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hominid

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Posts posted by hominid

    Large product photo shoot: suggestions please

    in Beginner Questions

    Posted

    <p>The black cloth may be the best choice so far, as the artist wants to showcase his work, not necessarily the environment. The only challenge will be the proper placement of the horizontal seem. I'll get him to start cruising fabric shops...</p>

    <p>Thanks everyone for your interest and input - greatly appreciated!</p>

    <p>Jim</p>

    <p> </p>

    Large product photo shoot: suggestions please

    in Beginner Questions

    Posted

    <p>I'm not a noobie, but I don't know where else to post such a question... I've a commercial photo shoot to do involving an 8 foot long custom board room table that is a masterful piece of woodworking. And like most artists, this dude can't afford a high-end large studio photo shoot (you know, where they shoot cars and such...) so we're trying to brainstorm ideas. He's looking for a seamless backdrop, typically found in smaller product catalogs and woodworking magazines.<br>

    Has anyone experienced such a challenge? Thanks in advance.<br>

    Jim</p><div>00XhCQ-302935584.jpg.d5f17acb96240802c3cae57c4bb82447.jpg</div>

    Is it slow for anyone else?

    in Wedding & Event

    Posted

    <p>Thanks everyone for your responses, especially the input regarding my website. Yes, a revamp is in order, so I'm making that a top priority. BUT - it's not the reason I'm not getting inquiries... my actual stats are down, indicating that brides-to-be aren't even looking, let alone gathering an opinion of my site. That said, I do need to modernize it, so thanks again everyone...<br>

    To answer some questions: I'm priced very similarly to others in the area, I do include the CD, and I do have a FB link<br>

    <br /><br /> Cheers,<br /> Jim</p>

    Is it slow for anyone else?

    in Wedding & Event

    Posted

    <p>Three years ago I relocated from Alberta to Ontario (Canada), and the first 2 summers were fairly steady with wedding gigs. But this year, I haven't had one serious inquiry. I attended 2 wedding shows as a vendor, I was featured on a popular TV show, and was guest artist for a calendar with over 4,000 distribution. All that, plus I'm at the top of the first page when I google for wedding photographers in the area. My web site's been up and running for 10 years... Has anyone else experienced a similar down-turn in work? Darn good thing I didn't quit my day job! I'm quite puzzled...</p>

    Amount of images per wedding

    in Wedding & Event

    Posted

    <p>Something not mentioned a lot here is the size of the wedding, and the culture of the B/G - if the wedding party is 18 people, and there's 1,200 guests, then 600 processed and delivered exposures may not be that crazy. Persians like TONS of pictures, as opposed to Brits. So, the variables are quite influential. Is there an average? Sure, if you constrain the question to only include standard North American WASP weddings, all the same size...<br>

    Confused? Experience - and your own style - will be your guide.</p>

    Photographer moving around during the ceremony

    in Wedding & Event

    Posted

    <p>I charge good money for covering the ceremony itself, so there's an automatic expectation on the part of the B&G that I'll at least get great shots of the vows when they're holding hands, the ring exchange, though that one's hard to nail every time, and OF COURSE the first kiss. I've learned to put my 40D on rapid fire for that one.<br>

    All that said, I do chat with the officiator beforehand about his/her allowances and taboos - they REALLY appreciate being asked. I move slow and deliberate when appropriate, and stay put when appropriate. I was raised Catholic, so I have a good sense of what that is in most situations.<br>

    One officiator saw that my timing was slightly off for the first kiss, so he motioned to me, and asked the couple to kiss again! I'm sure they didn't mind...</p>

     

    Toughest Gig EVER: Need some guidance

    in Wedding & Event

    Posted

    <p>A quick mention here about Photoshop (or whatever you use to tweak your images)... use the levels or curve tool to punch up the image. There's no law saying you have to deliver what came out of the camera... The longest wedding I shot resulted in over 700 exposures. I adjusted each and every one of them so the wedding dress looked pretty well the same. This makes for a very uniform "look and feel" to the wedding album; my customers rave about the quality.<br>

    I also shoot in RAW, which makes for more work, but it has saved my butt more than once because of the wider exposure latitude you have to play with on your PC... you know the shots... first kiss, etc. I hope you don't mind me tweaking your image a bit - I used Photoshop's levels tool and drew the far right slider to the left, then used the shadow/highlight adjustment and set it to about 10%.</p>

    <p>Hope that helps... just so you know, I was often plagued with exposure issues such as you describe. You've received some great advice here; one more thing is to scope the venue out before the wedding (a day or week before, at the same time of day) and take practice shots. I don't need to do this anymore, but it sure helped at the beginning.</p>

    <p>Cheers,</p>

    <p>Jim</p><div>00UggX-178752484.jpg.51fc75bbc37f1bcfe3c4f8e744c1295e.jpg</div>

    Couple sue wedding photographer for poor images

    in Wedding & Event

    Posted

    <p>Although it was probably a good thing that photographer was sued successfully, I firmly disagree with licensing. There are enough photography schools and professional associations that photographers can avail themselves to; these are things a buyer should ask about... I don't like the idea of a regulatory body - likely something on the municipal level - charging me for fees that do not make me a better photographer. Don't get the government involved! I understand the sentiment of protecting the public, but if someone is that careless about researching a $3,000 investment, like they say - a fool and their money are soon parted.</p>

     

    40D weirdnesses

    in Canon EOS Mount

    Posted

    <p>Allard,</p>

    <p>You're a godsend. The manual falls short in describing how being in AI mode affects so many other things... I now have it in one-shot mode and it behaves so much more the way I like. The CF is set to 2, so I can set my focus point, then choose to re-calibrate the exposure *if I wish to* with the thumb button. In this mode, it locks both focus and exposure, which is perfect for off-center rule-of-thirds compositions.<br>

    Additionally, the AF-assist beam now works, as well as the focus-point indicators. Thanks man...</p>

    <p>Jim</p>

    40D weirdnesses

    in Canon EOS Mount

    Posted

    <p>Hey everyone,<br>

    I've been shooting with a 30D for 3 years now, and recently acquired a 40D thinking my 30D would become my backup ( I do weddings, etc.)<br>

    There are a few idiosyncrasies with the 40D that I wonder - has anyone else come across them?</p>

    <p>1) With the 30D, when the AF point is set to the center, it will lock both the focus point and exposure when I press the shutter half-way down. I can then re-compose, moving the subject off-center, knowing both focus and exposure will favour the off-center subject. No matter what custom function I choose on the 40D, I can't get it to emulate that same behavior - the AF keeps hunting around at the background. I want it to stay focused on the subject matter I've just moved off-center!</p>

    <p>2) With the 30D, the AF points flash when I press the shutter half-way, no matter which ones are selected. The 40D: only the center AF point flashes when it's selected. In other words, if all AF points are selected, they don't flash when I press the shutter half-way, even with the Custom Function III -4 set to "on"... only the center AF point when it's selected... On the 30D, it tells you which AF points are used. No such behaviour on the 40D.</p>

    <p>3) Try as I might, I can't get the 40D to trigger the 580EX flash to use its autofocus assist beam. No brainer on the 30D, but CF III - 5 set to "0" simply does not actuate the AF beam on the 580EX.</p>

    <p>Any insight from the equipment nerds out there would be very much appreciated.</p>

    <p> </p>

    Flash & optical slave compatability issue

    in Accessories

    Posted

    Has anyone run into this... I own 4 peanut optical slaves that work

    perfectly with my 2 Vivitar 285 flashes; 3 are the same, one is

    another make, and it's the only one that triggers my 2 Sigma flashes.

    It performs the same whether triggered by infra-red or another flash;

    it will fire a Sigma 9 out of 10 times. The other 3 slaves only

    trigger the Sigmas 1 out of 5 times approximately.

     

    So, I suspect it's the Sigmas that are out of "spec" here, but I know

    of no standard that I can refer to. I know Sigmas aren't high-end,

    but they fire perfectly on-camera, and the TTL works fine as well.

     

    Thanks in advance for any insight,

     

    --jim

    MZ5n vs MZ7

    in Pentax

    Posted

    ...as well, the MZ-7 has pre-flash red eye reduction on it's pop-up flash that is good for point-n-shoot people shots.

     

    I own both and use the MZ-7 as backup when shooting weddings etc.

    From 10D to *ist DS

    in Pentax

    Posted

    I've got big mitts, and *really* love the battery grip on my MZ-5n... does Pentax make them for the *ist and the newly announced *st DL? Couldn't find anything in the "Accessories" link...

     

    jim

    Announcement: the 2005 Film Scanner Bake-off results are in.

    in The Digital Darkroom: Process, Technique & Printing

    Posted

    I thought I'd let the dust settle a bit before adding my own comments. There's some good points made here, and some of the criticisms are valid - but only some. Robert K. said it best, that the outcome is based on hardware, software, and work-flow (operator skill). Additionally (and this is on my web site for those who haven't cared to read it), sharpness is NOT the only thing to care about. I have a buddy who owns an old 1800 DPI scanner that consistently produces coffee-table book quality scans that his publishers love. I'd say operator skill makes up 70% of the overall formula. Just look at the Screen drum scan at the bottom of the list...

     

    The largest complaint from last year's bake-off was that it was resticted to sharpness alone; that the competition should have allowed for more input from the operator. Forget USM and gamma, "let's have a nature scene so I can REALLY milk my scanner for all it's worth". I thought this to be truly valid, and changed this year's approach accordingly. After all, we scan and print and publish photographic subjects that are of interest to an audience... the 1954 USAF lens test chart just doesn't represent the real world.

     

    For those who don't see the point of the bake-off, or have technical questions, or disagree with the approach represented on my web site, please read ALL of the material on my site... all the info is there. For BOTH 2004 and 2005. RTFM.

     

    It is worth noting that the means to accurately measure scanner performance statistics is out of reach of most without investing a *huge* amount of time, and a significant amount of cash for testing equipment and proprietary testing software. Still, I thought this real-world street-level test to be both doable, and realistic. Too bad there weren't more participants to average out the results... only 50% of those that requested slides for scanning returned a scan... even after 2 reminder emails. Still, the results are interesting enough, even if not totally representative of all the hardware out there.

     

    Thanks to those who continue to give encouraging words, and appreciate the effort I've put into this. I know of no other web site that has performed such a comprehensive film scanner test. Hopefully the results from 2004 and 2005 combined will continue to help those looking for information before committing to a purchase. Which was the point of all this.

     

    Cheer, and happy shooting...

     

    Jim Hutchison

    Announcement: the 2005 Film Scanner Bake-off results are in.

    in The Digital Darkroom: Process, Technique & Printing

    Posted

    James Photography is pleased to announce that the results of the 2005

    film scanner bake-off are ready for viewing at

    http://www.jamesphotography.ca/bakeoff2005/results.html.

     

    This is the second year for the scanner bake-off, with the numbers

    representing similar results from 2004 - Nikon and Minolta are

    clearly at the top of list.

     

    For information and an introduction to the scanner bake-off, please

    visit http://www.jamesphotography.ca/scanner_test.html

     

     

     

     

    Thank you,

     

    Jim Hutchison

    http://www.jamesphotography.ca

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