press_photog

It's all about dynamic range. Digital cams exposure range is like slide film, narrower range than regular film. Your photos are simply over exposed. Close down the aperture, or increase the shutter speed. Does your digicam have a screen that you can use to review photos? If so it would be a simple matter to experiment till you find the right settings.

I posted earlier about sync speed....

One more possibility. Could you be exceeding your cams max flash sync speed? Too fast a shutter speed can cause this.

What type of lighting are you using if any? If it's an on camera flash, it may be that the lens is blocking some of the light. A little more info here might help. What camera/lens/flash are you using? Got a sample pic we can analyze? Is the dark area rounded, or horizontal / vertical?

"I don't have to do Easter egg hunts and High School Football games"

 

I'm laughing here, because as a freelancer, I have done many Easter Egg hunts AND HS football, volleyball, track, lacrosse, etc. Hey if it pays, I'm all over it.

 

But back to the question. First, are you sure you want to be a PJ? Have you tried it? Racing around trying to find addresses and be there on time, back to back assignments on opposite ends of town, processing your photos, writing cutlines, scrambling to get the photos in on time... As mentioned, it is extremely frustrating at times, but also has its rewards. Editors don't typically hire for the sake of hiring. There has to be a postion open, and you will need a strong portfolio and experience to compete. Keep on freelancing (aka stringer), and gain some experience. If you join NPPA, you can check out the ads for jobs. Good luck.

Set the meter to flash mode, assuming it has such a mode. Press the Wizard transmitter's test button to fire the flash and take your readings. Be sure to set the ISO on the meter according to the camera's ISO. Now, if you happen to be shooting digital, I don't use a meter. I set my shutter speed to say 125th /sec (depends on your cam's max sync speed), and start out at F8. Check out your histogram, and adjust aperture setting till you get what you want.

It is used for taking photographs.

"70-200mm is a very long lens on a Rebel/10D/20D/30D, but a moderate telephoto on a full frame film or digital camera"

 

The lens does not magically change focal length just because it's mounted on a different camera.

 

Anyway, I would opt for the longer lens, perhaps better bg blur, and the couple will look thinner.

I have a 10' extention cable. One nice thing about them is if someone runs between you and your PC, the connection will split apart, rather than ripping the cam out of your hand, or sending the laptop or whatever for a ride. This happened to me, and the extension saved my @$$. I have never had a signal issue BTW.

I'll add my 2c here. When I shoot an assignment, I correct the jpg's (never used RAW) for basic stuff like contrast/sharpness/color saturation. Cropping is optional. It seems no matter how I try to second guess photo editors, they will recrop photos. The editors like to get about 3 of your best images, giving them something to choose from. I usually email the images along with cutlines. You will need to become adept at writing these, they are ALWAYS required. Get used to getting peoples names. These captions are also embedded in the image using Photoshop. My editors always want the 5 Ws.... who,what,where,when,why. Look at cutlines from your local papers to get some ideas. I can also transmit photos from the field using my laptop and cell phone. There are deadlines for when the editors will need your photos. Ask what these are. The photos may go along with a story assigned to a reporter. Hook up with the reporter if you can, the story may have a particular angle that may give you ideas about the shots.

The Bees are very robust. I use them along with/ instead of White Lightnings, and the have held up well. I own the WLs because I heard they were more robust for daily shooting, but both are well made products by Paul Buff (sp?). Check the features for both, there are differences, dependent on your specific needs.

I thought a Blackhawk was a helicopter. Surely the RAF ran short on names, and stole that one...

I second the cold theory. I shoot in ice arenas all year long, and use 8 sets of batteries (16). They seem to show discharged in the camera much quicker in the cold, and show fully charged very quickly in the charger which is sitting out exposed to the cold. When I get them home, I recharge all of them, and the charge time is MUCH slower. Someone needs to invent a battery warmer for shooting in the cold. Yes, I know I can put them in my pockets, but that many batteries is uncomfortable.

Eamon,

 

Perhaps you missed my post above...

 

"where sometimes that 300mm on your 1.6x camera"

 

I don't see how you get to 300mm. 200mm x 1.4 = 280mm.

 

"The 1.4 is a great piece of kit and combined to your camera crop magnification will really give your long lenses a boost.

 

The 1.6x factor is a field of view crop, there is no "magnification". Your 200mm lens is still 200mm. With the converter (1.4) it becomes 280mm. The 10D crops the image in comparison to 35mm film.

I have also used this combo, works fine. Michele, just a comment, the 1.6x is just a FOV crop, it does not make a lens longer. It is impossible to change the focal length of a given lens just by putting a sensor behind it.

This is probably obvious, but don't forget to set the meter to the correct ISO setting for your film or digital equivalent.

Are they still on one or more of the memory cards? Are you missing a memory card? Did you try a search of your hard disks (*.jpg)? Did you check your recycle bin? I also have software that allows me to look at deleted files in any directory, and recover them as well. How did you transfer them from camera to hard disk? Good luck.

Indeed, the 10D has USB 1.0, and is very slow compared to 2.0. Do you have to shoot RAW?

I use Pocket Wizards. No more sync cords!

The camera creates pixels in the X and Y directions, dependent on what you have set in the camera. My 10D shoots at 3072 x 2048 pixels, but I can set a smaller resolution if I want. There is no dpi set in camera, dpi is dependent on the output, be it a print or a computer screen. Whan you open a file in Photoshop, or whatever software you have, the pixels don't change, my image is still 3072 x 2048. What you OUTPUT to a printer or file is another matter. If I print a 4 x 6 from my original file, I would be printing at 512 dpi x 512 dpi, or 3072/6 x 2048/4. So think of the camera resolution in pixels, and the output to be the number of dots per inch which is dependent on the print or monitor size. If you don't have enough pixels for a given print size, Photoshop (and other programs) can "upres" your image by interpolation. Monitors display approx 75 dpi, so my file would be huge on such a screen. To see my file on a given screen size, say 1024 x 768, the pixels in the image would need to be 1024 x 7068 or smaller, and so on.

As a news photographer, I wind up in all kinds of areas. My approach is to introduce myself to locals, and talk to them about what I'm doing. Most people are good people, no matter what the neighborhood. As a previous poster mentioned, this approach gets you "in".

Depends on how much she shoots. Do the math.

I visited Jamaica via cruise ship 2 years ago, and took my 70-200 F4 ashore without any problems. Stick to the main touist areas, and you'll be fine.

Of course it's possible, but why do you want to do this? Are you trying to fix a broken seal? Paper will not stand up to the elements. There are many materials that would work better, even a section of a rubber band.

Yes, set your flash meter to 125th sec (or slower), fire the strobe(s), and you will get your aperture setting. Your camera should be in M mode. Be sure to set your meter to the same ISO setting as your camera. Strobes are very easy to use, results are very consistant compared to ETTL.