michaelmowery

I belong to a health share program (Liberty health share) where we all pay a modest monthly rate and its pooled together and used to help the members pay for their medical needs. My monthly rates are like $300 for me and my wife with a $1000 deductible between us and we are covered for up to 1 million per incident. We got this back when Obama got us into this mess.

If you do choose to release your negatives or files I would advise to charge a separate fee for them.

Bill hit the nail on the head. Everyone wants to take short cuts without putting the time in to study photography and studio lighting. There are a lot of text books out there that are great. You may also take formal training in a class. Assisting pros that you like is also a great training field. Youtube is not the place to learn for the most part as a beginner. When you understand the basic principles then you can skim through Youtube and you will know what is legit and what is not. You can also pick up on subtle techniques that you would have not noticed before. Thank you Bill for reminding me that my comment was from my perspective as a pro and not as a beginner.

Having high resolution images on your website is not a good idea. Upload around 1200px wide images which would be a 4x6 print at 200ppi. They can download it and make a proof print. Once they select there images for their order you can then reupload the higher res files or send them via a FTP 3rd party source like wetransfer.

The session fee should be your creative fee that pays for your time and talent. This should not include any costs for prints, products or digital files. Everyone has their own way to charge and most just do what the other guy is doing which makes no sense as you need to know what your cost of doing business is. If your running a business and want to stay in business you need to charge and mark up everything to make a profit. If you choose to include something with your session fee thats fine just raise your rate to include that item with profit of course. If your not going to sell prints or products then you need to set a price for your digital files. Giving away files or including them in your session fee without raising your rates to include them is not helping you or the industry. If you're good people will pay for your creative talent and and products offered. Turn your business into a viable one not a loosing one. The dollar amount you charge per print or product is what you need to stay in business. There is no right dollar amount to charge per say just as long as you do charge to make a profit. The better you are the more you can charge.

If you want to see a real fashion shoot why not watch a shoot from a major fashion magazine. They have video clips of there cover shot shoots which clearly shows equipment used. What better is that?

tools are cinefoil, flags, cutters, fresnel spots and barn doors

Now I am confused. What are you offering? Health care info or school photography?

Usually it is the PTA who votes on which photographer and each school is on its own. You have no choice but to visit each school and speak to them directly. Like most people they will want to hire someone with experience in this field. There is a lot of production work involved shooting school photography.

Send it to Profoto to repair. Its the cost of doing business. Do not attempt to fix yourself. At the very least get the estimate and then decide if it will break the bank or not.

I think you should first learn where to see and find good natural light. Once you find it you don't even need a reflector. If you do need one you are better off having a helper hold it and angle it to reflect the light. A stand is not so good for outdoor natural lighting. Indoors in a controlled studio ok. I personally use foam core as a reflector like they use in the movies or a professional commercial shoot. Its cheap and you can get a larger size than the round pop up reflectors. The larger the size the better and softer lighting. Good luck

Good luck in this field. I have given it a try back a few years ago and managed to do a few schools but in the end the big guerrilla (Lifetouch national school photography) was to big to compete with. I would recommend to market the private schools and offer a photo session approach. Senior pictures is also a big market if the school is not under contract with...Lifetouch or other likes.

If you don't photoshop the background even then you need to light it evenly.

School yearbook usually have a strict guideline for cropping. It doesn't matter what ratio your camera shoots as long as you can crop to the final size. As far as the customers looking at a proof or online a 4x5 crop would be better as that is a perfect 8x10. I am not sure I answered your question.

It is not as simple as using the word "retainer" or "deposit". There is more wording required to explain the situation which includes "liquidated damages" and so on. Have an attorney write out your contract. The argument of the use of the word deposit vs retainer is not enough.

Great! Your a fast learner than most people. I look forward to seeing some posted images of your results!

I dont do any special effects edits without first consulting with my clients. I only do natural edits with a boost of color and constrast as a standard edit. I sell albums so any images that go into albums are handled with special care. If they only want files then I do just my standard edit.

You will have to study basic Photography and flash lighting. Your confusing yourself by constantly changing your f stops. Pick an fstop and the appropriate shutter speed to give you proper exposure for your outdoor image then add flash to fill. If you add too much flash it will change your exposure and you will have to close down your aperture. Your shutter speed can add or decrease ambient light. The flash exposure is only controlled by the Fstop. There is a lot to learn and to practice.

F11 meter reading would be 1 stop brighter than f8 meter reading

Not exactly, that would be for indoor or studio readings. Outdoors with ambient you will use the percentage reading on your meter. The percentage is reading flash to ambient. Now there is a lot of variables that need to be accounted for that varies with each situation. You will need to practice to see how much of a percentage of flash fill you like. 50% May not look the way you think. I have shot a lot of images with 10-20% fill. If you subject is back lit you will need to do a much higher percentage even as High as 90%. You will need to practice.

Your not giving me any useful info to evaluate your current situation. You can have 20 different umbrellas, what I need to know is what are your settings on your camera and how close are the lights to your subjects. Are you happy with your results?

Your lack of power will be your biggest problem. What are you currently doing? What are your settings? What are the results? What don't you like? What do you want to do?

You just got the top of the line stand from the origional C-stand creators. Just wait for the bill for the difference in price. LOL

Reflected shooting is better known as indirect which is the softer than shooting through the umbrella. Shooting through the umbrella will have more of a hotspot which will make the light more direct. As far as your question will a speed light work with a 60" umbrella the short answer is yes. You can use a speed light with a 10ft umbrella. The long answer is I have no idea what your taking pictures of or whether or not your in a controlled environment or not. Shooting indoors at higher ISO and using fast lenses you can use just about any modifier with a speed light. If you have specific requirements such as shooting at lower ISO and using slower lenses plus shooting in mixed lighting conditions you will have some lack of power issues when using a speed light.