jim mucklin

<p>Hi Jennifer<br>

Yes a 35 is wider than a 50.<br>

As stated when you get close with a wide angle things get distorted. A fisheye(really wide) is a good example.<br>

Portraits are ususally done with 50, 85, etc. There are two schools on this subject,<br>

Prime lens: get two, say a 24 or 35 for groups and a 50 or 85 for portraits.<br>

Zooms: some shoot with 28-70, 35-70, etc.<br>

The rule is there are no rules, only effect. I have done portraits with a 24 and while I favor primes, I still have the zooms mentioned, which you can't beat.</p>

<p>Merry Christmas and thank you both, I use to have a paid membership way back when.<br>

I try to read daily and post whatever help I can.</p>

<p>Thank you very much, I have the paramount cords that screw in and all my problems ended after I switched to them. I'll try it both ways this weekend.</p>

<p>Equiptment: Nikon D2x, 3- sb-800, 3-pocket wizards. I would like to use a 800 on camera to take advantage of ttl. I would also like to mount a pocket wizard somewhere on the bracket so that I could have a room set up with my other 800 or studio lights, come into that room shut off the 800 on camera, turn on the pocket wizards an shoot the scene, without having to change setups. Is there anyone using this type of setup?<br />Thanks in advance.</p>

<p>Ryan, start from the begining and take the risk out. With all due respect, is it the camera, printer or operator? I had terrible problems with white balance and exposure when I went digital. What I recomend is to set up the shot ( a box or crayons works well). If you camera suppports it, shoot a custom white balance, them comes you exposure, shoot the same shot brackets at a half stop below,zero and a half stop above. <br />Then go to a local printer and ask them for a straight print, no adjustments, then lay the photos next to the crayons and you will determine if it's the camera or operator. My theory is if you can get it right in the camera and find a printer that knows how to print your on your way to a lot less stress, but on the other hand there are no magic potions when it come to "bad photos in bad photos out" there are limits to editing software, if you over expose it by a stop and a half, no matter what you do in ps or raw it's still overexposed.<br />Onto your monitor, laptop screens usally suck when it comes to editing, can you find an old crt around or do your editing when you get home on a desktop? Veiwing angle, screen brightness and room brightness has to be controlled. There are no shortcuts to calibartion, but if I were you an had no money I would hook up to a crt and use one of the free online gamma chart to get my monitor close, then get out the camera and shoot the red, green, blue crayon and go back to the printer and now tell him that you got the color right and now you are checking brightness and contrast and if he would be so kind and print you three photos, with no corrections. Total cost-6 4x6's. This is no reflection on the printer you used but many offer free corrections which are sometimes done on non calibrated monitors by some one pushing the sliders till "it looks goods" Don't believe me, take a head shot and send it to three different printers and lay them next to each other.</p>

<p>Hi Harry, They call it a scrap book till you put wedding photos in it, and the price goes up. On the land it's call a piece of rope, on a boat it's a line, and the price goes up.<br />Perhaps you could market it a little different as your budget package being x amount of dollars plus the album that the bride picks, you may loose the mark up but retain the sale. There are so many choices, let the budget bride pick her book and offer the other brides a few options.<br>

Just an idea</p>

I'm with Albert, there will be a D007 secret agent model out soon. It's not to late to send me your D2x bodies before they fail.

They are due to fail when it's released

I will even will pay the shipping.

Chris, I still have mine, I did use it for a while with my D70's. I never shot indoor sports with it, it is still only used outside/daytime. I never had a slow af problem, it's still one of my favorite lens on my D2h, it's fast enough for flying motorcyles.I bought it back in the day when everyone had to have the 80-200 because of all the postings on the web by "the pros". It was a fraction of the price of the 80/200 but it's razor sharp. It all depends how close you can get to the action, budget,and what type of sports. I don't care what type of glass you have, if your in the wrong place it doesn't matter unless you have the budget of some of the NFL shooter then scrap the 180 and go for the 600 with a monopod and a cheerleader.

Good luck in your purchase.

I can't believe I read the whole post.David, your thesis is correct, there is no need to spend money on photos, weddings, there is no need to even believe in marriage or Santa. I was to poor to hire a professional 33 years ago, but I cherish the ones taken by my friends.

Why is there this acceptance that a person with a "really good camera, that takes good pictures" can be on the same level as someone with formal training and years of experience? I have been taking photos for over 25 years and there is no way I could even begin to take wedding photos anywhere near some of the people on this site, who take there time to help others and for you to come to a help form to be a troll or to downplay the importance or quality photographs that someone wants it disrespectfull.

People spend their money how they want, don't fall into that trap, have your friend post the photos from your wedding.

The help section, then Dr. Russell Brown all for free, then the Adobe books.

Make it easy for the web surfers. I checked out your site and I got stuck and couldn't get back from the bride coming out of the church. It's just my 2 cents, but a site should have a lot of what Im looking for on the front page. Ive read surveys that say people are plain lazy and if it takes more than 3 clicks or you don't have their attention in the first 10 seconds they are bored and move on.

If I understand your question, think of it as shopping, I want to know your name, where you are and yes even a phone number. Do you travel, what type of photography services do you do? A lot of people price surf and that another book. Just a suggestion make it easier.

Depending on the size of your city, location market yourself the old fashion way, business cards. The way I got started was I lived in a large city, I made, matted and framed prints and hung them in the trendy shops, it cost me, but I gave the owner a commision on the sale, and everyone had a business card in the frame, so if a shopper or customer looked at it they saw who I was. I sold quite a few and got referrals and contacts from there. Are you listed in the phone book? I fought that till recently, I just got two booking by people who told me they picked up the yellow pages and I was the one who answered my phone. The add is my name, phone, website in a sea of big quater page and half page adds. You can do it, beat the streets.

Good luck

I went thru this, make your own site, find a host (I use IX webhosting),

find the templates ( I use jalbums,free, yes free, you can donate)

then you can use a shopping cart,paypal,credit cards (yes they want a cut too) etc.

there are printers out there (I use winkflash)

They will take your orders and mail to the customer or use a local printer and do the mailing

(that's what I do)

This way you proof before your customer see's it, and I have found while there is a market for the point and click in the boxes many customer don't want to deal with it.

Take the 10-15% that everyone wants and put it in your Guinness fund.

Jim

Thanks everyone for your help, I just want it for that purpose to shoot the formals at low shutter speeds and I am coming to realize that I can't hand hold like I use to. I purchased a shutter release cable last year and what a difference it mad with the small children, it seems that they make better eye contact when they can see you verus the lens.

After reading the old posts, I looking for a recomendation on what type of legs to upgrade to, the old3033 is just to

big. I be using it with a Nikon D2x and glass no bigger than 28-80, 85mm. Just something that I can come in to a

room set down and adjust from the childrens eye level to adults easily, fold and move to another room. It doesn't have

to reverse to do macro or weigh ounces so I can take it to Mount Everst or be able to support a WWF wrestler.

Also along those lines I have seen quite a few recomendations on the 3265 pistol grip, is this the way to go, or with a

ball head? I have the old head with the three levers that you need three hands and three minutes to adust.

If you could recomend anything that you are using or have used it would be appreciated

Thanks

Jim

IX webhosting.

400 kids in one day? What about your time at the shoot, post, mailing, etc. Your math if every kid bought would be 3100 gross minus the 1300 print= 1800 minus- 300 cost = 1500 net, if half the kids buy it would come out to 750 and then there is all the other expenses, your time, travel, mailing and all the freebees.

I not trying to bring you down, but it's a lot more work than you think. Most schools want 10-20% in my area. Your business plan should determine what you charge. If you charge this now, you know what they will say next year.

I'm not sure what YB or U is. I would do my homework and talk to a parent as to what was offered in the past, maybe a smaller package or them coming down on the 40%.

Good luck.

<a href=http://www.jimmucklinphotography.com/>Click Here</a> go to the links/how to section at the bottom of the

page.

Hope this helps, feel free to contact me off site if I can help.

Jim

Thanks so much for your responses.

I searched the site but couldn't find anything. I'm looking for recomendations for dye subs that you are using, or

reviews on them, I could only find some outdated stuff. I would like to start printing onsite at events and I'm looking

for recomendations for a machine up to 5x7 and one up to 8x10.

Also any recomendation on software to help the customer view and print. I'm using Nikon cameras and have PS

CS2 and Capture. Any help as far as your setup would be appreciated.

Jim

Thanks Tim, I spoke to the person the other day and they are only intrested in the group shot about 70 copies and want it done on site.

Dr. Russell Brown.

I have been doing senior portraits for a while now and was approached by a parent to do their 50th class reunion. I

have done small schools and have shot and posted to my site for family to purchase. I'll be meeting with him later

next week and was wondering if anyone here has done this successfully.

I'll be asking him their needs and wants, but is there any questions that I should bring to the table?

I'm not looking for a price quote, I'm asking do you use a formula such as an hourly rate, plus prints or a day

rates,etc.

I have search the forum and got some good ideas on the shoot (do it before the booze) but at a 50 year reunion that

should me at a minimum.

Printing on location at this time in not possible.

Any ideas would be appreciated.

Thanks

Jim

Pat, when you spot meter on an area the camera use the sensor you place on that point to pick up focus and exposure. I viewed the photo with Panda Exif and it said, manual focus,manual exposure, auto white balance. IF that were the case I would have to say the reason I don't see the light is that at f/8 is just not enought to light it up. The other thing in the exif data was color balance was recorded at uncalibrated, I'm not sure what that means but with the D2 there are only sRGB and the Adobe RGB.

 

This is where I think Nikon excells at these quick shots, I would have shot it with matrix metering or center weighted to get some more punch and let TTL do all the heavy lifting, chimp and go with flash comp right at the 800. If shooting manual I would have opened up a stop or two.

 

Hope this helps.

If your are handheld you can step in close to the subject place the focus point on the eye,(I can't speak for your camera), but with most you can hold the shutter part way down, step back, reposition the subject in the frame and shoot. If you are shooting babies you need a fast shutter speed and lots of light. Spot is a type of metering. If you think 15 months is active, just wait till she can run.

Forming a partnership, is the toughest thing to do. Sit down with pen and paper and go over eveything, what if's: one loses intrest, becomes ill, can't make there financial commitment just to start. What about up front money to launch, advertising, etc. There are so many business that fail with one owner, Two owners even if freinds can become enemies when it pertains to money, especially if the business at hand isn't making any money. Did you ever toy with the idea just to share renting space and keep your sites seperate? I would have to ask myself, why would I want to partner with this person.

Good luck