nick_w.

<p>I don't think it will work unless you can reference photos in a vault. Why not move your masters on your desktop to the external drive? Then both computers can reference the photos. You could even get fancy and connect your hard drive to a network and access the masters via the network so neither computer has to physically plug in to the drive. </p>

When opening iPhoto, hold down on the option and command keys. A window should

appear with some options. What you may have to do is rebuild the thumbnail library. This

happens sometimes when upgrading to a newer version of iPhoto. My d300 raw photos

are viewable in iPhoto. Consider Aperture 2 though. It's a much more powerful program.

Seems like you'd save time and money just doing everything in Bridge and PS. You can create

actions in PS to help automate crop sizing and sharpening. Aperture and similar products

often add another step in a workflow that was never needed in the first place.

Hello All,

 

This may have been covered before, but if not, I thought I'd share how I figured

out how to shoot tethered with my Nikon D2H.

 

What I used:

 

1)Nikon D2H

2)Photoshop CS2

3)Mac running OS 10.5.1 (Leopard)

 

The first thing to do is to change a setting on your camera (this probably

applies to many Nikon DSLRs). Hit the menu button, go to the "set up" menu on

the screen (the wrench icon) and find the submenu called USB. Change that

setting from M to P. Easy.

 

Now plug your camera into the computer with the mini-USB to USB cable that came

with your camera.

 

Turn the camera on.

 

In your applications, there's a little program called Image Capture. Open that up.

 

The small window that pops up should immediately check to see if there's a

camera attached. If everything is working right, the program will locate your

camera (make sure your camera battery isn't about to die). Click the button

called Download Some.

 

The menu bar on top has two important features. First, select the Download

Folder pull down menu. Choose Other. You can now create a new folder anywhere

you please. This folder will be home to your tethered photos so make sure it's

easy to find.

 

The other important feature is the Take Picture button. Click on that button and

your camera will snap a picture, which will appear in the white space below the

menu bar. Click on the photo and then click the Download button. The photo is

now located in the folder you just created. Easy!

 

Now open Adobe Bridge. Find the folder you created and double click on it. The

photo will appear in the film strip below the main window. Click on it and

you'll see it in the main window. Yay! That was easy.

 

*****************************

 

I've also used Camera Control Pro 2 and Apple Aperture to shoot tethered, but if

you don't want to spend $$$ for those applications, the method I described will

do well enough.

 

I'd like to integrate Automator into the process somehow to make the whole

workflow more seamless. It would be great to just press the Take Picture button

in Image Capture and then the photo would pop up in Bridge. The few steps in

between that are needed don't require significant time, but are slightly annoying.

 

I have no idea if this method works with anything but the tools I used. If you

figure out an even better method, I'd love to know about it.

The biggest photo retailer is Keeble & Shuchat in Palo Alto, a small city about 35 miles south of San Francisco. They aren't as cheap as B&H, though. They are closed on Sundays.

Liveslideshow can be used on the Mac. It produces quicktime movies. Easy to use and set up. Not sure about copy-protection. The program runs around $100 if I remember right.

I can't speak for the D70, as I've never used one, but a 6 MP camera will provide plenty of resolution for a wedding. I shoot RAW with a pair of D2H cameras at 4 MP and have blown up an image to 20x30. The camera will be fine. It's up to the user to make good images.

Bob,

 

For a studio setting, the optical slave is fine. At a reception with many guests using their point-and-shoots you're strobes will light up like the 4th of July. Get the PWs and enjoy.

Chris,

 

I love my Alien Bees Vagabond. It recycles at full power in about 2 seconds. I recently used it in a dimly lit church (what church isn't dimly lit?) during a wedding ceremony with a pair of AB 800s bounced off the 40ft ceiling. I also use my AB setup for location portraits, including the feature photo on my new website www.nickwrightphotography.com

It's also important to note that Paul C. Buff Inc. has some of the best customer service in the industry.

I've used a lens reversal ring with my 50mm 1.4 and Nikon DSLRs. It's fun to play with the razor-thin DOF. I have no idea if the lenses you're considering will work well, however. Photographing moving objects would be nearly impossible because of the DOF and because the working distance is drastically reduced (with the 50mm I'm probably less than 6 inches from the subject). Probably the best and most common photo I've seen using a lens reversal ring is to photograph rain drops on a windshield where the drops all include an image from the background, like the golden gate bridge or a sun flower. A tripod and a macro focusing rail would be ideal. Good luck and have fun experimenting.

Mike,

 

I use ExposureManager and couldn't be happier. They use EZ Prints to do the prints.

 

The best thing about EM is their tech support. Email them with the questions you have above and I can almost guarantee that you'll have a response in 24 hours.

I can't say enough good things about ExposureManager.com:

 

Only $9.99 a month for unlimited storage

 

Custom layouts

 

Easy customer interface

 

EZ Prints print service

 

And best of all, their technical support is amazing

I've put my cards through the wash many times. One of my cards has a huge dent on the underside. I've dropped 'em, stepped on 'em, sat on 'em. They all work great and have for a long time. In case it matters, I mainly use one 1gb 80x lexar and two 512mb Sandisk UltraII cards.

I do the same thing Laurie suggested (hold the shutter release down on bulb mode) but use the Sensor Brush from visibledust.com. Yeah, the brushes are pricey, but they do a great job and you don't have to use any liquids.

It's worth considering Exposuremanager as well. They only charge $9.99/month for unlimited storage space, they print through EZPrints, you have plenty of customizing options, and the customer support is unbelievable. The site supports both Mac and PC users.

 

I recently ordered a 20x30 print of a vacation pic for my home and it turned out great.

 

I tried smugmug for a month but wasn't happy with the site's organization and layout. Plus the company name just doesn't sound professional.

 

Good luck.

Check out ExposureManager.com. You pay $9.95 a month for unlimited storage, the customer support is AMAZING, and you can design the layout with a lot of freedom, especially if you know some HTML. They've got a 15-day free trial. I started an account with them about a month ago. This is just what I was looking for.

OPanda doesn't work for Macs. Any other suggestions for Macs? Thanks.

How do I find out how many actuations my D2H has? I searched the

archives with no success. If it helps any I use a Mac. Thanks.

I'm doing the 15-day trial at exposure manager

 

Their monthly prices are low and you have unlimited space, I believe. I used Smug mug but found it hard to navigate and generally disorganized. Exposure manager.com is relatively new and the support team is really eager to help answer questions when setting up your personal page. They lack a good FAQ page but say they're working on it. Give their trial a shot.

Aside from assisting, how did any of you learn the business side of starting a wedding

photography business? Most of the books out there seem to be dedicated to photography

techniques. A great title for a book I'd like would be, "So You Want to Earn A Living as a

Wedding Photographer: 10 Steps to Hit the Ground Running". Thanks for any insight,

suggestions, advice.

Nadine,

 

Good points. You're right on.

"The Omni will still help diffuse the hardness of the flash even if it does not have much to

bounce off..."

 

The whole point of the Omni-Bounce is to increase the size of (soften) the light hitting the

subject by bouncing the light off reflective surfaces from multiple angles, so I disagree

with Nadine's statement that the contraption will diffuse the light if it has nothing to

bounce light off of. In fact, if you use it for telephoto, you'll reduce the flash power by at

least one stop.

 

If you don't like the look of direct flash in those low light telephoto situations, consider

using high speed film and a fast lens. Flash cannot solve every lighting problem.

Dennis,

 

As a former photo-j, do yourself a favor and find a used D2H. Shoot in RAW and be happy.

Remember though, you're not just investing in a camera. You'll probably also need

memory cards, new strobes, a beefier computer, PhotoShop, back-up solutions (DVDs,

harddrives, RAID, etc.) and a lot of time learning the little quirks to making your digital

prints sing.

 

Also, don't let people scare you away from the D2H with all of this nonsense about

unusable pics at high ISOs. Shooting in RAW and using a cheap program called Noise

Ninja, reserved for the worst of the lot, will nullify anybody's argument that the D2H isn't

worth it.

The D2H or D2HS will be up to the task. I recommend shooting in raw. Consider getting

Noise Ninja or other noise reduction software for the times when you've gotta shoot at ISO

1000 or above. In raw you'll have more ability to correct exposure and white balance

mistakes without compromising image quality during post-processing.

If your brother in law has Nikon pro glass then there's no sense in telling him to buy a

Canon body.

 

I would recommend the D2H over the D1H because the D2H has MUCH MUCH better

battery life and it has roughly twice the megapixels. Although if he does a lot of hiking for

landscape work, consider the D70 or the D100, which are much smaller and lighter AND

are 6 megapixel cameras. The drawbacks of those cameras are crappier viewfinders and

slower fps.

 

I don't agree that 4 megapixels isn't good enough for landscape work. If you shoot in RAW

and make sure your exposures are dead on, then you should be able to make great prints.

 

BTW I own a D100 and a D2H.

 

Good luck