ni_gentry

If all you're doing is showing up and shooting, charge by the hour. Sounds like a pretty easy

gig, but probably not going to pay much either since it's not very demanding/challenging

work. I seriously doubt the photographer would gross anywhere near 18 grand. I think you'd

be lucky to pull even a few hundred bucks out of it.

<i>" ...it's called a Polaroid."</i><p>

ha ha! I was thinking the same thing. I bet the people would love it.

<i>"I've even had one photographer flat out tell me he would not let me assist because he didn't want me to be competition. I explained that I would be charging in such a range that we wouldn't be competing, but no luck. "</i><p>

Almost any photographer who doesn't want you assisting because their afraid you'll be "competition" is not worth assisting for. A good, established photographer will have a strong referral base which you won't have access to, they will have a much stronger portfolio, more experience in almost every way, and have a unique style that sets them apart. And like you said, you two would probably be in completely different market segments.<p>

So I still say it's good to assist if you can find a good photographer. A lot of times the difficulty is the fact that there are so many other people who are qualified to assist and there are much fewer good photographers and only so many weddings.<p>

If you can go shoot your own gigs, great, but be very sure that you can deliver something that will make the client happy or you could hurt your business more than help (not to mention ruin someone's wedding memories).

search the previous posts and you'll find more answers to all your questions than you ever

expected. to answer them all here would take forever. I would personally recommend that

you don't shoot a wedding until you've done some assisting with a real wedding

photographer or unless the couple wouldn't otherwise have a photographer. with zero

experience, zero clue, and not having the appropriate equipment, you shouldn't be charging

any more than your costs.

somewhere between f/4 and f/11. depends on the ambient light, what controlled lighting I

use or don't use, etc.<p>

Also, depth of field & blurring the background will depend on your distance to the subject,

the distance from the subject to the background, and the focal length of your lens. Also have

to think about how the subjects are arranged. There is no perfect f-stop for every situation.

Anyone using Quickbooks on a Mac? If so any thoughts about how well it works? <p>

Any recommendations for another application to handle keeping track of your wedding photography

business income/expenses? I know some people have a Windows PC simply devoted to this purpose. Is

there nothing that great available for the Mac?

Your backgrounds are too busy and your compositions are boring (sorry). Your color and exposure also need work.

<p>

I think there are plenty of things you can do to improve before even thinking about buying ANY new equipment.<p>

If you want to get rid of shadows (not sure why, because shadows are what add depth and dimension to a photograph), then you need to learn about placement of your lights/subjects. It doesn't matter "what" brand strobe you buy, it's about where you place it relative to your subject. <p>

Also, if you are having problems with light falloff then again, think about subject placement relative to the distance from the strobe... basic inverse square law stuff... Lighting 101. Don't buy new equipment if you don't know how to use what you already have.

<p>

If you must buy new equipment, then yes ProFoto is about as good as it gets if you are lucky enough to afford it. But there are plenty of amazing photographers getting great results with much, much less.

I think you need to think about assisting to gain some experience before you charge what

you are now. You just can't step right into shooting weddings and charge people $1000 -

$3000 with basically no experience and no portfolio. I don't even see any photos of any

people on your website (except of you), and what's there is certainly not "photojournalism".

>>> if you have to do some work in Photoshop, you can open the file from Aperature in

Photoshop and it saves the changes as a separate version.

<p>

Lightroom also does this... Open a file for editing in Photoshop and it saves the .psd file as a

stacked version of the original.

Was this the first time you were to meet with them or had you already met them previously?

Some people are just flakes. That's the way the world is. I've never had anyone just not show

up, but I've had a couple people call to cancel initial consultations. <p>

Usually this stuff happens when you are dealing with lower-end clients and not so much as

you move up the price scale. There's definately a direct correlation between prices and the

amount of value they place on their photography (and the respect they give to the

photographer).

Use the focus-assist on your flash unit.

This totally depends on the wedding. You absolutely need to talk with the bride and groom to work out the schedule for the day. <p>

But, in very general terms, there's maybe a couple hours before the ceremony for some prep shots and some shots of the bride, groom and respective parties (sometimes separate, sometimes together), then the ceremony, then maybe about a half-hour (roughly) of formals right after the ceremony (but sometimes they can be done before the ceremony), then there's the reception, and there's also some bride/groom portraits thrown in somewhere dureing the day (often after the formals and before the reception).

<p>

Communicate with your clients.

I would want to see the guy's work first to determine if it's the quality of product that I would want my images associated with. I'd also require that I get to proof the final product before he releases it to the couple. <p>

Of course I'd also require a written agreement that limits use to just this couple's video, that proper credit is given to me, and that he can't use the images to market himself, etc... If he's a professional, does good work, and nice to deal with, then it should all be fine.

Here's a thought..... ask the people at the WPJA.

<p>

As you said, there seems to be plenty of team photographers so it's probably not a problem.<p>

Did you already apply and get rejected?

This is just fundamental photography. It seems odd to me that you have a 5D and are just

becoming aware of such a basic element of exposure.<p>

You can either use an incident meter, learn to use partial/spot metering of a midtone (or

something familiar), or use exposure compensation. If the lighting is consistent you don't

have to meter every shot. Put the camera in manual, set the exposure once and shoot 'til the

lighting changes.

A business card should say a few things...

<p>

Your name & business name, phone/fax number, email address, physical mailing/studio

address, your website URL, and some indication about what kind of photography you do.<p>

You don't need all of the above, but you are missing a few key elements. What type of

photography are you selling? Where are you? What's your email address? How do I get to

your website to see some images.

Maybe people are fine with just seeing the digital images. Not like these are going to be images they hang on their wall. Maybe they're taking snapshots themselves. What do your galleries look like? Are the photos worth buying? Are you offering anything unique? How are you marketing the photos and driving people to your site? From what I've seen from weddings, parents tend to buy the posed formal shots. Are you offering any images like that? Are you shooting those kinds of images or just candid stage shots?

one camera + one lens + maybe a little fill flash<p>

Why complicate things with two cameras in such a simple small setting?<p>

5D + 28-135mm<p>

If it's during a typical bright day in the shaded area there, just meter for the shade and keep your exposure set manually. Should be pretty simple with very consistent lighting. So what if the background gets blown out. Doesn't look like there's much out there anyway ... just a parking lot and a city street. Do you want that stuff showing up behind the bride & groom?

I know some photographers give discounts for weekday weddings and/or off-season weddings. So charging more for high-demand dates seems to be along the exact same line of thinking.

Is there a way for Lightroom to play it's slideshow on a secondary display? I'm using a Macbook Pro with a

larger external display and want to show the slideshow on the external display but it seems to just show

up on the primary even when the app is showing on the external...

A more powerful flash won't do anything to solve the "problem" you describe about having to use a higher ISO to get more ambient light into your exposure. <p>

If your goal is to light more of the background/surroundings that is not being reached by your flash due to falloff (which will happen with any flash unit), then you could consider using any small flash unit (or multiples if you really want to hassle with it) to kick in some background lighting. <p>

Another more simpler alternative which will depend on the venue, is to just bounce your 580EX off the ceiling or back wall. You didn't mention if you were shooting with the flash on camera or off camera and whether or not you used any modifiers.<p>

I find the 580EX plenty powerful for probaby 95% or more of wedding work (for my style and taste).

It's probably more power than most people need. It sounds like you're one of those people and the practical answer would be to just return it while you can get the full purchase price back (assuming you bought it new). Of course if you got a great deal on a used kit, maybe you could keep it for non-wedding location work or larger groups in bigger environments. <p>

Ask yourself why you felt compelled to try and upgrade from the 580EX... what limitation were you trying to overcome, if any? Were there really any limitations caused soley by the gear itself, or could things have been improved by some other method?<p>

Oh, if you haven't heard about these, they sent out a postcard a while ago and they are supposed to start offering them like next month I think for the EX line.

I'm wondering if anybody has seen/touched any of the new Asuka leather

(simulated leather) covers (maybe at WPPI) and could comment on the quality,

look and feel...

Just to ask the obvious, is the camera in manual mode or have you checked the EXIF data to see that the images were all exposed at the same aperture/shutter/ISO? <p>

A good repair shop would probably have a shutter speed tester. They might be able to test it for relatively litte cost.