ntiberius

So some friends of mine want me to do B&W headshots for their first

acting resumes. I told them to go to a professional, but they have

*no* money, we're all students. I've got a little half-assed studio

setup in my room (3 photoflood lamps, a chair, a dark-purple

background), which unfortunately leaves about 6 or 7 feet between the

chair and the camera, before I hit the wall.

My equipment: Canon 300D, 50mm 1.8, 28-135mm 3.5-5.6, 18-55mm kit

lens. I also have a 420EX flash which I don't anticipate needing.

I'm going back and forth between using the 50mm and the 28-135mm at

the moment. Headshots are always 8x10, so I'll be doing some

cropping in photoshop. My concern is the sharpness and distortion of

the face--if I move the 50mm to fill the viewfinder frame, the nose

is obviously elongated. If I move the camera back 6 feet, the

proportions are fine... but after cropping, the face doesn't look as

sharp as it did when it was 3 feet from the face.

My other option is keeping the camera 6 feet away, using the 28-135,

and zooming until the face fills a fair amount of the viewfinder.

The distance would minimize distortion, and the size of the face in

the image would minimize the fuzziness caused by the zoom/crop.

So, my rather general question is, which of these options is the

best? Is it a good idea to try and fill the frame with the subject,

when you're shooting digital and will be cropping in postprocessing?

Which of my lenses would yield the best results, keeping in mind the

small size of my room?

Go easy on me; I'm new to photography and totally inexperienced with

studio setups. But all advice/criticism greatly appreciated! :)

When you get to Acadia, definitely take the Park Loop road around Mt. Desert Island. Coastline abound, and lots of little mountains in view. If there's one hike you must do, it's Precipice. Its closed during some seasons because endangered peregrine falcons make their nest on the rock face... photographic opportunies abound, as you can imagine. Bar Harbor is nice too, but you may be disappointed with the relatively small (accessible) port area if you're into the feel of small port towns.

Also, if you look at a map, you may be deceived into thinking that Rt. 1 hugs the coastline... it *almost* does, but in practicality you can drive for hours on it (it's very slow) and not have a single scenic moment. YMMV.

Silly question: Why do files out of my 300D have a default of

240p/in? Most web images are 72. Print images should be 300,

right? Where'd 240 come from? :)

This is a total newbie question, I know, but I need your collective

experience:

What's the best way to prepare a file that you want cropped in the

printout? More specifically:

1)My setup:

-Canon EOS 300D

-Photoshop CS

-A 6Mp image, the subject of which I wish to crop and enlarge to

fill a 5x7 print

I've been messing with the file in photoshop, but I'm finding that

as I use the crop tool with 5x7in proportions, the image post-crop

has been dramatically reduced in total resolution. Now, that's

expected, obviously, but if I keep the image the same size and

just "guess" where to crop, I can snip out parts of the image and

maintain the large resolution. I must be missing something obvious.

So, how do YOU crop a digital photo, knowing the subject will be

enlarged onto a print?

(thanks in advance!)

Hyun,

Thank you very much for the prompt and precise response! That's a shame about the rebel bodies, but it sounds like I can work around it.

Hi all-

I'm using an EOS 300D with a Canon 28-135 IS USM lens. I'm new to

the canon system, and this question seems totally dumb, but I have to

ask:

I want to be able to auto-focus on a subject, then tweak the focus

manually by adjusting the focus ring on the lens. The procedure for

doing this, so I've read, is to press the shutter halfway on the

subject--wait for the autofocus--then keep the shutter halfway

depressed and adjust the focus ring.

Now, I've tried this, but when I try to turn the ring, the

lens "clicks" at me and resists my attempts to turn the focusing

ring, instead setting it back to where it thinks it should be auto-

focused.

Is the solution to autofocus, then switch to manual focus on the

lens, THEN use the focusing ring? I was under the impression that so

long as the release button was kept halfway depressed, you could

adjust focus manually without having to switch the lens from AF to MF.

Thanks in advance for your advice/comments.