mnigro

<p>Why do you assume an imac is more reliable than a pc built by any of the majors? I have three $350.00 Gateways with 4 gb of ram and a 750 gb Seagate hard drive that have performed flawlessly for over three years. I use $400.00 Viewsonic VP 225Owb flat panels which give me true color. I even use an eight year old HP xw 4100 graphics workstation that has been problem-free.<br>

I buy my 750 gb hard drives from Tigerdirect-now for $89.00- and change them out every couple of years just because I never shut down my machines. I only mention this as I believe the Apple reliability thing is an overused myth. And, I'm not going to get into unstable color thing with Apple monitors.</p>

. Amateurs with point and shoot cameras do not produce good pictures. Professionals spend years on the learning curve to make great images.

No offense but I would NEVER connect my graphics computer to the internet. Far too many opportunities for viruses and worms to get into your machine.

Get the Epson 3800 but you MUST buy a monitor and printer profiler. The Colormunki made by Xrite is a superb little machine. After simple calibrations what's on your screen is what your printer will put out. Custom profiles for all the different papers you use will far exceed those provided by the paper manufacturers. Save you a ton of money in wasted paper and ink.

To me none of the above matters. Today's lenses are so sharp and DSLR cameras capture so much information the final output is determined by post processing in the myraid of programs that provide filters to do anything the heart desires.

A reasonably priced 21mp DSLR with all the features of the Mark II is what I've been waiting for. I have the 5D and it

will now become my backup. Because of Sony, Canon needed to make the Mark II and it's nice to see they've risen

to the occasion with a great piece of equipment.

Mac's are overpriced. Ten years ago their reliability justified their price. Today, Dell and Gateway machines are just as good at 1/3 the price. I run Photoshop CS3 on a $350.00 Gateway with 4 GB of RAM and a 500 GB Western Digital hard drive. The machine is fast-boots up in 25 seconds. NEVER attach your graphics computer to the internet. Buy a cheap used notebook for surfing the web.

I need to agree with robert Lee. Lightroom is a shhortcut for image makers who have never learned the fundamentals of darkroom processing. The bottom line is that CS3 is the darkroom w/o chemicals. It, along with DSLR's, comes with a steep learning curve but one that will enable you to produce extroadinary images. Make the time to learn the science behind the new digital darkroom. It will enrich your life as well as your images. Post-processing makes for great images.

So, I'm sitting at my computer getting ready to soft proof some wedding pictures and I fired up my Epson 4000 for it's weelky nozzel check and cleaning. I did not see anywhere above that you tried that. I learned the hard way four years ago when clogged nozzels drove me crazy for about four hours and a box of Epson matte paper.

 

Go to your printer maintenance and run a nozzel check using photocopy paper. You might be in for a suprise.

Third party ink sets? Keep in mind these cartridges have cheap ink AND inferior chips that receive instructions from your computer on how to put down ink to paper. Ink and paper manufacturers spend millions of R&D dollars to be certain that their profiles perform as promised. Third party ink is never profiled for quality paper such as Epson's. Worse, cheap ink is subject to color shifting when exposed to light. Try all the advise above but add Epson ink sets to your solution.

 

On softproofing, go to Zuberphotographics.com and see his articles. No magic here. Soft proof the image and what's on your screen should match your printer output. Zuber puts up some great articles.

I'm curious about why you think real estate agents will pay you what you are worth to shoot images of the houses they want to sell. Frankly, I've never seen a good picture of a house on a brokers web site or in the MLS book. There's a reason for that. Brokers don't want to pay photographers.

Don't waste your money with tungsten lights. They cause color cast problems that can ruin your images. Just buy some Alien Bee's for about the same money. Soft boxes are the best for studio work and are available to fit the Bee's. When you get some money upgrade to the Profoto system. Go to shoorsmarter.com and buy Mark Hausers DVD on studio lighting. It will demystify all the issues.

Go to shootsmarter.com for great DVD tutorials on digital cameras using studio strobes. In particular, Mark Hauser put out a DVD that's fantastic. I bought one and it put a very technical subject in perspective. Also, B&H Photo will sell you the specific wiring once they know what lights you have.

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Ivan: Never, and I mean NEVER, do work of any kind for relatives. They will bleed you dry and won't say thanks.

Anthony: Don't buy anything from JTL. Inferior products imported from China. Importers a bunch of marketers who have no clue about repairing their lights and their lights break regularly.

Nancy:Do not buy anything made by JTL. Products are garbage. Inconsistent and poorly made. Cannot be repaired. For a great video on one light portraiture go to shootsmarter.com and see what Mark Hauser has to say. I bouhgt his video and found it to be incredibly enlightening.

John:

Unless you are shooting sports you should always mount your camera on a tripod when using a tele lens. Check out Bryan Peterson's book Understanding Exposure. He's got some pretty spectacular images, all with camera "securely mounted on a tripod" as he always says. I always use one. Sometimes it's a pain but my images are ALWAYS sharp.