uriah

Ahhh Byron,

I just tried your suggestion! Very nice might I add. I can see where you can over-do-it. lol.

Anyways, that pretty much answers my question.

Thanks a million you guys!

Well, I just got in from work and checked on here to see that a ton of you responded. A HUGE thanks is in order to all. I've only had a few minutes to play around with the healing tool. It seemed to work similar to the cloning tool but since I haven't a whole lot of experience with the healing tool I'm going to read up on how to use it properly.

As far as the Kodak plug in goes I may have to try it out. I noticed it had a free trial run. Thanks everyone....Michael, Emre, Mike, Jon, Byron, Thomas, Will, and John for your help. I really appreciate it! That's why I come here....to learn from the best!

$400

Looks like a nice digital point & shoot camera is in your future unless you save up a little more for a SLR. You might find a decent used digital SLR with a kit lens for this but I doubt it. Now some of the film SLR's are very cheaply priced nowaday's. Brand wise is up to you.

sorry I couldn't be more help. I had to save every little penny to get what little I have.

Thanks Michael,

I was more curious as to how he got her face to turn out. I know he had to use the clone tool for the blemishes but her skin, particularly "her" left cheek is so smooth and the color is different too. I've used the blur tool before and it never did anything remotely close to that for skin.

I was wondering how this guy did this in photoshop? I figured he used the

clone tool for most of the blemishes but how did he get her face to look so

smooth and flawless?

http://www.tomsapp.com/retouching/index.htm

Thanks!

Thanks Steve,

I'm going to give it my best! Thanks for posting a few options. It really did help me a lot! Which one I'm going to use I don't know. I'm going out today to practice with no flash.

Everyone thanks for taking the time to help.....I'm shooting in a park that's smack dab in the middle of a city. The shoot is all day long 8am-7pm. So the light is gonna change on me a lot! I've scheduled 2 actors per hour and have promised 30-40 shots within that time that will immidiately be thrown on a CD with NO post production time available. So you can see I want to get it right the first time around. I am shooting with a pro who has allowed me to come in and shoot the headshots while she shoots the bodyshots. The headshots should show how the actors look naturally.

I am heading out this weekend and every weekend till then to practice. I'm just so use to shooting indoors where I can bounce my 550 and control all my lighting.

Anyways, thanks to all who replied with help. It was much appreciated.

Hello everyone! Thanks for taking the time to read this and maybe lend a

helping hand.

I'm shooting headshots outdoors next month and plan on shooting in a park.

There will be plenty of trees and shade, water, etc...

I'm wondering how I should pick my spots to set up for the headshots. I'm

shooting with a 20D and 550ex speedlite. I've read a few of the threads and

watched some of the video's here on PN and most have been very helpful but I

wanted to get some more input directly from the users here who have been in a

similar situation. I have no idea where to place my actors. I do receive

Shutterbug magazine monthly and October's issue did have a few article's on

natural lighting and such. I'm wondering if I should just use natural light or

the 550? Do I place my actors with the sun to their backs? Shadows?

Anyways, I am going out over the next few weekend's with a few models to

practice on but in the meantime ANY help would be much appreciated.

Thanks for your time!

Justin

Thanks Edward & Beau. You guys are great help!

Reason I asked is I've always saved everything JPEG even after RAW editing and didn't want to get in over my head by saving TIFF and having the client call me back as to say "hey dude I can't see my pictures on my computer". I'm just not familier with that format and wanted to make sure it would work to suit his needs.

Thanks a million my friends!

Thanks Edward. My client is the owner of the business and has no clue about computers and such. He's just paying me to get the shots so he can send them off to get them blown up. My question to everyone was which file to end up saving the image under? I've read a few articles on PN and they've been great help explaining what each does but since my client want's to blow up the images into a banner I was curious as to how I should save the file to best suit his needs.

I asked him about banner size and he held his arms out as to say this size...lol. Anyways, I figured from his way of showing me size it'll be somewhere around a 16x24.

I want to shoot something in RAW format for a client. The RAW photo's are

going to be edited in PS CS2. The images in return are to be handed over to

the client who will then send the images off to be blown up into a banner to

be hung in the place of business.

Question? What format should I end up saving the images as when I'm finished

in PS? I've been reading through most of the forum entries and most have said

TIFF instead of JPEG.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Justin

Please let me know which brand, Impact, Photoflex, Lastolite, Westcott, etc..

has served you well and which size is ideal for a group of 4-6 people indoors.

I'm doing a photoshoot for a gym and they want to get a few shots of their

trainers together while they are working out. The photo's will then be put

onto canvas banners and hung throughout the facility. I'm usuing a 550ex

speedlite on my camera and plan to bounce as much as possible.

Thanks for your time!

Justin

Each and every one of you gave me useful information. Thanks so much for your time!

I plan on taking headshots and composite card shots in the long run for actors and models. I figured I'd start out with a few lights and play around with the setup a little. By the way if any of you have any links to any pictures of a studio setup with just a few lights I'd appreciate it. I have no idea where to place the lights. And a green screen? Wow, I thought they only used those in the movies!

Thanks again,

Justin

Hello everyone. I've been using a 550ex for a while now and enjoy the results

from it. Recently I have decided to buy some bigger toys and want to purchase

some studio lights. My question is what do I need to buy? I'm looking at the

Alienbees but have no clue as to which one to buy. I think the camera manual

for my 20D say nothing higher voltage wise than 250.

Here is a link to the one I'm looking at

http://www.alienbees.com/b1600.html#

Will this light work with my camera? And do I need to purchase anything else

than what this item already comes with?

Thanks so much! This place is great for help!

Justin

Just sent the camera back to where I bought it in exchange for a new one.

I did test this last one as well for sensor dust by stopping it down. Sure enough I found 3 dark spots. Reason I did this was a few of my pictures were showing a grey spot in the same place in almost every picture where I had used f/11 or above. Go figure.

UPDATE:

Since my last post I decided to connect my 20D to my computer via USB port, while it was still hung up on "busy". After it connected the "busy signal went away. Last time I had to take out the battery before it would do anything. I'm running windows XP SP2. I read in the EOS digital software book that came with the camera that Win. XP usuers should use the PTP function instead of the Normal under the menu listed under communication. I had it set on normal before. Does anyone think that had anything to do with it hanging up on "busy"? I notice it would hang after I uploaded shots. Although I wouldn't find that out till the next time I was ready to shoot.

I know this is hard to understand as it is so hard to put it into words. I really appreciate everyone's help in this matter.

=)

Just so everyone knows I didn't have this problem when trying to upload pics. It uploads photos just fine. This occured when I turned the camera on to shoot. It kept flashing "busy".

And to top it all off it happened today again. I turned the camera on to shoot some pictures at the park and low and behold the "busy" flashing again on the top LCD. Had to take the battery out to get it to reset.

I see where B&H has a 7 or 14 day return on photo equipment I think it's 7 on digital equipment. Tomorrow, June 5th will be day 13. What to do, what to do.

Ok, I just bought a brand new 20D last week from B&H. I also picked up a

Sandisk Ultra II 1 Gig CF card. I charged the battery as suggested and

inserted the card as suggested. Took about 250 shots over about 4 days and

finished clearing the card of photos after I was finished. Next day turned the

camera on and "busy" was flashing on the top of the camera. Turned it off then

back on to get the same thing. Wouldn't let me take any shots, just

blinked "busy". So I decided to take the battery out and after that everything

was fine. Went to a b-day party that same day and took about a 100 shots.

Called the Canon techs today to see what that was all about. They asked me if

I had formatted my CF card. Told them no I hadn't done that. Didn't know I

needed to. They basically said it sounded like my camera was trying to read

the card when I turned it on but couldn't. Anyways, would any of you send it

back for a replacement or hang on to it and see if it does it again? Plus has

this happened to anyone, and if so did it keep happening?

Thanks so much for your time and help.

Justin =)

Firmware is 2.0.3

Can we say tired....exhausted....DONE!!! I just shot my first

wedding this past Saturday, April 15th. It really is a lot more work

than most people think. I kinda knew what I was in for but didn't

figure I'd be so mentally drained afterwards.

I live in NC and so happens the weather was perfect this past

weekend. The wedding was held outside at the home of the bride.

There were 50 people total that were invited. Of that maybe 30

showed up.

I happened to get this job since the bride is my best friend's

sister. He called me one day a few months back and left a voice mail

on my cell. It went kinda like this..."Hey man, I have a favor to

ask of you and I pretty much have already told this person you would

do this for them. Call me back and I'll let you know what I'm

talking about". Now as everyone knows I'm already hitting the speed

dial on my cell as I can't wait a second longer to find out what

he's gone and done. Long story short...."hey man my sister is

getting married and she wants you to shoot her wedding". First words

out of my mouth were, "no sir, call a pro photog". His reply, "well

she doesn't have the money for a photog and if you don't do it she's

only going to have a friend show up with their point & shoot". So, I

agreed only after everyone understood that I didn't have the proper

equipment and that I've never shot a wedding before. I also wanted

to make clear that there would be no pressure on me as to how these

pictures turned out. Everyone agreed and said ok.

So, here I am waiting on my photos to get back so I can do any PS

work needed. I can't wait to see them. I felt really good that day.

Lots of energy when I got there. I deal with people all day long at

work so I never had any jitters or nervousness while shooting. I

pretty much just smiled and had a great time with everyone. Before I

left I had 3 people come up to me and ask me if I had a business

card. Made me feel like I was doing a good job but at the same time

I'm wondering how these pictures are going to turn out.

The parents of the bride gave me a card before I left that had $40

in it. It was just a thank you card. We had agreed I would do this

for free but I know the family well and knew they would try to give

me something for my time.

One thing that almost went bad: I was walking past the table with

the wedding cake on it trying to get a picture of a group of kids

while they were dancing. I had a camera bag with all my film in it

strapped around my waist with the bag on my back side. One of the

kids bumped into me and almost knocked me backwards into the wedding

cake. I turned around just in time to see my camera bag about 6

inches from the cake. I got really flushed as soon as I realized

what "about" just happened. I had to catch my breath after that.

Later on that evening I was thinking about how I and everyone else

would have reacted "if" I had gone back just a few more inches.

Kinda made me sick on my stomach even though it didn't happen.

For anyone wondering what equipment and settings I used....

Canon Elan 7e,

70-300 lens,

Kodak 400 9 rolls of 24 exposure film,

Av and P modes,

550 speedlite

I know this equipment isn't the best choices for wedding photography

but I knew that and made damn sure the rest of the family knew that

as well. Hopefully I'll be able to post some of the finished photo's

in my profile soon! I'll keep everyone posted.

Justin ~ Salisbury, NC