michaelmowery

<p>Assuming there are no conflicts of interest with your job and side work I would NOT bill by the hour. You are already setting the tone that this is an easy fun job and it takes a few minutes to do. That is not how you start off your price negotiations. You are charging based on your creative talent and know how.<br> I charge in two steps, first is a creative fee that covers my initial set up time, assitstant and location travel charges and then secondly I charge by the person for useage fees of the image. I also have a minimum charge which equals 3 people photographed. You have to charge as if you do not have a regular full time job and as if you are a full time professional photographer making a living. If you charge any other way you are hurting this industry. <br> Check your local professional photographers to see what they would charge to do it. If it is for another geographical location then call the photographers in that area to see what they would charge. Remember its your job that needs the photos so you have every right to call photographers for pricing on behalf of your job.</p>

<p>I agree with William. Don't give the files or include the files in your contract. Problem solved. The real problem is there are too many part timers and people who are supplementing their income by shooting events and do not want to be bothered with providing a full service of print products. THAT IS THE REAL PROBLEM. I have nothing against part timers or enthusiast but please charge accordingly as if your livelihood depended on just photography.</p>

<p>I don't know if I would classify that as fashion but in any case the lighting looks good. The retouching is a bit much.</p>

<p>I am not talking about Roes. You need to contact Millers School division department. There is special software you use on the shoot with your laptop and a bar code reader. You don't need to do anything but scan the barcode then take the picture. When you are done with the shoot you push a button in the software and it sorts everything out for you.</p>

<p>You should contact Millers as they would be able to help you. They are the ones who will put the packages together so they should have some sort of software that you will use during the shoot to get things organized. If they don't have there own free software they will recommend the industries standard school software that does all that you want it to do. Slates are things of the past. printing out barcodes and scanning them is whats done today but you need the software.</p>

<p>Your lighting set up is too soft. Do not use softbox or umbrellas. You need to use standard reflectors. you can defuse the reflectors a bit. If you use a strobe with reflector on both sides of the camera just below the camera axis you will achieve a shadow around the subject. Similarly a ring light will produce a shadow around the subject but that is not the case here.</p>

<p>First off the guy can't just keep your card. Lets not down play this and say chalk it up to experience. Go over there and beat it out of him. LOL Your obviously not from NY.<br> Anyways I am sorry to hear all of this. Rule number one never hand over your cards to anyone, hired by a studio or not. You tell them you will send them a USB drive. Some photographers get funny over another photographer keeping images shot on there job. Thats cool, they have every right to do what they want. When its your job you can do what ever you want. This part I say lesson learned.</p>

<p>You have to move the reflector closer to see more fill results or move it away to see less. You should use a large 4ft x 5ft foam-core or use another V flat. Fill light is not modeling that is only from your main light. If you don't see that then your main light is not in the right place. It is better to place your main light source more in front of your subject than around to much to one side. </p>

<p>You are correct when you say you need a reflector on the shadow side to fill in.</p>

<p>uv filters are just an extra buck to be made at the camera store. No better protection than the lens shade. I have never been on an event where I felt i needed a uv filter. I have banged my camera lens around and the lens shade was a good thing. Stray light from videographers light and house lighting has been minimized by a lens shade.</p>

<p>1. pre focus and don't refocus until your ready to shoot something at a different distance.<br> 2. Manual flash is best. Your power is based on getting the right exposure at a given distance.<br> 3. when shooting without flash up your iso until you get at least a 200 sec shutter speed when there is movement. You will benefit with fast lenses. try not to shoot wide open as you will have to critically focus your shots. I try not to go above 3200 iso.<br> 4. 24-70 is your best zoom for jewish dancing scenario. You can always crop in but you can not add more image area if you shoot with a telephoto.</p>

<p>Starting your answer with "I work in studios since long time" Trying to give yourself credibility, then ignoring my question to you is quite irritating. <br> If your question was "what strobes have an adjusting modeling light?" then ask that question. Why you have to then confuse everyone about your sync limitations is beyond me. FYI the modeling light adjustments is not adjustable in stops. The modeling light comes in either tungsten for which you will need tungsten film or LED for which your daylight film will be fine but not perfect. The lab will have to color correct the films in any case.</p>

<p>Please describe in detail your shooting scenario for which you feel you need to shoot at a faster shutter speed. If you were shooting outdoors in sunlight we could understand your concern.</p>

<p>who says direct sunlight will mess up your shooting for portrait. late afternoon direct sunlight is the most flattering light available.</p>

<p>1267 is the best photo taken</p>

<p>Charging by the square foot does not make sense to me. I charge by the number of rooms. More rooms more work, more money. </p>

<p>Plus 1 for Rodeo Joe's response</p>

<p>As the old saying goes its not the camera but the photographer. That said it mainly boils down to what you can afford. When you can afford full frame you get full frame. When you can afford medium format you get medium format. You see its a disease. LOL</p>

<p>If you want to make money at photography you will need OTHERS to tell you you are good. Otherwise it really doesn't matter as long as you are happy.</p>

Available to discuss.

<p>for me this does not happen very often but when it does use common sense.</p>

<p>Rodeo Joe brings up a good point that made me take another look at your sample picture you posted. Besides the odd angle that you shot that picture, I personally don't see a direction of light from you main flash source. It appears to be more ambient light than anything else.</p>

<p>Too small to do anything. What are you expecting from such a small device? That is like getting excited about a pop up flash. Hey if that gets you excited then go for it but for the professional it lacks big time.</p>

<p>If you came from the Hasselblad days you would understand shooting everything horizontal. Be thankful you don't have the extra weight of the double battery grip. Thats like carrying a brick around all day. 95% of all my candids are within 10 feet and taken with a 24-70 zoom</p>

<p>Ok, that is what I thought Kenneth. I read what Marc suggested and as great as that all sounded it did not seem appropriate for you. I have been doing this for 18years and I don't even use a 500mm lens LOL. Marc is an amazing photographer and a great person to get advice from. <br> For what you are doing Kenneth I think you will be just fine. You will need the canons speed light to help you focus dim lit shots. Canon is great as far as I am concerned. Just have a backup. Not sure what you mean by rig? you don't need a bracket and the extra weight. Shoot everything horizontal, full raw and then you can always crop vertical if you need to. Keep it simple.</p>