not_given

Cate: I forgot to say congratulations and best wishes on you upcoming nuptials.

Leslie: Here's a site you might like with photos by <a href="http://www.masters-of-photography.com/W/winogrand/winogrand.html">Garry

Winogrand</a> .

Page 26, Paragraph 4 of Business and legal Forms For Photographers by Tad Crawford, published 1999:

"All photographic materials including, but not limited to negatives, transparencies, proofs and previews shall be the exclusive property of the photographer."

 

Hope this helps.

Digital or film has no bearing on the use of a flash meter. If your going to use hot lights then the meter in the camera is good enough. If your going to use studio strobes a hand held flash meter is a necessity. The meter in your camera can't tell you how to set studio strobes and trying to set multiple strobes by trial and error is a fools errand.

Please answer the following question: Is your camera digital and are you trying to determine if the color temperature of your softbox is matched to daylight which is 5000K?

 

The light meter in your camera can't measure the color temperature of the light from your softbox.

 

I think your confused about the sunny sixteen rule. This rule refers to the amount of light present on a sunny day, not the color temperature of the light. The sunny sixteen rule says on a sunny day if you don't have a meter you can set your aperture to F16 and set the shutter speed to the numerical equivalent of the film speed, such as 1/100 of a second for 100 speed film.

Set your camera and your flash to manual. Read the manual to determine what the flash to subject distance should be for a given film speed at a given aperture (shutter speed is not a factor here just set it at the normal flash sync speed). Now reduce the recommended flash to subject distance by 1/2. The reason for this is that your outside and the flash to subject distance numbers listed in the manual assume that you are indoors with plenty of reflective surfaces like an 8ft ceiling and nearby walls that would normally reflect much of the flash's output back onto the subject.

I am assuming that there is no light left in the sky and you are overlooking a city in the distance. When I say in the distance I mean still close enough to fill 1/2 or more of the viewfinder while using a 50mm lens on a 35mm camera. A good example is if you are looking down on the city and it fills two thirds of the viewfinder.

 

For city lights at night you will need to take a reflective light reading. Slide the incident dome out of the way of the light sensor. Point the meter in the direction of the scene you wish to photograph and wiggle it around while observing the reading. Your goal is to find the highest reading possible while still pointing the meter in the general direction of the scene you wish to photograph. Make note of the highest reading observed. If you see little or no change in the reading that's ok too. This reading will represent the minimum amount of time your exposure should last. Lets assume that at F2 the length of exposure should be 15 seconds. Take your first exposure at this setting. Now double that time and take another exposure at 30 seconds. Now double that and take another exposure at 60 seconds. One of these exposures should be close to what you want.

 

For your second scenario you could use a zoom lens and zoom in on a part of the scene that is getting the light that you want to meter. A clump of trees or a grassy hill would be a good choice to zoom in on and fill the viewfinder.

If they're on the street they don't own it. Ask before you shoot and you'll know if you're disturbing them or invading their space.

Too bad I didn't know what I know now when I made my first post!

 

Dreamweaver can do this for you. You tell it where the photos are and it will create clickable thumbnails and build the page too. Look in the index of the manual.

If you want to do any kind of e-commerce at your site then do yourself a favor and find a professional web site designer near you. Don't waste time trying to find someone on the net get a local professional and don't try to do it yourself. If e-commerce isn't your goal then read on.

 

As a beginner you will need to keep your web site building goals quite modest. Just a few pages to start with would be appropriate.

 

Good web site design begins on paper:

 

1 Make a list of your favorite photography sites.

 

2 List the attributes/features of those sites that you would like to incorporate into your site.

 

3 Draw a simple flow chart of how the pages will connect and what will be on them.

 

After you have fully built and tested the site on your hard drive you will then upload (a.k.a. copy) it to your web hosts server (a.k.a. hard drive).

 

If you find the manual that came with your software (you do have a manual I hope) isn't helpful enough then I suggest getting a supplement such as the Visual Quick Start Guide from Peachpit Press. You could also search for tutorials online but that won't be nearly as helpful as the book I listed above. Good luck.

I wouldn't say that a camera with rust inside is in very good condition. Rust is caused by moisture. Rust is highly abrasive and could easily scratch film. Rust can also easily cause gears, shutters and other delicate mechanism's to jam resulting in breakage. What about the rust you can't see? What kind of neglectful situation would cause someone to store their camera and not notice that it's getting rusty inside? Is this last opportunity you'll have to buy a camera of this type?

 

Maybe a thousand dollars doesn't have the same value to you as it does to me. For my thousand I would demand at least decent cosmetic appearance and perfect serviceability. I think the salesman has got your number. If you're seriously considering buying this camera then all I can say is it must be nice to have $1000. you can throw away.

Before the post by C Carl I pointed out the possibility of building a diffusion screen and I gave a link to an example of this in my previous post. People should visit links when given. It would save time and prevent a duplication of effort.

Take a look at this <a href="http://www.lightingmagic.com/difpanel.htm">alternative</a>

to soft boxes and umbrellas. You might even be able to build this yourself without

too much trouble.

The two most important considerations for choosing film speed are that you are shooting hand held and under cloudy skies. The amount of light available and the length of your longest lens will dictate the minimum shutter speed that is possible in order to avoid blur caused by camera shake.

 

To prevent blur caused by camera shake while shooting hand held you must pick a minimum shutter speed that is the numerical equivalent of your longest lens. In this case your longest lens is 300mm therefore you must set your shutter speed to as close to 1/300 of a second as possible. Depending on your camera 1/250 of a second may be as close as you can get and this should work very well.

 

To make certain that your shutter speed never falls below the minimum required speed you should set your camera for shutter speed priority. Again in this case that would be 1/250 of a second. Read your manual to find out how to do this.

 

Since your still new to photography you should not use any program modes outdoors that would involve the flash. An example of how this could cause problems would be if you are photographing a landscape and the flash fired because the camera decided that there isn't enough light available. Outdoors the flash has a range of at best 20ft and everything beyond that distance would be underexposed due to a lack of light.

 

Based on a shutter speed of 1/250 of a second and to accommodate the light available on a gray cloudy day you will have to use 800 speed film. I've had excellent results with Fuji Superia 800. I buy Fuji Film at Target. I got some bad film from Wal Mart once and I won't take a chance on them again.

 

Good luck on your trip!

I mean where you actually shine a flashlight on the desired area(s) during a long

exposure. Look here for a <a href="http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1306/is_12_64/ai_53460896%20">tutorial</a>

I think Stu hit the nail on the head when he said that you may have underexposed the film. Even with 800 film 4x6 prints should never be grainy unless they're underexposed

 

Ask someone at a reputable camera store to look at your prints/negatives to see if they're underexposed.

 

What kind of camera did you use? How did you meter the light, manually or automatically? If you set it to auto then what setting did you use?

 

Before I recommend a film speed I'd like to know more about what kinds of pictures you want to shoot and what kind of equipment you use. Will you shoot landscapes or portraits. Will you shoot indoors, outdoor or both? Do you have a tripod? What length lenses will you use? If you only have a zoom then what range of focal lengths does it cover?

I use liquid dish washing soap on my glasses and then dry with a clean soft face cloth. I wouldn't hesitate to use this method to clean Cokin filters.

The cinematic effect you refer to is a lighting technique known as painting with light. It's not difficult to do. Do a search for "painting with light" to learn how it's done.

I always test equipment and film before I put it to a mission critical use. In addition I also try to test any combinations of film and equipment under the conditions I expect to encounter before it's a mission critical situation. You should too.

 

Can you go to this venue and shoot a test roll before the date of the concert? If not then can you simulate the conditions you think will exist at the concert and shoot a test roll under those conditions?

 

If the venue is dark and you don't know how dark then I recommend that you shoot some test shots with the flash outdoors at night and at increasing distances. Keep a record of the distances and frame numbers.

 

What does the flash's manual say about maximum distance? Do you have a tele-extender for the flash? Could you make one out of cardboard lined with tin foil?

 

My closing thoughts are that the film is extremely fast and there's no point in using the flash. In fact the film is so fast that the flash might not be compatible with it. I think you'd be better off using the available light. You might even consider slowing the shutter speed down to introduce some blur to your shots. Good Luck!

"I want to find out the ingredients so people can cook better pictures."

 

Who is going to judge whether or not a specific set of ingredients will make a better picture? Will it be the creator of the art or the observer? What is the objective of this "better picture"? Does getting the highest rating from the largest number of people define a "better picture?" Or is a "better picture" defined by the creator of the art who by judging his or her work decide they have achieved their goal by doing the best work they possibly can? As an artist my goal is to please myself. If others like my work then

that's fine too but it's not my primary goal.

 

The chaos theory is at work in all forms of art. Personal tastes dictates what each individual will define as aesthetically best. If you are instead using some set of rules to decide what is aesthetically best then you are missing the whole point of art which is to bring enjoyment to those who experience it.

 

If you want a traditional definition of what makes a "better picture" you would do well to read books about composition. Looking for a specific set of ingredients to "cook better pictures" is a fools errand.