconsistent from one image to the next. Lastly, some of the gallery thumbnails and arrows didn't respond to mouse clicks.<br /> After making changes to your page, be sure to clear the cache on your browser each time.</p>

<p>Take your pick: Queensberry, Art Leather, Leather Craftsman, H&H, Graphi Studio, Capri Albums, Zookbinders, Vision Art, Asuka, Renaissance, Cypress, MPIX, Millers, Pictage, PictoBooks, White Glove, GP Albums, WHCC, Albums Inc, Delkin, Albums Unlimited, Midwest Photographic, Bayphoto, Blurb, SharedInk,.... and hundreds(possibly thousands?) more. Most pro labs require a business license. Many will provide templates and programs to aid in design. Many will provide personal assistance.</p>

<p>There's quite a bit of information on the topic here on Pnet.<br>

<a href="../darkroom/black-and-white-intro">Learn About Photography</a><br>

<br /> <a href="../search/?cx=000753226439295166877%3A0gyn0h9z85o&cof=FORID%3A11&ie=UTF-8&q=building+a+darkroom&filter=0&as_qdr=&sa=Search+Photo.net&siteurl=photo.net%252Fsearch%252F%253Fcx%253D000753226439295166877%253A0gyn0h9z85o%2526cof%253DFORID%253A11%2526ie%253DUTF-8%2526section%253Dall%2526q%253Dbuilding%252Bhome%252Bdarkroom%2526filter%253D0%2526sa.x%253D0%2526sa.y%253D0%2526sa%253DSearch">Building a darkroom</a><br>

<a href="../search/?cx=000753226439295166877%3A0gyn0h9z85o&cof=FORID%3A11&ie=UTF-8&q=building+a+darkroom&filter=0&as_qdr=&sa=Search+Photo.net&siteurl=photo.net%252Fsearch%252F%253Fcx%253D000753226439295166877%253A0gyn0h9z85o%2526cof%253DFORID%253A11%2526ie%253DUTF-8%2526section%253Dall%2526q%253Dbuilding%252Bhome%252Bdarkroom%2526filter%253D0%2526sa.x%253D0%2526sa.y%253D0%2526sa%253DSearch"></a><br /> There there are books which cover the topic, too.<br>

<br /> <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Build-Your-Own-Home-Darkroom/dp/0936262044/ref=pd_cp_b_2">Build Your Own Home Darkroom</a> <br /><br /> <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Black---White-Darkroom-Techniques-Workshop/dp/0879852747/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1289959928&sr=1-1">Black-And-White Darkroom Techniques</a></p>