michaelmowery

<p>Seamless backgrounds gives a commercial look to what ever you shoot and is great for fashion, product and corporate work. In my opinion lugging backgrounds around to shoot families is a pain and gives an old school look like Owen Mills. I find using the environment whether indoors or outside gives a more contemporary feel. To each his own i guess. The background systems should stay in the studio especially the 12 foot ones.</p>

<p>A wedding is something you can not reshoot so it is better to over shoot than under shoot.</p>

<p>You can upgrade to CS6</p>

<p>Yes CTO gels are yet another element but used only after the sun has set and or your ambient light is tungsten. Again it depends on the actual scene whether you actually need to gel the flash as there are times when the warmer tungsten compliments your image. Also if you are using umbrella lighting which are flood lights they can overpower the warm ambient lighting and gelling them really does not do much. The distance that your lights are from subject play a part and the distance from your subjects to the background plays a part. Having all of the knowledge of how to handle these scenarios is the key to a successful shoot.</p>

<p>Meagan I am going by what little info you are giving me. It would be helpful to know exactly what you are photographing. One person a family? For what purpose is the shoot for? I also need to know exacty what flashes you are using and what modifiers you have. All pros will use a two light setup (main and fill) for consistent and flattering lighting. One light set up is more for fashion looks. If your subject is a 16 year old girl then you might get away with it. again I don't know the purpose of this shoot. If it is regular people they want to look nice without dark shadows on one side of the face. Will you be doing full length shots, 3/4 or close ups? Having the lights further from the subject spreads the light more and contaminates your environment look, therefor professionals use grids to control the amount of light falloff to enhance the nataral background ambience by keeping the strobe lighting just on the subject.</p>

<p>sounds like you have it figured out. Keeping the lights at the same distance will maintain consistency and for quick shooting from one location to the next. I would suggest two lights one as your main and the other as fill. If you only use one light you will get shadows unless you hold the light directly over the lens. The ambient lighting in the house can be adjusted by your shutter speed or iso. If you choose the iso route you will have to lower the power on your flash. Tripod is always a good tool to use.</p>

<p>When working it a smaller space the shade of gray makes a big difference when trying to make it go darker. If you start out with a darker gray then it makes life a little easier. Making the background go lighter is easy just aim light at it.</p>

<p>Yes Matt I understood your point you were very clear but there are other shades of gray lighter and darker which all will perform differently.<br> Darker backgrounds are easier to control as the light reflectivity is much less than lighter ones. It would be helpful to know what Christal would like to achieve in her end results. My guess is since she already has a white background then it would make sense to get a darker gray which she can still make lighter or darker with light control as Mat has clearly demonstrated. </p>

<p>Nice shots Matt. I guess the question Christal is what do you want to achieve as far as light to dark. Just one shade of gray may not work for everything. If you want drama like Matts second shot it takes controlled light and it can be accomplished easier by using a darker shade of gray. On the other hand if you like the first shot then a lighter gray may be best. When using gels you will however get better color control with darker gray color like charcoal gray by Savage seamless paper. On my website under corporate I use charcoal gray exclusively. http://www.michaelmowery.com You can also see it with gels under MMA Fighters.</p>

<p>Medium or dark gray has the most control. You will get better results with a dark gray when using gels. I thought we told you that on one of your last posts.</p>

<p>Yes the client deserves the best but they must pay for it. You just don't include camera resolution files with a shoot and burn job for $1,000. This is a business not just a quick buck for the weekend warrior.</p> <p> </p>

<p>its over kill and no lab requires tiff files nor does it produce a better image that you can see. Tiff are only good if there will be additional retouching and saving of files. The industry does not need photographers to include such high resolution files in there price unless they are charging a couple thousand dollars extra for such files. Give the client 8x12 sized @200ppi which is more than sufficient for there needs and for archiving. Let them come back to you for enlargements or higher resolution files for an extra cost. The new shoot and burn photographers are killing this market for those of us who make it a full time career.</p>

<p>If you understand anything about filters then you can either warm up an image or cool it down. As far as the lighting and photography goes I can not teach you that. Sun flare or strobe flare causes effects on it own and the addition of filtration will enhance it. Trial and error is your friend. Just got out there and do it.</p>

<p>Modelmayhem is a good place to start. As far as rental and wardrobe a credit card goes a long ways using the return policy.</p>

<p>Just deleting images about 40 minutes for 1,000. Second round duplicates secondary shots etc. ad another hour. Then color correcting and exposure adjustments add two hours roughly. Retouching 100 images for an album can take a day.</p>

<p>Tell your boss to hire a professional</p>

<p>Photoshop is not the answer here but rather good photography and talent. Not something that photoshop can achieve. The answer is practice practice practice</p>

<p>it is all a matter of heat. You are there and I am here so I can not touch the lamp to see if it is producing enough heat to cause damage. Simple rule is if it burns your finger it will burn the fabric.</p>

<p>Yes Tom this is a place to get educated but you have to have some basic knowledge of what you want to do or accomplish in order for others to help or give direction. You can't just ask "What lens should I buy" without giving some more information. Broad open questions leave too much for us to interpret. </p>

<p>Ellis my thoughts exactly but I was too lazy to write it all out and explain. LOL It is also good to know what the person wants to use the strobes for. What camera you use does not affect your choice of strobes but what its more important to help us answer your question is what are you trying to accomplish? A little bit of self educating and web exploring first goes along ways before one posts a question.</p>

<p>Which ever you can afford and keep and consider which units have the most accessories.</p>

<p>I am a hasselblad owner and what we did was remove the back and take a small screw diver and reach into the body and turn a little screw that was on the back of the lens and we were able to crank the lens shutter open. The lenses have to be leaf shutter in order for this to work.</p>

<p>What Marcus said.</p>

<p>Without getting all fancy with grids and snoots all you need to do is place your main light as close as possible to your subject (2 feet or less) and the light fall off will be much faster than if it were further back. If there are white walls they will go dark gray. You may want to shoot at a lower iso and close down to f-11 to further darken the ambient.</p>

<p>Go to the venues in your area and inquire. Thats the best advise.</p>