shaun_carter

thanks for the feedback everyone! this helps...

how do you handle getting compensated for the time it takes to create special

effect images for clients. for example, if a clients wants a collage image,

a "jumping out the page" image, a color black and white combo image, an image

that makes it look like she is on a magazine cover, etc. is this included

with your price already or do you charge extra per special effect? or do you

charge nothing and sell these images at a higher cost? thanks.<div></div>

20D users, in case you didn't know about NEVEC...thought I'd share. I posted

the same question in both the Wedding and Canon EOS forum and received some

interesting feedback.

 

Thread from Wedding Forum

http://www.photo.net/bboard/q-and-a-fetch-msg?msg_id=00HORF&tag=

 

Thread from Canon EOS Forum

http://www.photo.net/bboard/q-and-a-fetch-msg?msg_id=00HOaf&tag=

Thanks Ann & Nadine! Nadine, I'm not sure how many other 20D users know about NEVEC, and that w/flash in av or tv mode this causes the camera to underexpose by as much as 1 stop. I plan to share this with folks in a new thread. Thanks!

Thanks Puppy for the link! It's interesting that I discovered this through my little test. I wonder how many other 20d users are aware that this is going on when they use flash...

 

And thank you Alistair! I checked my in-camera flash exposure compensation setting and sure enough it was set to +1/3. Geez, who knows how long it's been like this!

i asked myself this morning "if i can choose a shutter speed and aperture that

satisfies the camera's 18% grey exposure, then why would the camera ever set

off the flash if it already determined it has enough ambient light?" so i took

a photo of a flower on the table with and without flash. i did it in tv mode,

set the shutter speed to 1/30 and iso to 400. without flash the camera set the

aperture to 5.0. with flash the camera set the aperture to 6.3. i metered off

the exact same spot both times. one other intersting thing is that the picture

taken with flash shows a +1/3 flash exposure compensation and i didn't have

any applied. this seems to be telling me that if you "CHOOSE" flash then the

camera will stop down the settings to allow flash to be a percentage of the

lighting. can anyone explain what's going on here? thanks!

 

equipment and other settings were as follows: 20d, 580ex, 17-55 2.8, camera CF-

14 set to average, camera and flash exposure compensation both set to zero.

i asked myself this morning "if i can choose a shutter speed and aperture that

satisfies the camera's 18% grey exposure, then why would the camera ever set

off the flash if it already determined it has enough ambient light?" so i

took a photo of a flower on the table with and without flash. i did it in tv

mode, set the shutter speed to 1/30 and iso to 400. without flash the camera

set the aperture to 5.0. with flash the camera set the aperture to 6.3. i

metered off the exact same spot both times. one other intersting thing is

that the picture taken with flash shows a +1/3 flash exposure compensation and

i didn't have any applied. this seems to be telling me that if you "CHOOSE"

flash then the camera will stop down the settings to allow flash to be a

percentage of the lighting. i would love to hear others folks thoughts on

this! equipment and other settings were as follows: 20d, 580ex, 17-55 2.8,

camera CF-14 set to average, camera and flash exposure compensation both set

to zero.

thanks everyone! i'm glad this generated some good discussion. i currently use photoshop cs, 20D w/17-55 2.8 and the rebel xt w/85 1.8. i don't sharpen all my images, only the ones that need it. these two lenses are pretty sharp right out of the camera. but now i have a few things to look into (upgrade to cs2, the fred miranda plug in, i have the scott kelby book). there's a video out there that talks about sharpening raw images and i believe it on one of canon's website. i believe he was one of those guys that believes in sharpening the heck out of images.

Is there an unsharp mask setting that anyone uses that will give nice even

sharpening across the face? I typically get the eyes a lot sharper than the

rest of the face. When that happens I just back up off the radius. Am I not

using enough threshold? I start off with amount=150, radius=1, threshold=3

and tweak from there. I normally keep the threshold between 2 and 4.

here's one shot last saturday with the 20D/17-55 2.8 combo. i'm lovin this lens and highly recommend it for 1.6 crop users. there are several large group shots that i know i would have been super tight on if not for this lens. the 16-35 or 17-40 are and 10-22 are also good choices, but my only telephoto currently is the 85 1.8 and the 17-55 and 85 make a better pair.<div></div>

i traded in my 24-70 for the 17-55 2.8 and love it. the 24-70 just wasn't wide enough for large group shots with my 20d. that's the only reason i got rid of it, image quality was great. the 17-55 2.8 and 85 1.8 make an awesome pair. this is what i use. i've had it for almost a month and have shot two wedding using it so far. you can check out the two weddings here:

 

http://www.photoreflect.com/pr3/thumbpage.aspx?e=1992130

 

http://www.photoreflect.com/pr3/thumbpage.aspx?e=1978569

 

i'd say 75% of the images were taken with the 17-55 2.8 on my 20d and the rest with my 85 1.8 on the digital rebel xt.

unless you're doing head shots where the two heads fill the frame, the color of the skin won't be a factor in you nailing the exposure. i've shot both black and white weddings and don't do anything different based on the color of their skin. you will also run into group shots with mixed races and the reception, and mixed couples there too. like mentioned above, it's the black tux and white dress that you need to compensate for. they usually fill much more of the frame than the faces do. when i started off i was concerned about this too but later realized it really wasn't an issue.

about two months ago i went to calumet photo for a 2 gig card because they were all on sale and asked the sales guy which would he recommend. he said most canon users get sandisk and nikon user get lexar. i didn't ask why that was the case and bought the sandisk. although i do have a 1 gig lexar card and so far so good. my 20d does sometimes lockup. i take the battery out and then put it back in and it's good to go again without any lost images.

my cf cards cause i'd loose all the day's images.

maybe what you're suggesting is once my 80 gig external drive is max'd out just buy another one. basically, use external drives as a primary backup for pictures, and use dvd's as secondary. if the average size of each wedding folder is 1.5 gig, then I can store 53 weddings on an 80 gig external drive. this is much more efficient than dealing with dvd's everytime I want to access something from my archives. makes sense. thanks dave!

Dave, I have an 80 gig external drive. my laptop has a 30 gig internal drive that's max'd out with software so my external drive is my primary storage drive for pictures. Once I copy all the pictures from the camera to the computer, I backup the originals on a dvd. Then I also backup the final edited images on a dvd. So for each wedding I end up with two disks, originals and finals.

maybe it's more like 1/3 of my picts are shot using the 85/1.8. if you use more than one camera body make sure the camera clocks are synchronized!

i use all canon equipment: camera system #1 = 20d, 17-55/2.8, 580ex, off-camera shoe cord, and stroboframe bracket, camera system #2 = digital rebel xt, 85/1.8, 430ex, no bracket. the 20d is in my hand 75% of the time, the rebel xt is on my shoulder.

Thanks for the feedback everyone. I hear what you're saying, I hate deadlines too but the reality of it is that my hard drive has only so much capacity and I can only stand so much clutter on my website. It's not like I do tons of weddings now so I'm really thinking down the road. Eventually their pictures will be taken down from my site and removed from my hard drive but I hear what everyone is saying that this should not be the end of opportunities to order picts. I can alway post them again if someone calls me 3 years from now wanting to place an order. I agree. Thanks! But I feel there also should be some incentive for people to order picts early, like a discount or something free like mentioned above. Because who knows, i may move, change numbers, change websites and folks may not be able to get in touch with me 5 years from now. Are there any more examples out there of incentives that work? maybe this should be the start of a new thread but i'll give it a shot here...thanx!

do you give your clients a deadline for ordering prints once your proof book

is delivered or pictures posted on the web? i'm thinking i should post

pictures with a 3 month expiration date and those that plan to ever order

picts would go ahead and do it. because as time goes on i'm sure it becomes

less and less of a priority. what do you think? would this hurt or help print

sales?

looks like the lightscribe costs have come down. maybe i'll get one sooner now. dave, good comment. i'll add my name or company name to the cd. i've been to one camera store where the sales dude was trying to push archival cd's but i passed on it. that was in davenport iowa and i haven't seen any since. larry, i was actually at best buy today looking at the movie reel dvd's and considering them as well. i like all the ideas. thanks all for the feedback!

also, does anyone know of any long term negative effects to the cd by using these sticker labels? the lightscribe system is my long term solution (maybe in a few months i'll cough up the cash to get one), short term i came up with this...

I was looking for a simple solution to a CD design and this is what I came up

with. I used the Memorex CD labeling system from Office Depot so I could have

a simple white background on my CD and added the bride and groom's name,

wedding date, and the number of Hi-Res photos on the CD. I wanted to keep the

CD simple since the inside already includes a photo. Plus, photo's printed on

the Memorex CD paper don't look too hot anyway. What are your thoughts on

this? Does this look professional to you? Thanks...<div></div>

i remember reading post about possible legal issues associated with adding

music to dvd slideshows however i could not find them now when i wanted to

reference them again. is this illegal without the artist permission? if i

download a track from a legal source such as napster, create my own mp3 file,

can't i use this in a dvd slideshow and sell it? the conversation in previous

posts were centered around whether or not the slideshow was sold for profit or

a giveaway i believe, but not sure. i would like to hear from anyone who is

knowleageble on this subject please. thanks!

i recently purchased the canon 24-70 2.8 for use with my 20d and now wish i

would have gotten something wider. i love the image quality produced by this

lens, however for large group shots and wide angle ceremony shots 24mm (38.4

mm equivalent) just doesn't seem to be wide enough. i end up standing back so

far that i include too much foreground in the image i think. now i'm

considering trading in my 24-70 2.8 for the 17-55 2.8. according to the mtf

charts this lens is sharper and just as good or better in contrast. i'm

wondering if anyone has this lens and is it high quality? thanks!